brrly babbles about math competitions (& more)

hello guys and welcome back to brrly babbles!!! i haven't posted in a really long time like its been over a year or so but im back and better than ever!! anyways today i wanna talk about math competitions and stuff related to that topic because im not just gonna blab about math competitions and NOT give you guys my thoughts and feelings about them 😐

amc 10 and worrying (lots of it)

since im entering highschool and have to actually take my academics seriously now (and becus there's freshmen who are taking ap calc bc. i hate you smartie pants btw 🤣), i plan on taking the amc 10 (american math competition for 10th and below). so pretty much the amc 10 is the first step in qualifying for the imo (international math olympiad). ill just write down the steps to qualify for the imo.

-> amc 10 or 12. 12 is for 12th math and below, 10 is for 10th math and below but its easier to qualify thru the amc 12 so ill take that too in the future! 

• to qualify for the next stage, you have to be in the top 2.5% for amc 10 or top 5% for amc 12

-> aime. the aime stands for american invitational math examination and is a 15 question 3 hour examination. 

• to qualify for the next stage, usa(j)mo, you need an index score of 210-230+ 
• usajmo index score = (amc 10 score) + 10 * (aime score)
• usamo index score = (amc 12 score) + 10 * (aime score)

-> usa(j)mo is the final step in qualifying the the imo!! you're given 6 questions and 9 hours to solve them over the span of two days, so 4.5 hours for 3 questions each day! that probably means the questions are like extra extra hard soooooo....

• top 12 scorers of the usamo are considered for selection and go thru training at the MOP at carnegie mellon university
• 6 are selected to the team
  

qualifying for aime is hard enough let alone qualifying for the usamo and THEN qualifying for the imo team, so im only aiming to qualify for the aime since it looks good on college applications and its not too far out of reach (it is). plus i dont wanna devote my entire life to competition math, i also want to do other stem competitions and i have a life (im a liar) sooooooo

im also taking alg 2 honors this year so i've already learnt the material that will be on the test, but there's also some techniques and shortcuts that i havent learnt so i bought the aops books (second-hand cus im kinda short on moola rn) and its actually fun doing the math in the textbooks. like who wouldve imagined math would be fun 🤣 (me). but anyways im just worried because i only found out about the amc 10 this summer and the test is on november 21 i think i lowk forgot but its in about 3 months and some people have been training for these tests since 6th grade. theyre probably the same people who're taking ap calc bc as a freshman so if im going against people like that then its all over!!!

today i made a linktree that has a bunch of resources for math competitions such as miscs (did u know that stands for miscellaneous aka a verb which describes something that is composed of many diff elements, such as an encyclopedia), summer programs, open-source notes, books, etc. and it took me around an hour. here's the linktree btw if u wanna join alongside me in my math competition journey: JOIN ME PLEASE. 

i took most of the links from reddit btw i forgot the community name but i think it was /r/learnmath. anyways theres also another competition that i can take to qualify for the aime thru called the usamts. the competition is split into 3 rounds with 5 questions given each round, and you have an entire month to solve these sets of questions. you need to write full explanations on how you got your answers and stuff and it also seems really hard so i dont know. plus u need a 90% or higher to qualify for aime but thats probably just as hard to obtain as being a 2.5% top scorer on the amc 10 so oh well!!!!

seeing all these stem competitions and kids my age who are taking a math class thats 2 grade levels higher than me is really demeaning but has also brought me perspective and i am somewhat grateful for it.

i gained insight on who ill be going against for college admissions into top schools, job interviews, math competitions, etc, and thats made me more hardworking and ambitious. i know now that i have to study very very hard to even come close to being on their level. without this insight i probably wouldnt be stressed of course but i also wouldnt be studying at all and by the time id realize that everyone is ahead of me id be too late!!! so thank you for the smartie pants out there who're lightyears ahead of me in everything because youve made me self-aware

highschool rant!!

anyways im really scared for highschool guys i dont wanna go to highschool because now i have to worry about grades, about talking to teachers, about stepping out of my comfort zone to take opportunities such as research or a leadership position, about money, about EVERYTHING!!!! like people say highschool is fun but how am i supposed to have fun when i have so much to WORRY ABOUT.

but the things im worrying about are in the future not the present so technically my worry is useless and i dont have anything to worry about right now! and who knows what if i do qualify for aime and what if i get good grades without stressing a ton?? what if highschool IS fun and im gonna have a great time while also taking research opportunities and making a difference in my community? 

okay im actually excited for the first day of school though like i cant wait to see all the people in my classes, i cant wait to meet to people, i cant wait to meet my science and math teachers because theyre the ones thatll probably provide me with the resources that i will need. and im also excited to see what exploring comp sci is like because i heard that ap comp sci principles is actually really boring so if that class is boring, will exploring comp sci be boring?? i hope not because i already know how to code. im not a professional more like a novice/kind of intermediate but if i just set myself up for a year of taking an extremely boring comp sci beginner class then i think ill rip my computer apart and never code again! jk ill get resources from the comp sci teacher and i can get a recommendation for ap comp sci a next year so a wasted year isnt that bad am i right guys

oohhh but imagine trying to find your friends on the first day of HIGHSCHOOL like it wouldnt be as bad if i was a sophomore or above but being a freshman means you dont know where everyone usually sits let alone where your friends are. and theres a bunch of people too so what if i get trampled in the halls like im actually scared for that like imagine me texting my friends trying to find them and while doing so i get trampled 

like i took summer school irl because i wanted to get a feel of being in class and also because its NOT self-guided so i didnt have to worry about being lost, and all the people taking summer school combined was already a lot. the campus wasnt really full and i could actualyl find my friends but thats only a fraction of the people that ill be going to school with. imagine how full the halls will be if thats only a fraction of the people roaming the halls 😥

im excited to learn alg 2 though!! geometry was really boring and i almost fell asleep multiple times during summer school (i took geo over the summer) and algebra is SO MUCH BETTER than geometry. maybe its cus i like doing arithmetics more than spatial properties and shapes. algebra is really fun though and i cant wait to learn alg 2 !!!! i hope i have good people in that class too because im gonna try and participate a lot in that class, along with science and comp sci class, to show my teachers that im interested in stem and to maybe get them to recommend me for higher math classes!! i dont know what classes are higher than ap calc bc like i know calc 3 is after calc bc in college but they dont have that here. i also want to build a good relationship with my teachers because i might need their recommendations and connections for some other stem stuff such as research programs, summer camps, etc.!!

ending

i like organizing my separate rants into sections by adding headers and i think it looks cool and professional even though nothing about my blog is professional

thanks for reading my blog guys !!! 

im actually SO EXCITED for highschool though its so CLOSE!!! 4. MORE. DAYS. I wanna know my schedule so badly PLEASEEE COME OUT EARLLYYYYYYY

okay goodbye for real now 😆

im gonna be adding blog "thumbnails" now cus its cute