Wesley Lin

MATH.RE.ORG
AMC 8 Problems - reorganized

Welcome to my math playground! If you are a math genius like Luke R. Robitaille, this is not the website for you. But if, like me, you are just an ordinary kid with EXTRADINARY love for math, then I hope you will have fun using this site just like I had fun building it.

I started building this web site in 2022, planning to use it as my own bookmark of math competition questions. Over the years, however, it evolved into so much more than that. It is a playbook of sort, not only collecting questions and useful links, but also documenting my own strategies and techniques solving those questions. It is a documentary of my growth as I jog down my thought process and share my fun math memories. Most importantly, it is a celebration of math, a subject which let us sink hundreds of hours lost in its wonder and puzzles like a glorious hunt in an Agatha Christie novel.

And that was when I knew. I want to share this web site with you, my friends and partner-in-crimes in math.

WHO AM I?

I am Wesley Lin, a math lover, pianist and composer, and volleyball player. From the first time I participated in Math Kangaroo in first grade, I fell in love with the beauty of math and problem solving. I started getting Honor Roll in AMC 8 in fourth grade, started qualifying for AIME in sixth grade, and got Honorable Mention in USAJMO in 9th grade. I am also winner of various math competitions (individual and / or team) including Purple Comet, MMath, and more.

But enough of that. All those titles serve only one goal: to make you feel comfortable with the quality of this site. This is not a random site constructed haphazardly as an entertainment. It was well-planned out over many years, with systematic thinking and approach, and most important of all, put together with love and care.

WHY THIS SITE?

Growing up, I was often frustrated that there was not a place where math problems are categorized by topics, so that I can easily apply a theorem or trick I just learn, five times, with variation and twists, to reinforce my learning. There are tons of high quality math problems out there from many competitions. There are tons of great web sites built by mathletes before me that share them. But I just couldn't find a place where, for example, all AMC 10 problems related to Vieta's Theorem are grouped together. The closest I could find was AOPS' category page, where problems are categorized into different topics. However, the categorization was pretty high level (for example, "introductory geometry problems") and the collection was incomplete.

At my current level of math, that issue no longer exists (after all, each JMO / AMO / set only contains six questions, and they are not easily categorizable). In the summer of 2022, when I was teaching a group of sixth graders AMC 8 math, some of them asked the same question I asked when I was their age: "do you know where I can find these questions grouped by categories so I can review them?" This year, as I work as the Teaching Assistant for Gauss Academy, similar question arose again from my students.

It turned out that I was not alone. Lots of people could benefit from a well-organized compilation of competition problems. I decided to take things into my own hands, and build such a web site myself. After all, that was how Richard Rusczyk started AOPS in 2003 (If we build it, they will come!). I know it is a crazy time to be doing this. I am in high school, I am a piano / composing major in MSM pre-college, and I need to train for my volleyball varsity team. This seems to be the worst time of all times for me to be doing this! But like Steve Jobs said, the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do, and I think it is time to do my part.

WHO IS THIS SITE FOR?

If you have passed AIME and qualified for JMO / AMO, you have my congratulations and respect, and this site will be of minimum help to you. If, however, like me many years ago, you just got started in your math journey, or you are looking for a better way to systematically improve your math skills, or you just want a neat compilation of high quality, fun math problems to challenge yourself, this web site is for you.

HOW TO USE THIS SITE?

Use the "Topics" link to head over to the central hub of this site: Math by Topics. I’m working on building an Alcumus-style structure that organizes past math competition problems (with solutions!) by topic. My goal is to make it super easy for you to find exactly what you want to practice and level up efficiently.

You’ll also find a growing list of helpful websites, books, and articles on the "Resources" page. If you have any suggestions or hidden gems, I’d love to hear from you—math is better when we learn together!

THINGS I LEARNED BUILDING THIS SITE

To make changes happen is HARD
Sometimes the best way to learn something is just DO IT
It is amazing how much you can achieve by spending just 10 minutes a day -- if you KEEP IT UP FOR YEARS!

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