Picture This B

[seasalt_]

Has anyone competed in this event at states/? Were the questions very difficult?
During our invitationals the list was pretty basic words.

[hscmom]

Has anyone competed in this event at states/? Were the questions very difficult?
During our invitationals the list was pretty basic words.

Our State is in a few weeks but a lot of states have already had their state tournament. A few years ago, my two older daughters, now in college, and their friend competed in PT (and won, always a bonus) at the state tournament. The words were "middle of the road" they thought. Of course, they were nervous and missed a few that they had recently practiced. Ouch! They were really worried that they did poorly so it was a thrill to hear their names. They were on C but were in 9th, 8th, and 8th at the time and all three were pretty little girls so it was fun to see them up front with some huge high schoolers.

Also, remember that there is no one big state list (that's a good thing) of 25 PT words. Each state PT will have a different supervisor. Some will come up with super-easy words and some with amazingly impossible. So, even if someone said "Oh, our state list was easy" or "Our state list was very difficult" it really means nothing to you because your state supervisor could be either of these extremes ... or right in the middle! Ideally, your list will have a few easy words (so that even ill-prepared teams get a few) and some real stumpers, with many in between, from a wide variety of science disciplines.

But, that said,... good luck!

[Verdigris]

Has anyone competed in this event at states/? Were the questions very difficult?
During our invitationals the list was pretty basic words.

We did. The words were pretty easy for the most part, the main problem was that whoever was guessing was usually thinking of specifics, and most of the words were more general. Also, it was on paper, so at one point my partner marked the wrong section on a drawing and couldn't fix it.

[scienceswimmer4]

I was also sort of wondering if it was the same set. Was your first word epicenter?

no, I believe our first word was moon or dwarf star or something like that(it was a pretty simple set haha)

[hscmom]

Well, I guess it was different word sets for north and south. Good luck (uh, but not TOO good!).

[Jaol]

My friends recently competed in GA state and they said the words were ridiculous. They got 6 words and got 3rd I believe. Apparently the proctor said that there were many teams tha got 0 words. Don't mean to deflate you but maybe the testmaker overestimated middle schools of something.

[hscmom]

My friends recently competed in GA state and they said the words were ridiculous. They got 6 words and got 3rd I believe. Apparently the proctor said that there were many teams tha got 0 words. Don't mean to deflate you but maybe the testmaker overestimated middle schools of something.

Yikes, what were some of the words? So it boiled down to who said pass 25 times the fastest to break the tie among the teams with zero words???

Having coached this at both the C level and the B level, I saw that the C's brought a bigger vocabulary to the table as they started studying (and that threesome started working about 8 weeks before regionals...) and just had to practice drawing things (I remember teaching them the words parsec and siblicide - it was a year that ornithology was on rotation) but they already knew all these other words that we dreamed up. As for the B's they just don't yet have the vocabulary so not only do I throw words at them that they've not yet practiced, but I have to define the words for them. With all the thousands (10s of thousands?) of legitimate PT words, I guess I can imagine a list of 25 that my team hasn't encountered.

Well, I hope they do better at State.

[UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F]

My friends recently competed in GA state and they said the words were ridiculous. They got 6 words and got 3rd I believe. Apparently the proctor said that there were many teams tha got 0 words. Don't mean to deflate you but maybe the testmaker overestimated middle schools of something.

Yikes, what were some of the words? So it boiled down to who said pass 25 times the fastest to break the tie among the teams with zero words???

Having coached this at both the C level and the B level, I saw that the C's brought a bigger vocabulary to the table as they started studying (and that threesome started working about 8 weeks before regionals...) and just had to practice drawing things (I remember teaching them the words parsec and siblicide - it was a year that ornithology was on rotation) but they already knew all these other words that we dreamed up. As for the B's they just don't yet have the vocabulary so not only do I throw words at them that they've not yet practiced, but I have to define the words for them. With all the thousands (10s of thousands?) of legitimate PT words, I guess I can imagine a list of 25 that my team hasn't encountered.

Well, I hope they do better at State.

I just want to point out this website again. After all, This should be all you need for B. 5th-8th grade! Of course, if you scroll down, there's more advanced stuff (I think).

[GoldenKnight1]

Yikes, what were some of the words? So it boiled down to who said pass 25 times the fastest to break the tie among the teams with zero words???

So for all of those who are competing in this event remember that the 1st tie breaker is fewest terms passed not time. I can't tell you how silly I always think it is when the first drawer passes on their ninth term. It never made sense to me.

[hscmom]

Yikes, what were some of the words? So it boiled down to who said pass 25 times the fastest to break the tie among the teams with zero words???

So for all of those who are competing in this event remember that the 1st tie breaker is fewest terms passed not time. I can't tell you how silly I always think it is when the first drawer passes on their ninth term. It never made sense to me.

Yea, you're right.