The most advanced 7th to 10th graders in the nation: USAMO index (AMC10/12 + 10*AIME) of 180 or above are qualified to take our placement tests, students with stronger work in the placement test are invited to take this series.
Accelerated Championship Series (XC Series) consists of four components/courses: XC7, XC8, XC9, and XC10.
This series will not aim to teach these students math competition material, but rather improve their command of the core knowledge leading to higher studies in mathematics. Students will be surprised to discover that the school curriculum could be as challenging and as useful for learning Olympiad topics, if the right questions are posed, and more importantly, the school curriculum could and should be far more important, if learned with good depth and breadth.
In the past 25 years, the Phillips Exeter Academy Red Lion (PEARL) math team, under the supervision of Zuming Feng, has become a dominant force in US high school math contests. From 2000 to 2019, students from PEARL have been USAMO winners 40 times and have won 25 IMO Gold medals, 11 Silver medals, and 8 Bronze medals. These students have diverse background, skillsets, and characters. What do they have in common? Well, almost all of them have studied Math Transition 3X (or 31X-40X-41X) and Math 431-511-521 with Zuming Feng.
Starting this spring, IDEA MATH is going to share these courses with the best 7th, 8th, and 9th graders in the nation via the XC series. While math contests are not the main focus for this course, this course cultivates young talented math students’ vision on the flow of mathematics and ability to reason and argue mathematically. Therefore, students’ achievements in math contests become a natural result.
XC7 and XC9 will be offered in the September, 2020, and XC8 and XC10 will be offered in January 2021.
Each course consists of 10 units/weeks (one unit per week). In each unit, there are 4 hours (two 2-hour sessions: one on Saturday, one on Sunday) of live remote learning (via Zoom). Hence, there are 40 (online live) class hours for each course. We also expect students to spend 1 hour on homework or test in each unit -- this is 50 hours of total workload.
The tuition for each of these courses is $995 for 40 in-class hours (unit rate is less than $25 per hour) of teaching and homework/test grading.
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The unique strengths of IDEA MATH can be summarized as follows:
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| Courses code | Course content | Pre-requisite |
|---|---|---|
| XC7 | IM7A, IM7G, IM8A, and contest extension (parametric equations, vector operations, 3-D geometry, advanced trigonometry) | USA(J)MO qualifying index of 180 and above, and placement test; 7th, 8th and 9th graders in general |
| XC8 | IM8G (advacned 3-D geomery and vector operations), IM9A 9advacned Pre-Calculus), Introduction to Calculus an emphasis on proofs, and extensions to math contests | XC7; 8th and 9th graders in general |
| XC9 | Calculus AB with an emphasis on proofs and extensions to (college level) math contests | For younger student: XC8; for 10th and 11th graders, USA(J)MO qualifying index of 200 and above, and placement test; 9th and 10th graders in general |
XC10 | Calculus BC with an emphasis on proofs and extensions to (college level) math contests | XC9; 9th, 10th and 11th graders in general |
| Course | Time | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| XC8 | 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM (US EDT) | June 13, 14; 20, 21; 27, 28; July 11, 12; 18, 19; 25, 26; August 8, 9; 15, 16; 22, 23; 29, 30 (2020) |
| XC7 and XC9 | starting in September 2020 | starting in September 2020 |
| XC8 and XC10 | starting in January 2021 | starting in January 2021 |
| Register and Tuition Pay By | Tuition Amount | Hourly Rate |
|---|---|---|
| May 22, 2020 | $995 | $25/hour |
| June 5, 2020 | $1095 | $27/hour |
| Withdraw Request Made by | Refund Amount |
|---|---|
| After tuition being paid before June 12, 2020 | Paid Tuition - $200 |
| After June 12, 2020 before June 27, 2020 | Paid Tuition - $350 |
| After June 27, 2020 | No refund |
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.
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).