How did you deal with MATHCOUNTS disappointments?

[mathlearner]

Especially Nats competitors, if you expected to place higher, and fell short, especially if this year was your last chance, how do you deal with the disappointment? Any advice for those in a similar boat?

[nick42]

well, you just think about where you messed up and then work on making those areas better.

then the next time, you can score higher (it worked for me).

[nikeballa96]

mathcounts doesn't matter.

well, it does. but evan o'dorney, from california, got fifth in california mathcounts in eighth grade. the next year, he made IMO.

don't worry about mathcounts. it's a cool competition, but it means virtually nothing. no offense intended to those who have succeeded in mathcounts.

[stevenmeow]

[AIME15]

[stevenmeow]

I never said that
nikeballe96 said that in a more extreme way
I agree with that, but not in such an extreme way as nikeballa96 does.

let's edit my earlier post...

[BOGTRO]

Made state and got disqualified on some stupid techincality. I coped by getting ready to pwn everyone next year.

[mathlete5]

I failed Florida state, i got 29th. but i have another chance next year, i'll try harder

[pinkmuskrat]

Be disappointed and learn from it. Then just suck it up and move on to your future opportunities. For me, I just need to get better at stupid mistakes. If I performed the way I did at chapter and states in nationals, I would have gotten top 30, on a good day with little stupid mistakes. Unfortunately, I had the worst day ever and missed 13 points on adding wrong, plus many more for just a bad "thinking day". For people who made nats, you just got to think about how much you did to get there. And, be thankful that was MC nats, not the SAT!!!

[CountdownKing]

This is rather random, but I care much more about MC Nats than the SAT.

Anyway, when I was in 6th grade I got 5th at MC states, so I used that as motivation for seventh grade. Now, I'm slightly disappointed over my ranking in my final MathCounts competition, so I'm using that plus my USAMO failure to force myself to study more.

[PowerOfPi]

CASE #1: You got first in the world in every competition you entered. You got a scholarship.
RESPONSE: So what.

CASE #2: You got did good on your college entrance exam, got a degeree in your favorite field, and you are know doing your favorite job. You make enough money to buy whatever you want, have a good house and car, and get to live in your dream location.
RESPONSE: Life is good.

Which case was harder to achieve? Which one do you like better? Which one is more important?
Think about it.

[fooblah]

Well, I can definitely relate to phailing mathcounts...at chapter this year I lost on a tiebreaker and got 11th place so didn't make the cd, even though I fully had 43 points! I am using this as motivation to work REALLY hard on math so I can go to nats next year...

[PowerOfPi]

[gauss1181]

I had many experiences, personally, where I felt short of my expected MATHCOUNTS goals. This not only happened at Nats this year, but also at chapter in 6th grade, state in 7th grade, chapter in 8th grade, and state in 8th grade. All of these disappointments were due to very stupid mistakes. All I really could do to cope with the disappointment is just keep my mind open for anything I could possibly do, simply just to keep thinking to myself that EVERY POINT COUNTS. If you fall short by a point, you fall short by many places. In sixth grade, I missed the cutoff for state because of just 1 point on the chapter contest. If I had just gotten 1 more point, I would have made state, which unfortunately I haven't. Also, in 7th grade, I got 4th place at chapter, which I kinda thought was a little bit more embarrassing because I missed a target question which I should have gotten right if I hadn't misread the question. If only should I have that question right, I would have gotten a better place, possibly first if I could only remember what the top 4 scores at chapter was....Oh well it didn't really matter anymore for me, bleh. But I at least made state, so it didn't really matter to me anymore. Besides, chapter contest is trivial so why does it matter? Basically I just pushed my mind ahead to prepare for states. At states, unfortunately, I felt sick, so I didn't really do as well as I expected to, so I just had to get over it. There wasn't really any way that I had to really cope with the disappointment, even though again, I missed the cutoff for nats by a single question. 6th place at state. But Mathcounts was over for me in my 7th grade year, so realizing that fact just made me want to study even harder over the summer. What I did was just forget about the sadness, try to do problems faster than the given time limit, and just avoid the stupid mistakes that crawl over my head every once in a while. However, in 8th grade chapter contest, I somehow tied for 1st, but tiebreakers cut me down to 3rd. I then realized that there's no matter of being disappointed because chapter is over and I get to go to state, meaning I still have a shot for making Nats, which was my ultimate goal at the beginning of 8th grade. Later, at State, I was 2nd place, falling short of the first place person by 1 point. There we go again. Missing a goal by a single point. Therefore, the moral of the story is that every point counts in any Mathcounts competition. If you fall short by a point, you fall short by your goals rather quickly, and this is not a surprise, because there are often many, MANY tied scores in most Mathcounts competitions, regardless of whether it's at chapter, state, or nationals. (maybe perhaps Nationals has the most ties, making it such an intense competition and creating discussions of problem triviality) So at Nats, I came in 20th and fell short for countdown qualification just by 1 point, or actually 1 question (target, *sob*).

In general, what I really did to cope with Mathcounts disappointments is just think to myself, "Does Mathcounts matter?" Well, maybe not for 6th and 7th grade, but probably just now, since I'm done with Mathcounts. I probably was MUCH more disappointed with falling short of major goals in 6th and 7th grade just because I really enjoyed the benefits of Mathcounts and wanting to get all of those cool, shiny trophies. But now, I'm done. If you're done with a competition, and you're disappointed about your final placing in such an event, just get over it quickly. There's no reason to lag forever and ever saying that you lost or you failed or whatsoever. Just keep on pressing forward to look ahead to high school competitions, such as the AMC, AIME, USAMO, Mandelbrot, ARML, HMMT, and many others that you can possibly think of. Also, there's one thing that you should always remember in any competition: EVERY POINT COUNTS. Don't just think that you feel okay just because you lost to a person by one point. Losing by one point can mean a lot, especially when your score is very close to getting a major award.

[Mewto55555]

I of all people should not feel disappointed (I placed a good 20 places higher than I expected, and I actually scored ABOVE my test average at the competition), but I still can't help but think that if I could get that 100x4 problem, I would be up 3-1 and pretty much go on to the finals. As such, disappointment.

I'm just coping by looking at the stats. I am the #2 written in America, and #3 cd. That is really good.

Gauss, you came in the top 57 (won't say what place!) out of ALL THE MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS IN AMERICA.

Etc.

Anyway, there are two scenarios. You did not do your best on the test as you could have. Take comfort in the fact that, had you been at your best, you would have come in a higher place.

If you did your best, but did not make it to the next level, you still DID YOUR BEST. That is a good life lesson, to do your best udner pressure.


Also, if you failed, just remember, you beat EVERY SINGLE PERSON who did not come to the competition.

[nikeballa96]

Wow, mew. Coming from a person like you (THAT MEANS NOTHING), that's deep.
Well, I failed. But yay. Top 57 (barely...) for me.

How am I coping with it? EPIC AIME PREPARATION =D.

(wow, this post was total spam. akhil0422 is totally gonna quote izzy and tell me how spammy/unnecessary my post was on the next post)

[mathlearner]

gauss1181 - wow - thanks for your great answer. That actually made me feel a lot better. And thank you to everyone else who also gave some really good advice for this question.

It's really hard when you practice something for hours, days, months - even years, and fully expect to do better than you do - especially when so much practice comes down to a single hour or so worth of work. I mean, even if that very same test was given a different hour on the same day, i'll bet lots of people would end up with different results. For instance, I know I'm not a morning person, and usually test much better later on in a day or evening, while others are most alert first thing in the morning.

[mathlearner]

Related to the disappointment seems to be questions about whether anything different could have been done beyond the obvious preparation (doing a zillion practice problems) prior to the competition.

I'm wondering, can anyone comment on exactly how much sleep they actually got the night before the actual Nats Competition? Especially anyone who made top 20? Did your coaches make you go to sleep early? Could you fall asleep? Or did anyone stay up reading, watching tv, or playing cards? Also, did anyone do problems or a team round after dinner? Just curious how any of these things might have affected people's performance. Oh, did anyone do any math the morning OF the competition -- like right before??

[james4l]

[nikeballa96]