How to study for USACO, USNCO, & AMC 10?Answered
Hey! I’m a rising sophomore and I’m planning to take the USNCO exam (US National Chemistry Olympiad) in March 2023. I’ve reached out the coordinators and will reach out to my chemistry teacher before the school year. How do I study for it? I know I need to buy textbooks and do practice problems like crazy, but are there any tips I’m missing?
I plan on doing USACO (USA Coding Olympiad) in my junior year because it starts in the winter and I don’t think I’m prepped enough for it this year. I’m building coding projects and doing Harvard CS50. Are there any tips or tricks for USACO?
I’m debating whether to do the AMC 10 because I checked the past year’s practice problems and they’re way out of my league. I want to pursue it, so how would I go about that. Any tips/tricks?
Thank you.
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2 answers
Yes yes yes to the textbooks (I’d argue those are the BEST resources for olympiads) and practice problems!
For AMC 10, I’d recommend The Art of Problem Solving Vol. 1 (or 2)! There are probably free pdf’s somewhere, but here’s a link: https://artofproblemsolving.com/store/book/aops-vol1.
AoPS also has a huge library of practice problems called Alcumus, where you can work on your weak areas. Also, I really love the Mathcounts Mini worksheets & videos—they’re pretty much the foundation of my AMC abilities. https://www.mathcounts.org/resources/mathcounts-minis
ALSO—you might want to join some of the olympiad discord servers! https://discord.gg/MAp7qczGrv will connect you to all of them.
I think that you are doing the right things to prepare for these exams. Like any test, the key to a high score is to simply spend a lot of time doing practice problems and understanding the skills you will be assessed on. This blog post has some more tips that will help you.
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Thank you so much for the advice!