CARNEGIE MELLON INFORMATICS AND MATHEMATICS COMPETITION
CARNEGIE MELLON INFORMATICS AND MATHEMATICS COMPETITION will be held tomorrow in Pittsburg. We will leave this afternoon to attend it. CMU is a very good engineering school. Its computer science graduate school ranks top #2. Its math department’s ranking grows a lot after Prof. Po-Shen Loh came. I met Prof. Loh several times on different high school math events. He has attracted lots of IMO levels students to go to CMU instead of MIT/Harvard/Stanford. Victor XU chose CMU instead of MIT. He is one of the CMIMC founding member. Hope my son likes CMU and the CMIMC experience. All TJHSST top mathlets will go to CMIMC tomorrow. Will have fun!
JHMT- Johns Hopkins Math Tournament experience
Johns Hopkins Math Tournament
Feb. 27th, we went to JHU the first to attend the JHMT. We have heard of JHMT for a while. My friend’s son Victor Xu has won my award in JHMT. It is the first time I visited JHU campus. It was in a cold Feb. Saturday. The Campus doesn’t look as beautiful as that of Princeton and Duke. But still very pretty. This year, TJHSST sent two teams to JHMT.
Many kids from Maryland top high schools. It is not as crowded as the PUMaC (Princeton University Math Competition). Glad that my son got award and won a gift card.
First PUMaC experience
PUMaC is a high school math competition operated by Princeton students. It is kind of similar to HMMT – Harvard MIT Math Tournament. My son is still in middle school. But he would like to try some high school math competition. He tried HMMT November version the year before. It was kind of hard. This year, he has fallen in love with math proof. He enjoys the math proof more than the calculation math. He felt that Mathcounts type of problems are not fun any more. He spends many hours on some very hard geometry proof. So this year, he hasn’t done any preparation for Mathcounts by himself. Just went to school practice and warm up practice the day before. At PUMaC, he took Algebra and Geometry. He met most of the mathlets from the country. Last year IMO golden winner Michael Heath was his TA in his summer camp last. He beat Michael on the PUMaC Geometry test. It tells the difference between proof and calculation math are so different.
Michael is the world top geometry proof high schooler. He doesn’t put too much effort on the calculation math.
Mathcounts National in DC this year!
Most states have finished their 2016 Mathcounts competition. But there are still several states not finished yet.
Today, Florida will have their state mathcounts competition. The latest is April 4th North Dakota. Just hope that all states have the Mathcounts state competition on the same date. We talked with Mathcounts director last time. He said it is hard. Some states have snow even in April.
Glad that my son made into Mathcounts national for the 2nd year. He enjoyed last year’s Mathcounts experience in Boston. This year, it will be in Washington DC.
He is kind of disappointed. He hopes it can be somewhere out of home that he can take airplane travel with his team.
Why go to TJ?
Why are Asian parents so crazy about TJ? Is TJ really good for your kid? In recently years, University of Virginia has reduced its admission of TJ graduates from more than 100 to around 70. It also increase the GPA requirement. Many very bright kids were turned town by UVA for the low GPA. I heard a story that two kids were in the same middle schools.
One went to TJ. One went Westfield HS. The one went to TJ had a tough 4 years: less sleeps, less non-academic activities, less time with friends and also lower GPA. The direct result of less sleep is that he is shorter than he should be. His friend who went to Westfield had a very balanced 4 years of high school. Local HS means less time on traffic. (TJ is located in Annandale and close to Alexander. For those who live in the northwest part of Fairfax County and Loudon County, it is easy to spend 1.5 hr- 2hr one way to school or from school. ) He can still play basketball, play music and maintain high GPA. Final results: Westfield boy got full scholarship from UVA. The TJ boy was turned down by UVA due to low GPA. Another example, a smart girl who loves liberal art who was admitted to TJ and turned it down and went to local high school. She went to Yale from Langley HS. Hope parents can make wise decision. Don’t go to TJ because it is the #1, or #4 ranking public school (different year different ranking), then my child must go there. If your child’s passion isn’t STEM, local HS might be better for him/her. If your child wants to go to Ivy League, TJ might not be a good choice. Because your GPA in TJ might not be very high due to the competition and higher standard. Your child may easily be top 10% in local high school. It is very hard to be in top 10% in TJ. Even top 25% is not that easy in TJ. If Ivy League chooses between TJ’s GPA 3.5 top 50% and McLean HS’s GPA 4.25 and top10%, which one it will choose.
Middle School Children who love math
Right now, it is the time to take some online classes:
AIME A and B, AMC10 AMC12 classes are signed up quickly:
What Parents should know at the beginning of school year?
What parents should know at the beginning of school year? Most parents think about the school staples, school buses, teachers, etc.
As a parent, you also should know that there are many tests at the beginning of school year.
here is the testing calendar by grade for parent to refer to:
Virginia Alternate Assessment Program (VAAP), Virginia Grade Level Alternative VGLA): Reading , Developmental Reading Assessment®, 2nd Edition (DRA2), NNAT, CoGAT will be tested the fall semester.
Here is the resource for parent to prepare for DRA2:
http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZw5u&PMDbSiteId=2781&PMDbSolutionId=6724&PMDbSubSolutionId=&PMDbCategoryId=3289&PMDbSubCategoryId=28139&PMDbSubjectAreaId=&PMDbProgramId=23661
If your child is in 5th or 6th grade, you should start to prepare for the IIAT test.
http://120perhour.com/IAAT-practice-test-sample.htm
If you want your child to prepare for the JHU-CTY program, it is the right time to start preparing for SCAT:
http://120perhour.com/scat-sample-test-index.htm
Republican School board candidates FCPS
Here is the candidates list of republicans for school board in Fairfax County:
http://fairfaxgop.org/2015-elections/#schoolboard
I am an independent voter. But I have to support republican this election due to some trends in FCPS.
Fairfax County Public Schools elections (2015)
Both Republicans and Democrats have started their election efforts.
Here are some links to the election:
Fairfax County Public Schools elections (2015)
2015 Fairfax County Public Schools Elections
General Election date: November 3, 2015
Twelve seats on the Fairfax County Public Schools School Board are up for general election on November 3, 2015.
http://ballotpedia.org/Fairfax_County_Public_Schools_elections_(2015)
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/ecalendar.htm
http://fairfaxgop.org/2015-elections/
http://www.fairfaxdemocrats.org/2015/04/25/2015-elections/
Gender Identity Curriculum Angers Parents in Virginia
This year there are several big things that affect everyone. One is the superior court passes the same sex marriage law.
The second is that Fairfax County Public School Board approved the lessons about homosexuality and gender identify in its Family Life Education curriculum.
The board approved the controversial lessons in a 10-2 vote June 25.
School district says feds forced policy that allows transgender kids to use bathrooms of their choice.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2015/june/gender-identity-curriculum-angers-parents-in-fairfax/
So if boy feels he is girl, he can choose to go to girl’s bathroom in Fairfax County now. 🙁
What a change!