Amanda Ho

Math Contest Preparation, Problem Solving Strategies, and Math IQ Puzzles Answers Amanda Ho

I wrote this workbook with a vision that is I wanted to create a workbook which, I think, will be good and useful for children. This workbook was created based on my personal, educational background and teaching experience and my own chess coaching experience with my son. All these experiences and observations tell me that a student who has a higher IQ and has a higher than average math score does not necessarily mean that this student will do well in math contests. Everybody can learn math, but the results could be very different. Other than having a smart brain and the ability to learn math faster than the other children, a child needs other "qualities' to do well consistently in math contests. These special qualities include perseverance, patience, and willingness to take the time to think. The ability to be able to conclude; make comparisons; expand and instil learned knowledge onto other problems; can follow and write procedures or steps neatly and logically; organize and list data; visualize spatial relations. The student could be trained vigorously, but without real interest and willingness to work on problems, then the enthusiasm of training on math contests will last long, so we know to use one straight math contest workbook alone is difficult to achieve the effect of "all-around" training. This is my vision of creating this integrated 3-in-1, unique workbook.

Why is this workbook so huge? (What unique is about this workbook?) How to train a child to be more patient? How to train a student to observe and compare? One way of achieving these is to use puzzles, which is the main reason that puzzles are included in this book.

Further, puzzles can increase a child's IQ. How to train a child to think "out of the box" and be creative? The integrated chess, Sudoku, and computational math puzzles can help. When considering all the above purposes, the result is that this workbook has become a vast workbook.