Chen Guangting's mathematical modeling, he is the judge of the national competition, and this book is also very clear.
Knowledge, mathematical calculus, probability theory, mathematical statistics, linear algebra (matrices are used a lot, at least these knowledge need to know some basics), software includes MATLAB, SPSS, LINGO, and many other softwares, but these three are more important, especially MATLAB. There shouldn't be too much preparation for writing a paper. Just look at the template before the game. If you want to take part in the American Tournament, you can practice English more and accumulate some terms in this field.
In addition, mathematical modeling also tests the ability of searching information and data in a short time and the ability of self-study.
There are two books in MATLAB that I think are very useful, namely "Mastering MATLAB》(6.5 version 6.5 or R20 12a is quite good, R is relatively new, but I think the content is not much different) and" Application of MATLAB in Mathematical Modeling ",which explains several classic algorithms.
Oh, by the way, you can learn ten classic algorithms for modeling and prepare all the programs before the game.
You can search for specialized modeling suggestions, which will be very detailed. Go to the website of Mathematical China, the holy land of mathematical models. . . Everything is available. . .
Please adopt it.