myQBook UIL Number Sense Competition Preparation Program

myQBook provides the most comprehensive, effectively structured, and easy to use UIL/TMSCA/PSIA Number Sense preparation program.

Comprehensive: We cover more than 350 concepts and shortcuts each supplemented with many solved sample problems and up to 10 additional practice questions. The program also describes in detail the “why” behind each concept so that students get the best understanding of each concept. In addition, we have 20 full length practice tests at each level (elementary, middle and high school) for a total of 60 practice tests with explanations of how to solve each problem.

Structure: Our program is structured in 3 levels, starting from the most basic number sense concepts in our Elementary School level, to more challenging concepts in our Middle School level, to the most advanced concepts in our High School level. Additionally, concepts are grouped in broader math categories and within each category are organized from the easiest to the most difficult concepts. This structure makes it extremely efficient for students to learn and practice concepts and prepare for the competitions.

Easy to use: We have designed our program keeping in mind the different needs of students, teachers, coaches and parents.

For students: One of the salient features of our program is that each student gets her own individual account where she can manage and monitor her own progress. In addition to the easy to navigate structure explained above, students can easily search for any particular concept, attempt the practice problems many times, check what concepts they have already completed, and keep a tab of their overall progress. Students can also take the full length practices tests as many times as they need and after taking each test, they have the opportunity to not only review the completed test but also attempt the questions they were not able to get to in the first 10 minutes. While reviewing the test, students can also understand their mistakes by comparing their solution to the recommended solution to each problem.

For teachers, coaches, and parents: Teachers, coaches, and parents can easily create individual student accounts, monitor their students’ progress, and help students with their most pressing needs.

Texas School Teachers: If you have never used our programs and would like to get a free trial please click here.

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What our users’ say:

I used myQBook Number Sense online prep program with the students I coach at Melissa Ridge Intermediate School's UIL Number Sense team. My students could access the myQBook programs anytime at home on their iPads, laptop, or home computer. This made it very accessible which in turn made it very useful to them. The concepts for the Number Sense program are explained in a very easy to understand manner. The "Why It Works" explanation for the tricks is a great way for students to understand the reasons behind the concepts which is very important in mathematics. The "Why It Works" explanation also helps them remember the tricks better on test day. The practice questions after every concept are helpful to learn the concept well. The full length online tests provide students plenty of practice....
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How to best prepare for a Number Sense Contest

Since the number sense contest covers a large variety of Math concepts, students should devote an adequate amount of time to prepare for the contest. The amount of time each student should devote on preparing for the contest will depend on the student’s existing skill level. Students in lower grades will need to spend more time learning the concepts as some of the concepts would be entirely new for them. Students in higher grades would need to spend relatively less time to prepare. We recommend the following preparation times based on about 2 to 3 hours of preparation time per week:

Student Grade	Preparation Time
Grade 3 & 4	9 to 12 months
Grade 5 & 6	7 to 10 months
Grade 7 & 8	5 to 8 months
Grade 9 & 12	3 to 6 months

We strongly recommend students follow the steps below to prepare for the contest:

Devote the first 4 to 12 weeks (depending on existing skill level) entirely to review and internalize the concepts and tricks by working through the myQBook NS concepts. At this stage, don’t worry about taking the sample tests at all.
Make sure to do all the sample problems after each concept. If needed, repeat doing the practice problems after few days to get used to the concept and the problems that appear in the contest.
About 16 to 20 weeks before the contest date, start taking one test every week. Schedule the practice test approximately at the same time and day of the week that the actual context will take place. Make sure you will not be disturbed during the time of your practice test.
After taking the test, go back and review your completed test and understand what problems you got wrong and why. Also understand how you solved each problem and whether that was the fastest way to solve the problem. The first two tests in the myQBook NS library provide explanations and the fastest way to solve each problem. Compare your approach to the myQBook recommended method and understand the difference.
Throughout the following week review the concepts you didn’t score well on the test and practice sample problems.
On the week of the contest, try to relax and not study too much. Just review some of the concepts as you were doing in the previous weeks. Don’t take any more tests during the last week.

Other important points:

Learn your multiplication tables – Elementary level at least till 20, Middle school level at least till 25, and high school level till 30.
Learn the most commonly used squares, square roots, cubes and cube roots listed in the myQBook NS concepts.
Understand and learn the Equivalent numbers (relationship between fractions, percents and decimal numbers) listed in the myQBook NS concepts.
Memorize the “Measures to Remember” in the myQBook NS concepts.
While learning a concept think about why does the concept work and other applications of the same concept.
Learn how to recognize various number patterns.
Learn to break complex problems into smaller parts and then solve each part separately.

Number Sense General Information

Why do so many of our students have difficulty with math? We contend that it is because they don’t have number sense. What does it mean to have number sense? A student who has number sense, for example, would:

Understand the deeper meaning of arithmetic operations. For example, instead of just memorizing 4 x 4 equals 16, a student with number sense will understand that 4 x 4 means four groups of 4 objects, which is also the same as 2 groups of 8 objects. So when multiplying higher numbers say 225 x 30, this student will know that this means 225 groups of 30 which also means 200 groups of 30 plus another 25 groups of 30.
Understand the relationship between numbers. For example, a student with number sense understands that 25 is the same as 100/4. Given a problem such as 36 x 25, this student will know that he can rewrite the problem as 36 x 100/4. Which then means that he can divide 36 by 4 first and then add two zeros to get the answer 900 which is much easier than actually multiplying 25 by 36. A 3rd grade student with number sense will make this connection and could solve this problem mentally while a 5th grade student without number sense might struggle with this problem.
Understand the deeper meaning of other higher level math concepts in geometry, measurements, co-ordinate geometry, algebra, etc.

It should be clear from the above that having number sense means understanding numbers and mathematical operations and being able to manipulate these in order to solve difficult problems. NS has become so popular in recent years that many schools, universities and other organizations hold NS competitions throughout the US.