01 / What is unique about LIF?
We use the “Effective Training” philosophy to choose training zones based on student’s strength and weakness, so the students get the best results within the shortest amount of time. Our instructors have track records for talented students to get AMC8 perfect score, distinguish honor roll, MATHCOUNT National qualifiers and AIME qualifiers. Formula of success is “work hard” and “work smart”.
In addition to our training philosophy, we also have below merits:
—Proving tracking record of student success
—Highly experienced teaching staff （all new staff have 2～3 year tenure period before being a certified teacher）
—Excellent customer service. We usually respond email, text or wechat within 24 to 48 hours
—Reasonable cost.
02 / What are the benefits of taking math classes if my child will not pursue engineering as a major?
We realize that not everyone needs to pursue engineering as his/her major. Generally speaking, math is the foundation for all engineering and finance majors. Getting a strong foundation in math at a middle school level opens doors to various opportunities in one’s future career. The logic/reasoning skills they learn will also help students to get high scores at the GRE and GMAT tests.
03/ Why parents prefer to enroll in LIF tutoring program when students takes Prealgebra and Algebra in their regular school curriculum?
The philosophy of most public schools on math curriculum is “no kids left behind”. From last twenty years, the topics are getting easy over the time, which is best described as “one mile wide and one inch deep”. When our next generation will face keen competition from all of the world, our math level is way below some countries. They have to spend more time in high school or college to make up, which can be avoided in their early stage.
04 / What teaching material/textbook are used for LIF courses?
You can find detailed information under course tab. For all courses starting with AOPS, we use AOPS as textbook. For AMC8 and MC class, we use our own material designed to prepare students being ready for the tests. Most of them are topic-based lectures for students to easily master a new topic, which has been proved very effectively.
05 / What are the special courses LIF offer?
–Number sense class designed for Math League elementary contests
–MOEMS course designed for MOEMS contest
–Logic fun course to provide training to all students to think “outside the box”.
06 / I don’t care about math competitions, what benefits are there in enrolling my child in the math class?
We believe that middle school is the Golden Period for your child to build a strong foundation in math and problem solving skills. It is relatively easy for a middle school student to commit time to work on math problems than high school students who have lots of homework, activities and volunteer work to do. It prepares a student so that they can focus on other activities and home work when he/she is able to spend less time on their math homework and still maintain a good math GPA and get a high score on the SAT.
07 / Do I have to enroll my child in the math class?
It depends on your individual goal and your confidence level in training your child. If you feel very comfortable teaching your child and your knowledge/skill is sufficient, then you do not need to enroll your child in any class or camp. Parents are the best teachers for young children. We highly recommend you try the AMC8 test and/or MATHCOUNTS test yourself to determine if you are familiar with all of the problems. The majority of the top performers do have a history of enrolling in various math clubs/classes/camps.
08 / My child does not like math, should I still enroll him/her in math class?
It depends. For most children in middle school, they usually do not know what exactly they want to do in the future. However, math is a core course in high school and their SAT math score is critical to their application for the top colleges. No interest in math during middle school can be changed later on. In the past, students have won competitions with little or no interest in math.
09 /How early should my child start to prepare?
There is no fixed answer to this question. The majority of the students start at 5th grade or 6th grade, some could be even earlier. If your child is very interested in math, you can start before 5th grade. We do recommend starting from 5th grade if they finish pre-Algebra and can understand the problems.
10/ What are the major math contests in US for elementary level students?
Math League and Math Kangaroo are the two most popular national level math contests for elementary students in US. See their website for more details （link is posted under Resource）
11 / What are the major math contests in US for middle school students?
AMC8 （Every Jan） and MATHCOUNTS are the most popular middle school math contests. You can find more information on their website（link is posted under Resources）