A Saturday program, run by volunteers
CSK Math Circle by CSK Foundation teaches competition math to students in grades 1–8. Every class is taught by a volunteer.
Why this exists
Most children meet competition math by accident, if they meet it at all. A school runs a club for a year and then the teacher who ran it moves on. We wanted something a family could plan around: the same four levels, the same Saturday afternoon, every year.
Students sit Math Kangaroo and the AMC 8 at the end of it, and those results matter. So does the ordinary experience of being stuck on one problem for ten minutes and getting it out.
CSK Foundation, our parent organization, is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit. The teaching is done by high-school students, most of whom sat these same competitions a few years ago.
At a glance
- Who we serve
- Students in grades 1–8
- How we teach
- Weekly Saturday Zoom classes
- What we prepare for
- Math Kangaroo & the AMC 8
- Where we are
- Cerritos, California
- Who teaches
- High-school volunteers
- Status
- 501(c)(3) non-profit
Four rules we hold to
Hard problems, no humiliation
Competition math is difficult on purpose. A student who gets nothing out on the first pass is having a completely normal experience, and teachers here are told to treat it that way.
One record per student
A single student profile follows each child across classes, tests, and years, so a teacher taking over a class does not start from nothing.
No problem reaches a child unchecked
Every problem is written in-house, then solved blind by a second volunteer who has to arrive at the same answer before it can be published. A wrong answer key marks correct students wrong.
Volunteers graduate
Every teacher here leaves for college eventually. Lesson plans and teaching notes are shared so the next one picks up a class instead of rebuilding it.
Come teach, or send us a student
The program needs volunteers more than anything else. If you would rather help another way, enrolling a child or giving to the fund both work.