American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian math' (2017)
Lots of comments asking what is "Soviet/Russian Math" actually like, and how is it different.I was lucky to get an education in three systems (Soviet Math, Romanian Math School (influenced by both French and Soviet Math school), and finally in a world top 40 university in North America.I would summarize the Soviet/Russian Math/Physics approach like this:  - understanding of the mechanism/intuition behind the equations/methods is paramount
  - teachers are astute at spotting students who memorize blindly, and will intervene to correct that
  - while rigorous about notation, the mathematical representation always comes after understanding, not before
  - the progression of teaching (order how material is introduced) is very well thought out
  - the old soviet textbooks are generally less verbose than North American ones (less fancy), but high quality in their expression, typesetting, and ESPECIALLY (!!!) the quality of the exercises
  - the Soviet Math textbook exercises are something to behold: they have funny/memorable setting (like jokes), they are short and easy to express, the numbers are chosen in such a way that the result will be a nice whole number, or pi, etc. Basically as a kid you can read one of those problems, lay down, close your eyes, and work on it in your head.

That being said, I did like some of the aspects from the so called "Western Math" (in my case Canadian university):  - teachers are more approachable, more friendly
  - textbooks can be gorgeous (nice colorful plots, etc)