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2021 Summer June Program and July Program registrations are open!

Join the first program intro session Zoom Meeting on 2021/03/14 (Sunday) starting at 8:00 PM (Eastern time).
Join the second program intro session (presented mainly in Chinese) Zoom Meeting on 2021/04/02 (Friday) starting at 8:00 PM (Eastern time).
Join the third program intro session Zoom Meeting on 2021/05/09 (Sunday) starting at 8:00 PM (Eastern time).

Important Notice:

Spring Session (Session 2) registration/application/enrollment will start in mid November of 2020!
For the 2020–2021 year-round program, for the fall term, courses will be offered via remote virtual learning. For the spring term, courses will tentatively be offered via remote virtual learning, however, we will continue to monitor the situation and make adjustments accordingly.

Who

Programs are intended for students from the 5th to 12th grades

What

The IDEA MATH 2020-2021 year-round program offers four types of series during the school year. These four series are:

• School Enrichment series builds students' understanding of the concepts they are likely to encounter in general school curriculum with extra depth and breadth.
• Extra Curricular series is designed for students pursuing extracurricular mathematics far beyond general school curriculum and provides extensive preparation for contests such as MATHCOUNTS, AMC, AIME etc.
• Accelerated Championship Series (XC Series) intends to improve top level young students' command of the core knowledge leading to higher studies in mathematics.
• Contest Edge series provides additional preparation opportunities for various math contests such as (MATHCOUNTS School/Chapter/State/National, AMC 8/10/12, AIME, ARML, HMNT, AIME, HMMT, and Math Olympiads).

Students may enroll in combinations of the courses depending on their learning goals. In particular, students can also consider the Contest Edge series as a supplement for any of the other three series.

This web page is intended for the Contest Edge series.

The Contest Edges series for students focusing on various contests such as MATHCOUNTSs and American Mathematics Contest (AMC). All coureses in the Contest Edges series feature test preparation materials and problem solving strategies tailored to all these exams. By working on these materials and discussing them with their peers afterwards, the students will not only improve their test-taking performance, but also further their mathematical knowledge and problem solving skills.

Despite the program's intensity, we wish to emphasize that the Contest Edges series is not a viable substitute for the other (year-round, online or summer) IDEA MATH programs: the contest preparation program is meant to complement the other programs, not replace them. Due to the limited time we have, the Contest Edges series will not be as comprehensive or holistic as the other programs, and will instead be more focused on contest-taking. Thus, we strongly advise students of the Contest Edges series to also enroll in either the year-round programs or the summer program.

Program Setup and Workload

The IDEA MATH 2020-2021 Contest Edge series will offer a full range of courses (CP1 to CP8) via remote learning -- Zoom based LIVE classes. Each course consists of two sessions: session 1/fall session and session 2/spring session, and session 2 is a continuation (not a repetition) of session 1. Each session has 15 class hours (so each course has 2*15 = 30 total class hours). In each session, there are 10 class days and each class day has a 1.5-hour class. (Therefore, for each course, we have 2*10*1.5 = 30 total class hours.) In the Contest Edge series, we intend to cover our materials via our classroom activities with no additional homework assignment.

The tuition for each of these courses is $450 for 15 in-class hours (unit rate is $30 per hour) of teaching and homework/test grading.

Why

IDEA MATH provides in-depth enrichment in important mathematical areas, particularly in the fields from which contests problems are drawn: algebra, combinatorics, geometry, and number theory. We believe students learn best by discovering, rather than simply memorizing, essential theorems and techniques. Our process puts students at the center of the classes, as students work together to develop their ideas. Our instructors lead this process by teaching vital ideas, giving meaningful examples, and guiding students through the problem-solving process.

How

We apply seminar-style teaching in our classes. Class sizes are small to ensure that students receive plenty of individual attention. Students are expected to work as a group and present their solutions and ideas to the class.

ZOOM Class Policies

To protect students' privacy, we ask our students to:

1. Always use student's full name along with IDEA MATH ID to join ZOOM classes. Only enrolled students is allowed to join our LIVE classes.
2. Turn on video and audio during the class.
3. No recording or taking photos is allowed.

For more detailed online class policy please visit here.

Unique strengths of IDEA MATH that distinguish it from other (summer/winter/online/weekend) math programs?

The unique strengths of IDEA MATH can be summarized as follows:

1. Comprehensive and well-tested teaching materials, modeled after the training materials once used by our academic director Dr. Zuming Feng in his work with the Phillips Exeter Academy Red Lion (PEARL) math club/team and Math Olympiad Summer Program (MOSP). (Find more references on curriculum info. )
2. Strong team of instructors, consisting of front-line teachers, coaches, and top former students. (Find more staff info. )
3. Emphasis on student leadership and the development of an attitude conducive to learning.
4. Focus on schools and the local math communities.

For more details, please visit our FAQ page.

Contact IDEA MATH

As always, we welcome parents' specific academic questions about our curriculum and teaching styles, as well as students' class-work and preparation. Please contact info@ideamath.org---make sure to include the following info in your email subject: student's full name, 4-digit IDEA MATH ID, and intended program.

IDEA MATH Contest Preparation program is designed to sharpen the students' skills for upcoming nationwide middle school and high school mathematics competitions. We offer a series courses for students of varying mathematical backgrounds. As the winter program spans but a week, the courses will have a focus on the application of mathematical concepts and problem-solving to competitions. To that end, the different levels of courses will be aligned with the AMC/AIME/USAMO competition series; through participation in and discussion of mock exams of these difficulty levels, students will develop contest-taking habits along with mathematical knowledge and problem-solving.

IDEA MATH provides an extensive curriculum. The course list shown below consists of projected courses we will offer in this program. Two of the major strengths of our program---a strong academic team and a full range of materials---allow us to create new courses/groups to meet the needs of the students body. Therefore, the course list (and course schedule) is subject to change based on actual enrollment and staff availability.

Please visit detailed curriculum grid for a more complete reference of IDEA MATH course curriculums.

Note: All course information can be found at our curriculum page here.

* Each course will only be offered when a minimum number of students have enrolled. Some courses might run multiple sections. To maintain the high standard of our student's learning experience, class sizes will remain small---about 8 to 20 students for each courses.

** Check calendar.

*** All class times are in the US Eastern Time Zone.

IDEA MATH provides an extensive curriculum. Please see below the projected course offerings and their (main) corresponding placement levels. We highly recommend each applicant new to our programs (who is not currently enrolled in one of our programs and/or has not completed a program with us recently) to take a placement test. (See detailed process in the Registration section below.)

Targeted course	CE1/CE2	CE3/CE4	CE5/CE6	CE7/CE8
Corresponding Placement Test	T1	T2	T3	T4

It is important for each applicant to input accurate, complete, detailed, and up-to-date academic background information (i.e., age, grade level, math courses taken, official contest scores, etc.) in the applicant's IDEA MATH student account. We review this information to make initial course placement/placement test level decisions.

In general, each applicant new to our programs shall take a placement test in one of our open online/onsite placement test sessions. (See detailed process in the Registration section below.) We will find the most appropriate course placement based on the information entered in the student’s IDEA MATH account and (if applicable) placement test work. Please note that our academic team will make the final decision on your course placement based upon your academic background and your work in the placement test. (Further course placement adjustments can be made, by our academic team, based upon your class work.)

Please click this link to register for the placement test. The placement test fee is non-refundable and non-transferable. An extra charge may be applied if a student wishes to change testing dates after registering and paying for the placement test. If you would like to request a different placement test, please email us and an additional charge may be applied.

Placement Test Schedule

Session 1 Placement Test Schedule (Class Time: Aug. 2020- Dec. 2020)

Session 2 Placement Test Schedule (Class Time: Jan. 2021 - May 2021)

* Each placement test for is 90 minutes long. Students should arrive at the testing location (onsite or online) 10 minutes prior to the test.

** $75 will be charged for registration after this date.

*** The placement test fee is non-refundable and non-transferable; that is, it cannot be transferred from one applicant/student to another applicant/student, and it also cannot be transferred from a registered/chosen test session/date to another placement test session/date for the same applicant/student.

Returning students: Students who have attended an IDEA MATH program in the past academic year (i.e., have participated in our 2019-2020 year-round program, 2019-2020 online program or 2020 summer program) can register for the 2020 - 2021 year-round program (with the recommended class from the IDEA MATH academic team) directly by logging into their account and registering. For questions regarding course placement recommendations, please contact info@ideamath.org. It is important for returning students to review and update their academic background information at least once a year.

New students: New applicants who wish to register for the year-round program should create an account and enter information about their mathematical background. New applicants can then check the placement test schedule and sign up for a placement test before registration. All new students are welcome to contact the IDEA Math staff at info@ideamath.org for information or any questions on which placement test to take.

It is important for each new applicant to answer all questions accurately and provide detailed information. In particular, age, high school graduation year, detailed math background -- courses taken, official contests taken and official scores (rather than ranks) should be included.

Registration and Tuition Payment Schedule

Note that registration is only the first step of towards enrollment. Enrollment (for each session) is completed only after the tuition is paid in full.

Session 1 Tuition Schedule (Class Time: Sept. 2020 - Dec. 2020)

Session 2 Tuition Schedule (Class Time: Jan. 2021 - May 2021)

For students who are new to our program, please make sure you sign up for the placement test. Click here to check the placement test schedule and sign up.

*Registration is the first step of the enrollment process. Enrollment is only completed after tuition payment is submitted in full. The tuition payments may be stopped earlier than this published date if the program has reached to its upper capacity. After the tuition payment deadline date, a late fee ($45 or more) will be applied to the tuition and admission can only be given if space is available.

**The tuition payment is independent to student's course placement because the tuition is for the program, not for a specific course. The IDEA MATH staff will work with students on course placement by reviewing their academic backgrounds, assigning placement test levels, reviewing placement test work, and more. IDEA MATH staff make the final decision on students' course placements. (Please see our Course Placement Policy section for details.) All tuition refund for withdrawing will be processed based on the refund policy.

Pay Tuition

Please log in to your account to pay the tuition online.

For class schedule, please check course schedule

Session 1 Class Dates (Sept. 2020 - Dec. 2020)

Session 2 Class Dates (Jan. 2021 - Apr. 2021)

* Please Note: for the 2020–2021 year-round program, for the fall term, courses will be offered via remote virtual learning. For the spring term, courses will tentatively be offered via remote virtual learning, however, we will continue to monitor the situation and make adjustments accordingly.

**All class times are in the US Eastern Time Zone. Each course will meet 10 times per session. Check calendar .

Please note that only tuition is refundable per the above policy. Other fees such as the application fee, the registration fee, and the placement testing fee are non-refundable and non-transferable.

To request a refund and withdraw your student, please send a complete request in writing to info@ideamath.org. You must include the payee name and mailing address matching the information in the student's account in order for your request to be deemed complete and submitted. Please include "Refund Request" and the student's name in the subject line. The amount of the refund will be based on the time that a complete request is submitted; incomplete requests will not be deemed to meet deadlines for withdrawal.

If the student is ill and chooses to withdraw from the program, we can offer prorated credit (proportional based upon the first refund policy: paid tuition deducted by $100) towards a future program. A note from a licensed physician is required. The same policy applies if the IDEA MATH staff determine that your student must withdraw due to illness in order to protect the health and welfare of other students.

For all purposes related to this refund policy, a day shall be deemed to begin at 12:01am local time of US Eastern Standard Time Zone (EST).

Academic team

Academic Director

Dr. Zuming Feng

Instructors

Mr. Ivan Borsenco

Mr. Michael Curry

Mr. Chengde Feng

Mrs. Yunhua Feng

Dr. Zachary Franco

Mr. Xiaopeng Gong

Mr. George Reuter

Mr. Marc Scarfo

Dr. Celine Sun

Mr. TaoTu

Mr. Jie Zhao