Sparks Learning Academy offers best-in-class competition math courses designed to extend skills in problem solving taught in school, to foster mathematical creativity, and to prepare students for math competitions similar to the American Mathematics Competition (AMC 10, 12, AIME, JMO/AMO). Live online lecture courses are offered several times a year. Please subscribe to our newsletter to get notified when a new course is offered. Live online courses are usually once per week. The teacher and the students meet at a pre-arranged time via zoom. After the lesson, there are homework questions for the students to practice.
Besides live courses, we also have pre-recorded courses. If you purchase a pre-recorded course, you will have access to all videos of the live course and homework for 6 months. You can learn at your own speed.
ADVANCED AMC 10/12
The advanced AMC series courses provide best-in-class training for advanced topics in American Math Contest 10 and 12 (questions 16 to 25). It has 4 courses: algebra, geometry, number theory and combinatorics. Students learn to apply various problem-solving strategies while completing contest-style problems.
This course covers the algebra part. It has 7 lessons and each lesson lasts 2 hours. There is homework after each lesson.
Class Syllabus
Lesson 1 (AMC 10/12) Algebra: Arithmetic Calculation, Linear Equation, Proportionality, Linear Equation Set
Lesson 2 (AMC 10/12) Algebra: Factoring, Rational Number
Lesson 3 (AMC 10/12) Algebra: Fraction, Algebraic evaluation, Fractional equation, identities, variable substitution
Lesson 4 (AMC 10/12) Algebra: Complete square, Method of undetermined coefficients, Radicals, Quadratic equation, Vieta
Lesson 5 (AMC 10/12) Algebra: Equation set, Identities, [x] and {x}, quadratic function, quadratic inequality, higher degree inequality
Lesson 6 (AMC 10/12) Algebra: Sequences, function equation
Lesson 7 (AMC 10/12) Algebra: irrational inequality, advanced inequality, maximum and minimum values
This course covers the geometry part. It has 6 lessons and each lesson lasts 2 hours. There is homework after each lesson.
Class Syllabus
Lesson 1 (AMC 10/12) Geometry: Locus, Construction, Polygon, Transformation, Angle and Area
Lesson 2 (AMC 10/12) Geometry: Congruent Triangles, Translations, Rotation, Parallelogram
Lesson 3 (AMC 10/12) Geometry: Quadrilateral, Transformation with invariant area, Similar shapes
Lesson 4 (AMC 10/12) Geometry: Circles
Lesson 5 (AMC 10/12) Geometry: Law of Cosine, Law of Sines, Algebraic method , Geometric invariance
Lesson 6 (AMC 10/12) Geometry: Geometric inequality, areas
This course covers the number theory part. It has 5 lessons and each lesson lasts 2 hours. There is homework after each lesson.
Class Syllabus
Lesson 1 (AMC 10/12) Number Theory: Divisibility, Prime Factorization, Perfect Squares, Congruence
Lesson 2 (AMC 10/12) Number Theory: Diophantine equation, Last digits, Number bases
Lesson 3 (AMC 10/12) Number Theory: Prime and composite numbers, LCM and GCD
Lesson 4 (AMC 10/12) Number Theory: Congruence, residue system, Fermat little Theorem
Lesson 5 (AMC 10/12) Number Theory: Pythagorean triples, More Diophantine equation
This course covers the combinatorics part. It has 6 lessons and each lesson lasts 2 hours. There is homework after each lesson.
Class Syllabus
Lesson 1 (AMC 10/12) Combinatorics: Basic Counting, Stars and Bars, Enumeration, Correspondence, Recurrences
Lesson 2 (AMC 10/12) Combinatorics: Coloring, Pigeon holes, Principle of inclusion and exclusion
Lesson 3 (AMC 10/12) Combinatorics: Combinatorial geometry, Basic Graph Theory
Lesson 4 (AMC 10/12) Combinatorics: Problems on Chess Board, Logic problems, Best Strategy
Lesson 5 (AMC 10/12) Combinatorics: Sets, Expected Value, Generating Function
Lesson 6 (AMC 10/12) Combinatorics: Bijection, Correspondence, Binomial Coefficients
This 6-lesson course covers the topics that are in AMC 12 contest but not in AMC 10 contest such as logarithmic functions, complex numbers and trigonometric functions.
Lesson 1 (AMC 12 only) Exponential function, Logarithmic functions
Lesson 2 (AMC 12 only) Complex number, trigonometry form, modulus of complex number
Lesson 3 (AMC 12 only) Complex number: roots of unity, application in geometry
Lesson 4 (AMC 12 only) Trigonometry and its application in geometry
Lesson 5 (AMC 12 only) Advanced topics in complex number and trigonometry
Lesson 6 (AMC 12 only) 3-D Geometry
AIME
The AIME course is for students who are very confident that they will qualify for the AIME contest and want to improve their AIME grades. Through a series of online classes, we systematically teach math topics required to be successful in AIME test. There are total 24 lessons breaking into 2 semesters. I recommend the students to take both semesters. However, if a student only wants to join the 2nd semester, please be advised that the topics in the 2nd semester are more advanced and only suitable for students whose AIME score is least 7. If you have taken the 1st semester, I don’t think you will have problem in 2nd semester.
There is homework after each lesson. Each homework has 5 to 6 questions and require about 1-2 hours to finish. The students are required to submit full solution with detailed steps. The homework will be graded by the teacher or teaching assistant and comments will be given. If you choose the pre-recorded AIME course, then the homework will not be graded. In stead, you will be given detailed solutions to the homework questions.
|
1st Semester |
Lesson 1 |
Algebra: Functions |
Lesson 2 |
Algebra: Quadratic equations |
Lesson 3 |
Algebra: Discriminant |
Lesson 4 |
Geometry: Triangle |
Lesson 5 |
Geometry: Circle |
Lesson 6 |
Geometry: Line and Circle Relationship |
Lesson 7 |
Number theory: Integer root of quadratic equation |
Lesson 8 |
Number theory: Diophantine equation |
Lesson 9 |
Combinatorics: Basic Counting |
Lesson 10 |
Combinatorics: Correspondence and recurrences |
Lesson 11 |
Algebra: Multiple variable quadratic equations |
Lesson 12 |
Algebra: Arithmetic and geometry sequences |
Exam |
End of Semester Exam |
|
2nd Semester |
Lesson 13 |
Algebra: Sum of sequences |
Lesson 14 |
Geometry: Proportional segments in circle |
Lesson 15 |
Geometry: Cyclic quadrilateral |
Lesson 16 |
Number theory: Prime number and divisibility |
Lesson 17 |
Number theory: Prime factorization |
Lesson 18 |
Combinatorics: Principle of Inclusion and exclusion |
Lesson 19 |
Algebra: Complex numbers |
Lesson 20 |
Geometry: Five centers of triangle |
Lesson 21 |
Number theory: Congruence |
Lesson 22 |
Combinatorics: Binomial coefficients |
Lesson 23 |
Algebra: Trigonometry identities |
Lesson 24 |
Review, AIME test strategy |
Exam |
End of Semester Exam |
MATH OLYMPIAD
MO Geometry
This is a JMO/AMO level geometry lesson for students who have qualified JMO/AMO.
- Menelaus’s theorem
- Ceva’s theorem
- Ptolemy’s theorem
- Stewart’s theorem
- Spread angle theorem
- Simson line theorem
- Nine-point circle
- Circle-circle intersection
- Complete Quadrilateral
- Radical axis
- Harmonic Conjugate
- Incenter of a triangle
- Circumcenter of a triangle
- Centroid of a triangle
- Orthocenter of a triangle (check out the sample class notes)
- Excenter of a triangle
- Five centers of triangle
Each section lasts about 1.5 to 2 hours. We will cover a lot of MO level problems. There is going to be homework after each lesson.