My materials are due Friday, however, due to the senior trip, I will submit them on Thursday. I guess that means my project is done. I have no machine built, I have no performance routine perfected. My scores have not improved drastically (it does not help that I've been taking increasingly harder exams).
I don't really have any sense of closure for my project. By no means is my preparation over.
So, what I will do is as follows: I have just conducted two very helpful interviews with people who are very distinguished in math competitions. I have attempted some kind of training regimen for some time. I can use these experiences to come up with a training plan for the summer. Thereby I can end my WISE experience with something concrete, and also continue my obviously incomplete training.
The sources I have gleaned from my interviews are as follows:
Paul Zeitz's The Art and Craft of Problem Solving, I actually own this book and have done some work from it, however, I did not think to use it here.
Yufei Zhao's handouts from the training of the Canadian IMO team. I have seen a few these before, and I am not surprised that they come recommended from both my interviewees. I've actually cited them for some research papers before, but I've never used them for actual training.
I will cite these sources in my works cited as future training materials.
My plan is basically as follows:
Attempt to work through Zeitz, to get general improvement in problem solving-skills. I will try to take practice exams, under exam conditions, every weekend or so.
When I find topics I feel are important, I will work on them via appropriate handouts from Yufei Zhao.
Later in the year, when the Putnam exam approaches, I will switch to Putnam and Beyond, and work on problems in more advanced topics (analysis, abstract algebra, other stuff that isn't really covered in Zeitz).
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