MATH KANGAROO WORKSHOP

Mathnasium Of Acton is excited to host Math Kangaroo Competition. During the months preceding the competition, we also held mentoring and practice sessions to help our young competitors get prepared. We have designed the competition preparation program for children in grades 1 through 6.

So, you have a young math genius and you want him or her to get as close as possible to those 96 points. What are the challenges?
1. Children need to read the problems carefully. Often a problem is purposely worded to sound complicated, and it is the student’s job to untangle it.
2. Be careful with the multiple-choice answers. Those answers could often be misleading; some problems can be solved by eliminating the incorrect answers. Most of the time, it is better to solve a problem and mark the correct answer. A child will need to pick the strategy that works best for him or her.
3. The 75 minutes is quite a long for a young child, so time management is a challenge. Everyone needs to know their own pace. There is no time to waste but rushing through isn’t a good approach either.
4. The actual math in the problems isn’t very complicated but many kids lack fluency in calculations. It either slows them down or results in silly mistakes.
5. Often, children encounter unfamiliar words or terms in the text of the problems. Not understanding the statement of the problems, children resort to guessing and picking a random answer out of the 5 possible. This is only a 20% chance of getting it right and isn’t reliable enough if one wants to get a high score.

This is a 7-session course where the students will meet for 90 minutes at a time on the weekend to work on the 5 major elements of our formula for success:

• practice tests,
• focus and attention,
• mental math,
• logic and reasoning, and
• reading comprehension.

Students who take this test need dedicated practice in order to reach their full potential. Here at Mathnasium, we want to ensure your child is prepared, confident, and excited on the day of the competition.

We will start each session with a segment that increases students’ focus and attention. This is important for students to learn because it helps them to block out distractions and their surroundings. It is also helpful to pinpoint what is being asked in the problem; this skill is used during the test, as well as at school and beyond.

Getting the correct answer is of paramount importance. Arriving at the answer quickly and efficiently allows students to move through the test booklet like a pro, therefore saving their energy and brainpower for the more difficult, involved problems. Mental math is the difference between working quickly or efficiently and working quickly and efficiently.

Logic and reasoning are skills students learn best through games and activities that require them to solve problems systematically and with purpose. These habits allow students to use one or more of their senses in order to provide an answer to a question, whether it be consciously or subconsciously.

Reading comprehension is an integral part of not only our program but also life. It is a critical skill for school and for the test. You may be thinking to yourself, “This is a math competition … what does reading have to do with it?” The answer is - everything. All real life math problems are word problems. When your child takes a standardized test, he or she has to read each question to himself or herself. Preparation in test-specific, as well as general, reading comprehension skills is an important part of our preparation.

At this point you are probably wondering how we will help students achieve all these skills in such a short amount of time, the answer is by having fun !!! Some of the games and activities we will do with the students include: origami, puzzles, Phase 10, Boggle, Rummy, beading, Jenga, Kenken, Sudoku, Battleship, Connect Four, Guess Who?, Tangrams and practice tests just to name a few!

Our 7-week Math Kangaroo preparation program is both fun and educational, just like our math program. That’s why students come: not because they have to, but because they want to! Don’t let your student miss out on this 7-week opportunity for fun and learning!

For more information, please visit our website (www.mathnasium.com/acton) or email us: acton@mathnasium.com.