Our History

The Math All Star program originates from a series of lessons given to a group of gifted students who love math and are interested in participating in various math competitions such as MathCounts, AMC, and AIME. These lectures aim to strengthen their problem-solving skills. Over time, the Math All Star program has attracted more and more students from across the US and around the world. This website is set up for those students, their tutors, and parents who are interested in our program.

Our Philosophy

We've observed that many students try to improve their math skills mainly by practicing past problem sets and studying their solutions.

We believe this is neither an effective nor an efficient approach, especially given that students today have such busy schedules. Competition math covers many topics that aren't taught in the classroom and are therefore unfamiliar to most students. When learning school math, students are encouraged to study their textbooks and thoroughly understand new topics before attempting homework or exams — the same approach should apply to learning competition math.

Practicing helps reinforce what's been learned and reveals areas that need improvement. Studying solutions is a good way to deepen understanding of key concepts and sharpen specific problem-solving techniques. However, relying on this alone — without a foundation of structured study — is both time-consuming and less effective. It also tends to make students focus too narrowly on the problem in front of them, causing them to miss the bigger picture, which can hold back their overall progress.

At Math All Star, we emphasize structured learning — studying different types of similar problems (i.e., patterns) alongside their respective solutions (i.e., techniques). This gives students a solid foundation for choosing the most appropriate approach to any given problem. With these skills in place, students can then get the most out of practicing problems and studying solutions. We believe this is the most effective and efficient way to improve competition math skills.