Reviews for The contest problem book IV

The average rating for The contest problem book IV based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-04-24 00:00:00 Serge Flore After I had finished this book, I was trying to pinpoint the source of its excellence. I think it is threefold: (a) Full disclosure - I have a master's in math, so was predisposed to find it interesting (b) Actually (a) may be more or less irrelevant. What I realize is that books wherein someone who can write well takes the topic of their own, or someone else's obsession, and communicates the essence of that obsession are, to me, fascinating. Other examples that come to mind are "Word Freak", Stefan Fatsis's book about high-fliers in the world of scrabble (the key point being, it is absolutely not a book about Scrabble, rather it's a book about people's obsession with Scrabble) and Mark Obmascik's "The Big Year", which follows the exploits of three obsessed birders over the course of a year. (c) Steve Olsen is an excellent science writer, and his treatment of the different competitors in this book is compassionate and fascinating. It has to be mentioned that if you forget the exact spelling of Steve Olsen's name and try to look him up on google, you may find yourself wading through an awful lot of entries on Mary-Kate and Ashley. A sad commentary on what is considered important these days.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-05-25 00:00:00 Becky Bach I was enjoying learning about the International Mathematical Olympiad, getting a glimpse into the kids who compete at these things, but then I put it down for a bit to read some fiction. Now I find I'm not that enthusiastic about picking it up again. It's well written and the author makes what could be considered a dry subject quite interesting--the focus isn't so much on the math itself, but on the study of mathematics in the US vs. other countries, and what makes a "genius." Even though the upshot is everyone contains the makings of genius, I think my problem with finishing the book is I was a math major in college, and I feel like a big ol' dummy next to these kids. I can't even say I've *forgotten* more things than these kids know! Too depressing for me....