Mathcounts

I joined Math counts after I wanted to increase my math map test score. Since I was

doing my normal math it was getting really easy and most of the stuff we were learning I already

knew and since I wanted to increase my map score I wanted something harder so I joined Math

counts. . There were only four other people in Math Counts and I was the fifth. Two of them

were 13 one was 12 and the other was 11 and in 13-year-old math.

I went to Math counts every Thursday. One of the first things that week did when we

came was we would get a practice sheet with a bunch of Math problems. The problems involved

algebra, statistics and probability, and Geometry. There are normally 10 problems on a page and

the first one is the easiest problem and the last is the hardest. Then we would start to solve the

problems. For the first three times that I went, I get really stressed because I wouldn’t understand

anything that we were doing. It felt like my brain was exploding. We would try to solve the

problems, then the teacher would explain on how to solve the problem but, some of the problems

the teacher couldn't solve because it was really hard. Also when the teacher would explain how

to solve the problem I would understand. When I didn’t understand any of the Math problems I

would always think of quitting the club because didn’t understand anything.

After a little while, I started to understand different Math problems and concepts. It

started to get really fun and interesting to do the problems. One thing that I really liked about

Math counts was that I would learn more in that one day than I would in like a week of normal

Math. I could see that I was learning a lot when I did my Math MAP test and improved by 20

points compared to my last score. I think I got that score because in Math counts the problems
make you think outside the box to solve problems. Also the algebra in Math Counts helped a lot

because half my Math map test was algebra questions.

Once I got comfortable solving problems I realized that I would solve the problems faster

than everyone else. After a few lessons the teacher told us that, “We’re going to have a test for

the competition.” Every year our school did the Math counts test no one got into the competition

because the test is just really hard. I thought that I should practice but, the questions comply

random. They could be mostly algebra, or mostly geometry.

Once the test day came, the first ten out of the thirty problems were easy but then they

started to get really hard and I only did 21 out of the thirty right. Once I had finished the test I

turned it into the teacher a started to wait. I didn’t think that I was going to do good, but when I

got the test results I was astonished. I got the highest score in the class. The reason was that all

the other people took too much time to solve the problem were when I, I did it faster. I was also

surprised because it made me think before I couldn’t even solve one problem and now I got 19

right out of 30 questions right. This was one of my favorite things that I learned and because of

that I’m going Math counts again this year.

I learned many from Math counts and it definitely increased my map score. There is one

problem for after you join Math counts is that math class will become extremely easy and simple

to understand concepts. Math counts did exactly what I wanted it to do to my brain so it

accomplished my intention from when I joined.