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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.

  1. Menelaus’s theorem
  2. Ceva’s theorem
  3. Ptolemy’s theorem
  4. Stewart’s theorem
  5. Spread angle theorem
  6. Simson line theorem
  7. Nine-point circle
  8. Circle-circle intersection
  9. Complete Quadrilateral
  10. Radical axis
  11. Harmonic Conjugate
  12. Incenter of a triangle
  13. Circumcenter of a triangle
  14. Centroid of a triangle
  15. Orthocenter of a triangle (check out the sample class notes)
  16. Excenter of a triangle
  17. 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. 

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