math classes in August!

Hi Everyone,

I hope you're all having a relaxing summer. Just a couple of math
contest announcements before I mention some classes we're running
next month:

First, congratulations to our ARML teams this year. At the national
high school championship in Las Vegas last month, we had teams that
placed 6th and 12th nationally, which is by far our best showing in
the last decade. We also had a total of five teams that scored enough
points to be placed in the top division, and of course we are looking
forward to an even better year in 2012. Way to go everyone!

As for the coming school year, it's a little early to start
announcing specifics, but we do plan to continue our series of
contests every month or so, at the elementary, junior high, and high
school levels. This will be our second year running a state
championship for elementary students, and we also plan to hold a Bay
Area championship for junior high students and a full state
championship for high school students. We will post information about
these contests on our website and announce them over the mailing list
as they are confirmed. For now, if you are able to help us obtain a
site for our contests this year, please let us know so we can discuss
further details.

You may notice that for now the front page of our website contains a
form that I would encourage all of you to fill out. Getting yourself
registered on our system will help us start keeping records of contest
results online and allow you to check your own scores. You do not have
to do this right away, but the sooner you do the easier it will make
the process of registering for contests and keeping track of your
results on our system.

Now a word about our classes this summer. I will be coming to Santa
Clara from August 7-20 to run several classes like those I held during
the 2009-2010 school year. I also have two other staff members ready
to help teach classes so that if enrollment gets high we can maintain
a small student/teacher ratio. Be sure to sign up early though,
because even with three teachers in the classroom there are a finite
number of seats and enrollment is limited. :) We are offering two
different elementary classes (grades 3-5) and students may sign up for
either or both. There will be contest prep classes for MATHCOUNTS and
AMC 10/12. And we are also planning to hold an introductory linear
algebra and group theory class. You can go to
http://mathleague.org/classes.php for more information; please note
that we are offering a $50 discount per course to anyone who completes
registration by this Friday. I hope to see many of you in August!

-Tim

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ARML notes

Hi everyone,

Sorry for taking so long to get a post-ARML email out to you. We ARML
coaches always tell each other in April and May that "there'll be
plenty of time to sleep when ARML's over"; well, I'm almost caught up.
:) It's a lot of hard work each year, but it's all worth it to see all
of you enjoy the best extracurricular activity out there..

Wow. What an ARML. I hope you had as much fun as I did. I wish I had
more opportunity to hang out with you all this year, but one of the
realities of having six teams it's that I had to spend a lot more time
on administrative details this year. Basically we had two coaches in
charge of each 15 student team and then Jeff and I had to coordinate a
team of almost 15 coaches. We all made it work though, and I want to
thank you all for making sure nothing happened to give me and Jeff a
heart attack.. :)

Okay, so many people to give a shout out to: first of all, thanks so
much to Jeff, Silas, Moor, and Linda for taking on so much
responsibility and making sure everything ran so smoothly. Next,
thanks to all the Stanford students who helped run practices and made
sure all of you got where you needed to go this weekend. Also thank
you to the parents who did whatever we asked and provided vital
support for our teams. Finally, thank you all for coming to ARML, and
a special thanks to all our team captains as well..

So what happened at ARML this year and why am I so happy with all of
you? Well, first off A1 placed sixth. That's awesome! I'm sure you
hoped for better (didn't we all?), but I am totally pleased with this
result. With a 15-point spread among the top six teams, it was really
anyone's game. Any given Sunday, right? Sure, the team round took its
toll on A1, but I am very proud of your performance despite the
difficulty on the team test. And you totally made up some ground in
the later rounds; in fact, you were the third best team in terms of
individual round scoring, and you were the top relay team in the
country! Way to go!

As for A3-A5 teams, you did an awesome job, and for the first time
ever we have a group that is required to have five teams in the A
division. A6 did quite nicely as well, posting a very respectable
score for a B team. Brilliant job, and I am very proud of all of you.
The teams were very close in terms of overall score, which is great;
Silas and I are talking about having a contest next year among these
teams so you all can push each other to even higher scores...

The big story of course is the A2 team. BEST. A2 TEAM. EVER. I had
jmerry on aops check the stats and, relative to the number of teams
competing, we posted the best showing ever for a second team. In fact,
A2 was ahead of A1 until the final round of individual questions and
was ahead of SoCal A1 until the final relay! This is an absolutely
amazing result, and you all are to be congratulated! I think it is now
clear that SFBA has the potential to have two teams each year
thatplace nationally, and I look forward to the day when that
happens..

Of course, let's not forget our individual high scorers; we had a huge
number of students in the tiebreakers and several students in the top
20, and Lewis Chen was 5th place overall. Congratulations to all of
you!

Okay, so you all did a great job this year, but we still have some
work to do. We are not the only group in the country that is required
to have 5 A teams; New York continues to keep pace with us in terms of
depth, and although no other teams in the country are even close, New
York is basically even with us deep into our lineup. This is an area
where I think our A3-Ainfinity teams can make some real inroads. At
the top of the standings, there is always the "what if" game - if A1
and A2 had traded team rounds, A1 would have been 2nd; and of course
if A2 had been able to swap relays with A1 it would have been 6th.
However, if San Diego had been able to swap its A1 and A2 relay
scores, it would have been 2nd. San Diego is the real team to watch
out for on the West Coast, so we can't get too comfortable moving
forward..

There is also more work to be done in terms of team selection. I think
the process has continued to improve, but there are always things we
can do to make the system better. Obviously any post-contest
observation about how someone from An outscored someone from A1 on the
individual round fails to account for the natural statistical noise in
this sort of competition (or for the impact individuals have on the
team rounds), but I certainly want to take an objective look at the
process and see what we can do to improve things for next year. I
understand there are two primary schools of thought here: those of you
who would like to let the teams choose themselves and those who prefer
an objective system. I like both ideas and would love to find a way to
please everyone. Just know that I and the rest of the coaches will be
working hard (incorporating your feedback throughout the process) to
continue to make the system the best it can be, and that the only
thing I can promise you is that not everyone will be 100% satisfied.
:) As always, we are interested in hearing your suggestions for how to
improve the ARML experience, so please send me any suggestions you
have about team selection or anything else..

A couple of financial notes - First, if you need to be reimbursed for
any ARML expenses (this will mostly apply to coaches and to the
students who flew to Las Vegas), please send an email to let me know.
I am hoping to get all the finances for ARML squared away by the end
of the month. Next, ARML raised fees this year on us, but I kept your
cost the same so I'm pretty sure the trip ended up costing more than
we brought in this year. As this is obviously not sustainable, we will
likely have to increase fees around 10% next year. Please note that we
are always interested in attracting sponsors, so if any of your
parents work at companies that may be interested in sponsoring our
ARML team, I would love to pursue all such options in the interest of
keeping your costs low..

Thanks again to all of you for making this the best year ever for SFBA
ARML. Let's make it even better next year!

-Tim

BTW I have a little interesting information to share with you:
http://myweb.stedwards.edu/edwarde/ARML.html
Apparently Jeff was more awesome than all of us when he was at ARML.
Now I know what you're thinking: "ARML was much smaller back then;
that's like comparing Doyle Brunson to Chris Moneymaker". Yes, yes it
is, and Jeff is still awesome. Also note for a bit of historical fun
that Texas Silver achieved its peak performance when I left that team
in the mid-90s, and then Texas Gold did the same.. :)

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ARML bus assignments

Hi everyone, 

As you know, we have two buses for ARML this year. I collected bus preferences over the past few days, and the bus assignments are at the end of this email. These bus assignments were determined using a computer program to maximize the number of satisfied preferences. We were able to satisfy approximately 88.7% of submitted preferences. If you have any concerns, please let me know.

I've named the buses π (pi) and τ (tau) in honor of the mathematical constants pi = 3.14... and tau = 6.28... (see http://tauday.com/ for an explanation). 

-Moor

BUS π (PI):

Colin Aitken 

Michael Burks 

Douglas Chen 

Lewis Chen 

Steven Hao 

Wenkai Lei 

Jerry Li 

Aaron Lin 

Brian Shimanuki 

Kai Xiao 

Brian Burks 

Rebecca Burks 

Donghyun Choi 

Andrew He 

Julia Huang 

Rick Huang 

Matthew Lin 

Akshay Ravikumar 

Spencer Yee 

Brandon Young 

Victor Chen 

Adrian Lin 

Gareth Chen 

Charles Lien 

Willem Van Eck 

Sravya Bhamidipati 

Alexander Kunz 

Jessica Shu 

Griffin Sloves 

Ashwath Thirumalai 

Vivian Tian 

Bobby Veres 

Jerry Wu 

Jeffrey Yuan 

Rebecca Wang 

Yongwhan Lim 

Nick Wu 

Moor Xu 

BUS τ (TAU):

Justin Ahmann 

Archit Kulkarni 

Varun Mohan 

Danielle Wang 

Charles Liu 

Rahul Sridhar 

Benjamin Tong 

Matthew Huang 

Yiming Jen 

Maggi Lai 

Anthony Ma 

Nishant Pappireddi 

Minyu Wang 

Eileen Xing 

Jeffrey Zhang 

Shawn Zhang 

Kevin Bai 

Veronica Boyce 

Kevin Chen 

I-Chen Ko 

Liwen Ko 

Luke Li 

Jin Pan 

Minkyu Park 

Nicholas Werby 

David Zhu 

Chris Kim 

Hanying Mo 

Joseph Mo 

James Shi 

Ian Zhou 

Brandon Tran 

Bryan Tran 

Linda Burks 

Charles Chen 

Minny Guo 

Taylor Han 

Jian Shi 

Patrick Thill 

ARML trip details

Hi everyone,

Here are a few last minute details about this weekend's trip. First,
I am attaching a list of students and coaches below, along with team
assignments, transportation details, and room assignments. Room
assignments are subject to change, but we will try to keep roommates
together as much as possible. Team assignments have been shuffled a
little to reflect who will not be attending or who hasn't been
showing up to practices..

Please understand there is a chance some of you may move up to A1 or
A2 still depending on how many permission slips do not get submitted
this week. If you have not yet turned in a notarized permission slip,
I feel sorry for you and truly hope you manage to get those express
mailed to us in time to board the bus. It would really be a shame for
you to miss out on going to ARML with no refund due to something as
simple as not following the rules about permission slips. You know who
you are.. :)

As for transportation, those of you who are listed as bus passengers
need to be to the end of Palm Drive at Stanford BEFORE noon on
Thursday to board the bus. We will make an attempt to contact you if
you are not at the bus, but the bus will not wait an excessive amount
of time for you. The bus should arrive to Las Vegas late Thursday
night and will leave around 4:30 Saturday (there will be no late bus
this year, but we'll bring it up again as an option next year
because it's, you know, fun)..

For those of you flying, after ARML I will process $50 refunds to
those of you who followed the rules regarding which flights to book
and when. Please make sure Kendra has your address for the check. I
will send a separate email to you with contact information for all the
people on your flight. There will be at least one parent on each
authorized flight, and you are to meet with this parent before going
through security together at SJC. If you are on an authorized flight,
I will meet you at the airport Thursday night for transportation to
UNLV, and we also have transportation arranged to the Las Vegas
airport for your return flight..

As for what to pack, make sure to bring clothes and whatever personal
care items you would bring for a two-night stay in a hotel. I'd like
to encourage you to participate in a tradition we had back in the 90s
when I was on the Texas team and wear your oldest ARML shirt on
Thursday; for my part, I will be wearing a hideous purple shirt with
an armadillo on it from 1991 FTW. Jeff has me beat chronologically,
but let's see if he still has a shirt from the 80s. :) Please pack
lightly but feel free to bring games to play in the dorms Thursday and
Friday nights. Socially acceptable games at ARML include mafia, mao,
toe (not for real money), and other card games; chess; Frisbee
(ultimate, golf, or other varieties); and
let's-try-to-beat-William-Chen's-record-at-Rubik's-Cube.
Socially unacceptable games include video game systems with a finite
number of controllers, and anything that will cause people to get hurt
and/or heat stroke..

The t-shirt you selected is the not-the-same-as-last-year one, and
these will be distributed at noon on Friday. Your coaches will
instruct you where to assemble for your team meeting on Friday at
noon. Please make sure to bring money for snacks and drinks if you
wish; we may not have sufficient infrastructure to keep a constant
supply of pizza and bottled water available this year, but it is
important to keep hydrated in Las Vegas, and there are plenty of
vending machines available on campus..

Just in case you need some contact phone numbers, here are a few:

Tim Sanders 816-210-3147 Airport Trawler (and Head Coach)

Jeff Soesbe 916-213-7068 Assistant (to the) Head Coach

Moor Xu 541-206-7651 Bus Jockey (and A1 Coach)

Silas Johnson 650-906-0581 Room Guru (and A2 Coach)

Finally, I believe you all have received Silas's document on how to
have fun, be safe, and win at ARML; if not, please email Moor for a
copy. I would also encourage you to go to the following links for some
relevant documents:

Campus Map
http://go.unlv.edu/drupal/assets/maps/pdf/main-building-abbrev.pdf

Mathematical Conventions
http://www.arml.com/arml_registration_2010/ARMLConventions_since_2008.pdf

Part of the Competition Program
http://www.arml.com/arml_registration_2010/outside_2011_UNLV.pdf

Rest of the Program
http://www.arml.com/arml_registration_2010/inside_2011_UNLV.pdf

Have a safe trip to Las Vegas, and I'll see you all in a couple of
days! Apologies if the formatting of the spreadsheet below doesn't
come out well on your computer..

-Tim

Re: Information for ARML

Just a quick note that there's a typo in the previous email: the username and password are still sfba and arml; the password that I gave before is outdated.

-Moor

On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 9:35 PM, Moor Xu <moorxu@stanford.edu> wrote:

Hi everyone, 

At today's final ARML practice, we used the 2000 power question, 1995/1997 relays, and 1997/1998/1999 team rounds. I've posted those practice materials on our website, http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/. As before, to access the materials, use username = math and password = scribble. Please work through these problems. I've also uploaded solutions to last week's homework. 

For our final ARML homework of the year, we have the 2005 and 2006 individuals; these have also been posted on the website. Here are submission forms for those tests:

2005 individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dGpkdDB6N25YOC1va2VqX0s5NUM3V0E6MA#gid=0

2006 individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dGhSZFBMVG83MzFoR1pzSEZ0VU11X3c6MA#gid=0

I've also uploaded an ARML orientation guide containing suggestions regarding packing and strategy. This was also passed out today in practice. This guide exists at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/guide.pdf.

Regarding transportation and logistics: Tim will send out information via email in the next few days. In the meantime, we will have two buses this year, leaving Stanford at noon on Thursday and arriving back at Stanford after midnight on Sunday. I will have complete lists of bus assignments by Thursday. You can tell me your preference for a bus assignment by filling out the Google Docs form here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dHBBVDFpeXBzVTRLamtUcXl1OThiOWc6MQ#gid=0. The deadline to fill this out is 9:00pm on Tuesday, May 31.

Let me know if you have any questions, and see you on Thursday!

-Moor

Information for ARML

Hi everyone, 

At today's final ARML practice, we used the 2000 power question, 1995/1997 relays, and 1997/1998/1999 team rounds. I've posted those practice materials on our website, http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/. As before, to access the materials, use username = math and password = scribble. Please work through these problems. I've also uploaded solutions to last week's homework. 

For our final ARML homework of the year, we have the 2005 and 2006 individuals; these have also been posted on the website. Here are submission forms for those tests:

2005 individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dGpkdDB6N25YOC1va2VqX0s5NUM3V0E6MA#gid=0

2006 individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dGhSZFBMVG83MzFoR1pzSEZ0VU11X3c6MA#gid=0

I've also uploaded an ARML orientation guide containing suggestions regarding packing and strategy. This was also passed out today in practice. This guide exists at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/guide.pdf.

Regarding transportation and logistics: Tim will send out information via email in the next few days. In the meantime, we will have two buses this year, leaving Stanford at noon on Thursday and arriving back at Stanford after midnight on Sunday. I will have complete lists of bus assignments by Thursday. You can tell me your preference for a bus assignment by filling out the Google Docs form here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dHBBVDFpeXBzVTRLamtUcXl1OThiOWc6MQ#gid=0. The deadline to fill this out is 9:00pm on Tuesday, May 31.

Let me know if you have any questions, and see you on Thursday!

-Moor

Final ARML practice this Saturday

Hi everyone, 

Our final ARML practice will be this Saturday, May 28, from 2pm-5pm at the usual place: room 380-380X in the basement of building 380 at Stanford. This is the last practice before the tournament. (We'll be in Las Vegas in less than a week!) Please join your team at practice this Saturday in order for the teams to practice most effectively. At the practice, we'll also discuss some details about contest logistics.

A number of you still need to do the homework for this week. The homework is the 1999, 2000, and 2001 individuals, and the problems are posted online at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/. Use (username = sfba) and (password = arml) to access the tests. Here are the submission links:

1999 ARML individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dExTaFdTNW5HRmE3VTlJa0dXbHBuTFE6MQ#gid=0

2000 ARML individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dHc5X2oyckd0elY3QjRTXzkza25lQXc6MA#gid=0

2001 ARML individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dFd6MHU4NE1OdnRPYlpMRndIMjJCd3c6MA#gid=0

See you at practice!

-Moor

Practice recap and more homework

Hi everyone, 

At Sunday's practice, we worked through the 2000 and 2001 individual and relay rounds, and the 2001 or 2011 NYSML power rounds (depending on team). As usual, these practice materials have been posted online at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/. Use (username = sfba) and (password = arml) to access these materials. I encourage you to look at the problems and solutions. I've also posted solutions to last week's homework.

There is more homework for this week. I've posted the 1999, 2000, and 2001 ARML individual rounds on the problems site.

Just as for last week, please do these problems under realistic testing conditions and submit your answers to the Google Docs forms listed below:

1999 ARML individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dExTaFdTNW5HRmE3VTlJa0dXbHBuTFE6MQ#gid=0

2000 ARML individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dHc5X2oyckd0elY3QjRTXzkza25lQXc6MA#gid=0

2001 ARML individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en_US&formkey=dFd6MHU4NE1OdnRPYlpMRndIMjJCd3c6MA#gid=0

The next (and final) practice will be at Stanford on Saturday, May 28, from 2pm to 5pm. It is important that you come to the final practice, and I hope to see you then. In the meantime, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

-Moor

Practice on May 22

Hi everyone, 

Just a quick reminder that our next practice is this Sunday at the same place and time as last week: 2pm-5pm at Stanford, in room 380-380X. Please come to the practice to support your team. Also, a number of you still need to submit the homework for this week, so please do this as soon as possible.

As I said in the previous email, here are the homework submission forms:
1996 ARML: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en&hl=en&formkey=dFFieWxrRTlMZWk4ampSR3VzVUlrWWc6MA#gid=0
2004 ARML: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFJJeDJCalBrOUxBTUZNdTFBSVdzb0E6MA#gid=0
2007 ARML: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHpzSU9MUmNwVi1zQTQwTmtxdFNPa1E6MA#gid=0
These practice materials have been posted online at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/. As before, to access the practice materials, use (username = sfba) and (password = arml).

Nick's proof workshop slides have been posted online at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/proofs.pdf. If you did not go to the workshop, you may want to read through these slides.

-Moor

Update on Saturday Stay

Just a quick note to let you know that anyone wishing to stay in Las
Vegas the Saturday night of ARML needs to pay by Sunday so we can let
ARML know who will be around the extra night. Again, you can pay for
the extra night at http://mathleague.org/store.php

-Tim

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T-shirt voting and extended stay in Vegas

Hi Everyone,

So we only had a handful of people elect to fly to ARML (everyone must
realize how awesome it is to ride the bus!), which means we will be
taking two buses to ARML this year. What does this mean for you? It
opens up the possibility for you to stay overnight Saturday if
you're interested and we can get enough people to buy in. Some of
you have inquired about the possibility of staying over Saturday,
which was never an option with a single bus because some people have
to be back for Sunday, but now we can consider this as a possibility.
There is some additional cost associated with staying another night,
so if you are interested I will need to collect an additional $40; if
we do not get enough people to choose the extended stay option we will
send both buses back Saturday and refund the $40 of anyone who pays to
stay longer. The late bus would leave Sunday morning from Las Vegas
and get home at a reasonable hour (that may make it an attractive
option for those of you whose parents aren't interested in driving
to Stanford after midnight to meet the early bus), and we will
organize an activity in Las Vegas Saturday night for those of you who
want to stay..

If you would like to stay in Las Vegas Saturday night, go to
http://mathleague.org/store.php to pay the additional $40; this option
will be available on a first come first served basis until the Sunday
bus is full. We need to know soon (within the next week I would guess)
who is staying late so I can get that list to ARML. Any parents who
are interested in staying over should just let us know; I will cover
your additional costs..

Finally, t-shirt voting is ready to go; for those of you who care what
the shirt looks like, go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M7SXSKL and
make your selection. You need to complete the survey by Monday so we
can know which shirt to order. You'll notice that one of the shirts
is a repeat of last year's; if you don't like the options, make
sure to submit your own design next year.. :)

-Tim

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ARML practices and homework

Hi everyone, 

We worked through the 2004 power round and the 1996 and 2007 individual and relay rounds at Sunday's practice. These practice materials have been posted online at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/. As before, to access the practice materials, use (username = sfba) and (password = arml). I encourage you to look at the problems, think about the ones that you didn't finish, and read the solutions.

Regarding homework: I've posted solutions to last week's homework. If you haven't done the homework yet, please do the problems. If you've done the homework, you should read the solutions and check your answers. Even if you got the problems right, reading the solutions might still give insight into simpler or more elegant solutions.

There is more homework for this week. I've posted the 1996, 2004, and 2007 ARML individual rounds on the website, and just as for last week, please do these problems under realistic testing conditions and submit your answers to the Google Docs forms listed below:

1996 ARML: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?hl=en&hl=en&formkey=dFFieWxrRTlMZWk4ampSR3VzVUlrWWc6MA#gid=0

2004 ARML: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFJJeDJCalBrOUxBTUZNdTFBSVdzb0E6MA#gid=0

2007 ARML: https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHpzSU9MUmNwVi1zQTQwTmtxdFNPa1E6MA#gid=0

For most of you, your individual score is your largest contribution to your team's score, and it is the only portion of the team score over which you have complete responsibility. As such, doing the homework is essential to your team's success.

I understand that a number of you have conflicts with Sunday practices. However, due to a multitude of other conflicts, the only feasible time for practice next weekend is again Sunday. The next practice will be Sunday, 5/22, at the usual place and time: 2pm-5pm at Stanford. Unless there is significant opposition, the final practice is scheduled for Saturday, May 28, 2pm-5pm at Stanford. Please come to practice if at all possible.

Any questions or concerns? Please let me know.

-Moor

ARML practice on May 14

Hi everyone, 

This is just a quick reminder that we have an ARML practice tomorrow (Sunday, May 14) at Stanford. The time and place are the same as last week: 2pm-5pm in building 380, room 380-380X. I sent out three individual rounds as homework last week; please do those problems and submit them to the given google docs forms. In addition, please bring a sample proof writeup to practice for tomorrow's proof workshop. I believe that doing the homework problems is essential to success at the contest, so please work out the problems and submit your answers!

-Moor

ARML practice materials and homework

Hi everyone, 

Thanks to those of you who came to Sunday's practice at Stanford. This week, we used the 2002 and 2008 team and relay rounds and the 2002 power round.

I have posted practice materials from the last practice at http://stanford.edu/~moorxu/2011ARML/, and I also include the 2003 test that was used at the practice on April 30. The site will ask you to log in; use username = sfba and password = arml. Please take a look at the tests and work out some of the problems.

Each week, we will assign some homework problems will be done outside of practices. For this week, please do the 2002, 2003, and 2008 individual rounds (downloadable from the link above). Please work on the problems under testing conditions (time yourselves and avoid distractions) and submit your answers to the following forms:

2002 individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dFYtMTVmbWF3Nkk5Sk4zSkttaVVxQlE6MQ#gid=0

2003 individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dFFHTFIzMGNTTVI4RVdpdlFiemdqVXc6MA#gid=0

2008 individuals: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dENxYXo5YU93OGNWLVM4bVBjMXlOVXc6MA#gid=0

There will also be a proof writing workshop at the next practice for those of you who want to learn more about writing proofs. In preparation for this workshop, please carefully write up a solution to the latest proof problem that you know how to do (out of problems 1b, 3, 4a, 4b, 5, 6, 7, 8a, 8b, 10, 11, 12) from the 2002 power round (downloadable from the link above) and bring your solution to the next practice. If you cannot attend this practice, you can email your solution (scan or typed) to Nick Wu (huaiyu.wu2010@gmail.com) for comments.

Regarding practice dates: I understand that some of you are unable to attend Sunday afternoon practices, and I am working to possibly reschedule a practice to a different time. However, due to a number of unavoidable conflicts, the next practice will remain at May 15th from 2pm to 5pm at Stanford. Future practice dates will be finalized soon.

Finally, SFBA ARML does have its own AoPS forum at http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/viewforum.php?f=670, and I encourage you to use it for discussion. This is a private forum. If you do not yet have access, send me your AoPS username and I will grant access.

-Moor

flight option still available

okay everyone, one more flight option for your return; note that the
flight returns to Oakland, not San Jose, but it's a lot cheaper since
Southwest has bumped up the cost of the return flights to San Jose:

Las Vegas - Oakland, 7:15-8:45, Flight 2057

we still need a few more people to fly, so i'm holding the $50 rebate
deal open through midnight tonight. you can find all the acceptable
flights at http://sfba-arml.blogspot.com/

-Tim

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ARML practice this Sunday

Hi all, 

I am organizing this year's ARML practices at Stanford. The first practice will be this Sunday, May 8. We will meet from 2pm to 5pm in the basement of building 380, in room 380-380X. A map to this building can be found at http://campus-map.stanford.edu/index.cfm?ID=01-380.

At practices, we will have a number of practice tests, including team rounds, power rounds, and relay rounds. There may also be short workshops about topics in problem solving. I will distribute practice materials via this email list after each practice, and I will also send out some extra problems each week that we did not use at practice. In order to ensure the success of your team, please attend practices regularly.

Our tentative practice schedule is to meet May 8, May 15, May 22, and May 28 from 2pm to 5pm at Stanford, but these dates can be moved if there are significant conflicts. I have already heard from some people that Sunday practices might not be ideal. If you have conflicts with these dates, please reply and let me know your availability, and I will take this into consideration for scheduling practices.

-Moor

new flight option

Hi all,

Southwest has flipped prices on its Saturday flights and now the 8:10
flight is $131 and the 6:00 flight is $79 (it was the other way around
earlier). So i'll open up another Saturday flight option:

Las Vegas to San Jose, 6:00 - 7:25, Flight 1737

Same deal, 50 bucks, yadda yadda. Get me your confirmation by midnight
today..

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website update

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know that i have set up a blog at
http://sfba-arml.blogspot.com/ where all emails to this year's ARML
mailing list will be collected for reference. This blog is linked from
the team website as well. Also, please note that our practice schedule
is now online with the next practice at Stanford this Sunday from 2-5.
Finally, remember to get me copies of your confirmation by tomorrow
night if you are flying to Las Vegas so i can get you a partial refund
of your fee..

-Tim

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ARML transportation, t-shirts, and roster

Hi everyone,

First, let me say thank you for coming out to the practice last
Saturday; we had way more students at that practice than i imagined
would show up, and i was overwhelmed by the turnout. Thanks for your
dedication!

Let's talk transportation for a minute. i've got a bus scheduled to
leave Stanford at noon on the 2nd, but with over 80 students going
this year we have quite a bit more passengers than can fit on one bus.
i know the bus ride is the best part of ARML, but i need to convince
at least two dozen of you to fly in order to fit everyone else on the
bus. So here's what i can offer: i will refund $50 of your ARML fees
to any student who books a flight and forwards me their confirmation
email by midnight Saturday (send this email to
operations@mathleague.org). Parents are encouraged to fly as well if
that works for you. Now here are your options for flights; you must
select from these flights if you plan to fly to ARML:

June 2, San Jose to Las Vegas (either flight is acceptable)

Southwest 625 (leaves at 8:55) OR Southwest 2379 (leaves at 9:35)

June 4, Las Vegas to San Jose

Southwest 3152 (leaves at 8:10)

Next is some information from Ted Alper about T-shirts for this year:

==============================================
Subject: 2011 SFBA ARML team t-shirt design competition!

Hi, everyone. We need a team t-shirt for ARML -- and you have a chance
to design it! Any student who wishes to submit a design is very
welcome to do so; we will vote on the designs in in mid-May.

Here are the ground rules -- please read them carefully, even the ones

at the end!

(a) it should include the words "SFBA" or "San Francisco Bay Area" or
both

(b) it should include the words "ARML" or "American Regions

Mathematics League" or both

(c) It should include at least the year (2011). You *could* also
include
the specific days (June 3 & 4), and/or "UNLV" or "Las Vegas, Nevada"
or "University of Nevada, Las Vegas" or some variant of this.

(d) It should NOT include anything that might be considered offensive
to other students, parents, teachers, or, really, anyone. This has
never been a problem in the past, but we do explicitly reserve the
right to censor submissions that fail to meet this criterion.

(e) it should not use copyrighted material, unless you own the
copyright!

(f) a maximum of 4 colors (and different shades count as different
colors! This will be silk-screened, so subtle blending and mixing of
these 4 colors is out; On the other hand, half-tones are ok.) Front
and back count separately -- that is, you could have 2 colors on each
side, or 3 on one side and 1 on the other, or simply have JUST front
artwork with 4 colors. You don't need to count the background color of
the shirt.

(g) It would be helpful if you can produce your design in a
high-resolution version (preferably TIFF, PSD, or EPS formats, the
sort of thing you can do with Photoshop, GIMP, or Paint.NET, etc.) for
the printers. Low-resolution designs do NOT look good on t-shirts! If

you don't have the tools to do this, don't worry, the t-shirt company
art staff can often redo your design in a higher-resolution format if
you can't, but there's no guarantee it will be exactly the same.

Email me ( Ted "dot" Alper "at" gmail "dot" com) the files, with a
NAME for the design, and I'll upload them for public viewing.

(h) You need to make your submission no later than Monday, May 16, at
noon. (that's in just two weeks!) Once the voting begins, we will not
be able to add late submissions. The last day of voting will be
Monday, May 23. (The design will be given to the printer the next day)

Ted Alper

==============================================

Finally, here is a list of students we have going so far, for your
information. Students are arranged alphabetically. For privacy
reasons, please do not post this on the internet anywhere. If your
name is spelled incorrectly or doesn't show up, or if you reversed
your first and last names when you signed up, please let us know so we
can make sure our records are correct. Moor will be assigning students
to teams at practice:

[redacted]