Review: Life in the Fast Lane

Since its official beginning on 1 September 1971, the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) at Johns Hopkins University has received considerable attention as a model for the education of extremely talented young mathematics students, usually of junior high school age. Articles and books have been written about the project as it evolved and as it was replicated elsewhere in the United States. So it was appropriate that in November 1980 a symposium at Johns Hopkins was devoted to discovering what had been learned during the first decade of the SMPY. Academic Precocity, Volume 10 in the Hyman Blumberg Symposium series, reports the findings and conclusions of that symposium.