GallopingUnicorn45 wrote:

studymoremath wrote:

Where does this pressure to do well in math competitions in 4th grade come from

I barely knew what math was in 4th grade

Well I have to be good at something, but I'm terrible at sports and art. I'm starting violin next January but it's too late for me to become a professional at that because to do that you need to practice 4-6 hours but those hours have to be spent practicing math.

I can understand you really well, keep practicing hard but don't be like me and value the results of your career too much because then if you get unlucky or get worse than you deserved (like sillying on the test), you might have all your motivation "crumbled into dust". It's better to focus on a variety of things so you have a better chance of succeeding. Somethings I tried out besides math were computer science, physics and chemistry. Those go really well with math and will give you much more than just math. Be open to different paths; you might not get the one you were hoping for but if you set up the alternatives beforehand you will smoothly move on to another instead of crashing to the end of that path.