Fast Facts

Fast Facts is a new event that is rotating into Division B for the 2017 season, and was previously run as a trial event. In this event, competitors are tested on general science categories.

Description
The following information is based on the trial event rules linked at the bottom of the page. This section was written prior to the release of the 2017 rules manual, and may be outdated.

Fast Facts is run in three to five rounds (the number of rounds is determined by the event supervisor) of five minutes each. Each round consists of an answer sheet (see trial rules for an example and blank copy) containing a five by five grid with different science categories listed in the column headers and letters listed in the row headers. Each team's answer sheet for a round will be identical, i.e. the same categories and letters will be used. During the five-minute round, participants will attempt to fill in the grid with science terms corresponding to each category and beginning with the listed letter (with certain restrictions, e.g. surnames must begin with the relevant letter, synonymous terms used across a round will only be scored once according to the more specific term, etc).

Points are awarded based on the number of grid spaces filled accurately, with extra weight on having multiple grid spaces in the same column or row filled accurately. The total score is a summation of the individual round scores, with several specific tiebreakers set out in the rules in the case of ties.

Strategy
Scoring increases exponentially across each column or row, so it is advantageous to focus on completing entire columns or rows if possible. Having two students with different areas of specialty and splitting up the round based on the categories can also be helpful.

Preparing for this event
There is no one exact way to prepare for this event, as each competition will be different from the last. A helpful thing to do study is to make lists of categories that will probably be tested; then study and memorize vocab, important people, theories, etc. from each category. Some common categories include elements, units of measurement, and famous scientists.

Often, a category in a Fast Facts test is another Science Olympiad event, so studying vocabulary terms from almost any other event is equivalent to studying for Fast Facts. In addition, competitors are often quizzed on different types of organisms. It is therefore helpful if one of the competitors also compete in an event like Invasive Species or Microbe Mission

Links
Trial Event rules

Fast Facts Practice Test (Made by Texas): []