What’s after this course?

You’ve completed all the topics in this course, and through your twice-daily quizzing habit you’ve raised your Memory Strength to an extremely high level. At this point, you are done with this course! Feel free to come back for quizzes every so often in order to stay sharp (anywhere from “once a week” to “once a month” should do it), but other than that our work here is done.

So let’s talk about what you’ve done, and what comes next for you.

What you’ve done

Let’s review and acknowledge the benefits of your accomplishments so far.

You’ve become fully fluent in this math

This means:

You figured out what you need to know but don’t already know
You put those things into a learning-and-memorization system
You used the system to get those things into your mind (and permanently, or very nearly so)

As a result:

You have the most common knowledge that otherwise-strong competitors are often missing
You got that knowledge by using a best-in-class memorization system
You get to keep that knowledge, because this system doesn’t let you “forget stuff right after the test”

Next steps: overview

Next up for you is the part that most students start with. It’s the part where you work practice problems and take practice exams, then analyze your mistakes.

The bad news is that this will be the most time-consuming part of your AMC prep.
The good news is that if you hadn’t already done all the work in this course, then that process would take a lot longer, and would be full of unnecessary frustrations and delays.

So however much time and effort you find you need for practice problems, please remember that you’ve already finished the necessary steps that make that work as quick and as smooth as it can be.

So, at the end of this topic, I’m going to recommend that you go download and take some AMC exams from past years as practice tests. But before I send you off to start this next phase of your preparation, I want to give you a few tools and ideas that will make that process yet more efficient and more effective. Read on.

Next steps: details

What you’re going to do next could fill multiple entire courses by itself. (And indeed those courses are available in many places.) But I’ll assume you’re going to do it by yourself, so I’m going to give you as much good info as I can so that you can do a great job without additional help.

First, you’re going to get some practice tests. A simple internet search will get the job done.
Then you’re going to pick one and take it under timed conditions.
Get someone else to grade it for you. They should mark answers as “right” or “wrong” but when you get it wrong, they should not indicate what the right answer was supposed to be.
Re-try the problems you got wrong. Try to determine why you got it wrong. Make notes that will help you acquire the skills or habits that you were missing when you got the problem wrong.

Now for the interesting part: because you’ve already learned the basics, you won’t generally have the experience of saying to yourself at this step “oh, if only I had known X, then I would have gotten this one right.”

Instead, whatever X is, you already know it.

So that raises the natural question: if I already know all the math, what else could possibly get in my way?

Anticipating potential roadblocks

I’ll put it another way: because you are fully fluent in the basics here, there won’t be many roadblocks to your success from here on in, and the other potential roadblocks that you will face won’t be as difficult to deal with as they would be otherwise. That’s why this course is so powerful.

But wait, what are these “other potential roadblocks” I just mentioned, anyhow? I mean, what else is there? Am I talking about all the other math I could learn? (There is an awful lot of math out there, after all!)

No, I’m not talking about learning more math. I’m talking about the non-math things you can learn that will help you do better on a math competition (yes, there is such a thing as non-math skills for math competitions).

In fact, these non-math skills will not only help your math competition performance, but also your SAT/ACT performance and some parts of your academic performance (i.e. classwork).

Someday you might also use them to get into med school, or defend your doctoral thesis, or land a great job.

I’m talking about awareness and resilience. I’ll explain:

Improving your awareness

Improving your awareness means:

Always having a great day on “Game Day”
Never misreading a question
Never making a careless mistake

To do that, you’ll develop certain habits of practice, and habits of thought. These include:

Being well-rested for all learning sessions, practice tests, and of course on Game Day
Being well-fed and hydrated
Addressing any undue anxiety/nervousness you feel
Doing the bulk of your work on paper instead of in your head

This stuff is best learned through one-on-one coaching.

If you simply take care of the bullet points mentioned above, you’ll be getting a lot of the “awareness boost” that private tutoring usually gives. And there are a few more tips scattered throughout the course. If you need more than this, get in touch with someone who can help directly.

Improve your resilience

Improving your resilience means:

Having a solid game plan for what to do when you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing

To do that, you’ll develop certain techniques and habits. These include:

Start by scaling the problem down to something more manageable
Write what you know
Use “wishful thinking” to find a solution path

This stuff is also best learned through one-on-one coaching.

This is the part of AMC prep that will matter most to you later in life. If you practice using the bullet points mentioned above on a lot of practice problems, you’ll get the hang of this. And there are a few more tips scattered throughout the course. If you need more than this, or if you need it faster, get in touch with someone who can help directly.

Congratulations!

You’ve completed a major milestone—possibly the hardest one—on your journey to AMC and AIME success.
You’ve learned a bunch of techniques that will be helpful not only on the AMC and AIME but on other related tests like the SAT, Act, and grad school admissions exams
You’ve experienced a technique for memorizing information that you can use in the future (e.g. through open-source tools like Anki and paper-based techniques)
You’ve got the basic roadmap for continuing to improve through practice tests and self-analysis.

Please send me an email and let me know how you liked this course (or not!). I’m always eager to improve it, and your feedback is the best way for me to learn what most needs improvement. Thanks in advance.

And if you found this course helpful, please tell a friend and post a link to the course somewhere you think others will find it helpful.

It’s been a pleasure to work with you. Best of luck to you as you continue on your journey!

-Wes Carroll, September 2021

I'm done! What's next?