Microbe Mission B/C

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Ashernoel
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by Ashernoel »

Skink wrote:Thanks. Congrats to those who placed at Nationals!
Ashernoel wrote:I'm pretty biased tho because we crushed the state test
Btdubs- the high score was below 50% ;)
WELLLLLLLLLLL we won even if we failed. Dx

I guess we really did NoT crush it .......

makes sense cause we kinda bombed microbe at Mit and wright state :{
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by izzanom »

I competed in division B this year for microbe mission and I wanted to see if others shared my views. I found that almost all of the tests this year were pretty easy and very similar(besides wright states invitational test but that was a mess). I found this frustrating and like I wasn't being fully tested. At competitions I always lost to tie breakers or point differences and this was very frustrating. Even the nationals test this year seemed way to easy especially since for most stations you could just read the passage and find the answer without needing previous knowledge... This might be just me but I hope they make it harder next year.
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by fast__facts »

izzanom wrote:I competed in division B this year for microbe mission and I wanted to see if others shared my views. I found that almost all of the tests this year were pretty easy and very similar(besides wright states invitational test but that was a mess). I found this frustrating and like I wasn't being fully tested. At competitions I always lost to tie breakers or point differences and this was very frustrating. Even the nationals test this year seemed way to easy especially since for most stations you could just read the passage and find the answer without needing previous knowledge... This might be just me but I hope they make it harder next year.
If it was so easy, can I ask what you placed? If you are a truly good team, then you should be able to adapt to whatever is unexpected. These types of tests do not only test who knows the hardest and most content, but in addition who is the most meticulous. This learned skill is further applicable to the real world (far more than being able to complete difficult tasks), which is the ultimate goal of Science Olympiad cultivation.
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by nicholasmaurer »

fast__facts wrote:
izzanom wrote:I competed in division B this year for microbe mission and I wanted to see if others shared my views. I found that almost all of the tests this year were pretty easy and very similar(besides wright states invitational test but that was a mess). I found this frustrating and like I wasn't being fully tested. At competitions I always lost to tie breakers or point differences and this was very frustrating. Even the nationals test this year seemed way to easy especially since for most stations you could just read the passage and find the answer without needing previous knowledge... This might be just me but I hope they make it harder next year.
If it was so easy, can I ask what you placed? If you are a truly good team, then you should be able to adapt to whatever is unexpected. These types of tests do not only test who knows the hardest and most content, but in addition who is the most meticulous. This learned skill is further applicable to the real world (far more than being able to complete difficult tasks), which is the ultimate goal of Science Olympiad cultivation.
I'm not sure I agree with this assessment. Yes, being well prepared and meticulous can both assist you in doing well on easy/poorly written tests. However, if a test includes off-topic materials (such that everyone is guessing) or material that everyone knows (and therefore scores cluster together and rely on tie breakers) it becomes difficult to tell the difference between mediocre teams and good teams.
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by Ashernoel »

nicholasmaurer wrote:
fast__facts wrote:
izzanom wrote:I competed in division B this year for microbe mission and I wanted to see if others shared my views. I found that almost all of the tests this year were pretty easy and very similar(besides wright states invitational test but that was a mess). I found this frustrating and like I wasn't being fully tested. At competitions I always lost to tie breakers or point differences and this was very frustrating. Even the nationals test this year seemed way to easy especially since for most stations you could just read the passage and find the answer without needing previous knowledge... This might be just me but I hope they make it harder next year.
If it was so easy, can I ask what you placed? If you are a truly good team, then you should be able to adapt to whatever is unexpected. These types of tests do not only test who knows the hardest and most content, but in addition who is the most meticulous. This learned skill is further applicable to the real world (far more than being able to complete difficult tasks), which is the ultimate goal of Science Olympiad cultivation.
I'm not sure I agree with this assessment. Yes, being well prepared and meticulous can both assist you in doing well on easy/poorly written tests. However, if a test includes off-topic materials (such that everyone is guessing) or material that everyone knows (and therefore scores cluster together and rely on tie breakers) it becomes difficult to tell the difference between mediocre teams and good teams.
I agree with Nicholas, but I also think a really easy test can not tell the difference between good and mediocre team. Ex: state we got fifth in astro but i think we were good then, and the test was like 10 minutes long soooooooo. Maybe that is too extreme of an example but... still. Super easy does makes it hard to differentiate a top team from a mediocre team. (as nicholas said)
Last edited by Ashernoel on May 25th, 2017, 1:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by nicholasmaurer »

Ashernoel wrote:
I agree with Nicholas, but I also think a really easy test can not tell the difference between good and mediocre team. Ex: state we got fifth in astro but i think we were good then, and the test was like 10 minutes long soooooooo. Maybe that is too extreme of an example but... still. Super easy DOES makes it hard to differentiate a top team from a mediocre team.
You and I are in complete agreement. I specifically said that if the material is things everyone knows (meaning the test is too easy) then scores cluster together and you can't differentiate skill levels.
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

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nicholasmaurer wrote:
Ashernoel wrote:
I agree with Nicholas, but I also think a really easy test can not tell the difference between good and mediocre team. Ex: state we got fifth in astro but i think we were good then, and the test was like 10 minutes long soooooooo. Maybe that is too extreme of an example but... still. Super easy DOES makes it hard to differentiate a top team from a mediocre team.
You and I are in complete agreement. I specifically said that if the material is things everyone knows (meaning the test is too easy) then scores cluster together and you can't differentiate skill levels.
yuppp tests can be annoying :/
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by The48thYoshi »

Ashernoel wrote:
nicholasmaurer wrote:
Ashernoel wrote:
I agree with Nicholas, but I also think a really easy test can not tell the difference between good and mediocre team. Ex: state we got fifth in astro but i think we were good then, and the test was like 10 minutes long soooooooo. Maybe that is too extreme of an example but... still. Super easy DOES makes it hard to differentiate a top team from a mediocre team.
You and I are in complete agreement. I specifically said that if the material is things everyone knows (meaning the test is too easy) then scores cluster together and you can't differentiate skill levels.
yuppp tests can be annoying :/
Not only that but for Division B especially, there were no nationals topics on the test and the disease questions were all copy from cheat sheet symptoms matching questions. In emphasis, the ecology station was pretty much a copy off cheat sheet most popular nitrogen cycle image online.
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by Skink »

Not only are relatively easy tests bad at separating scores, but they're just not very interesting to take or do! I'm not saying that the utter devastation some teams feel after hard tests is better, per se, but people get tired of labeling microscopes, cells, cycles, and things. Having said that, being B division doesn't help the situation because there's a LOT of information that's not only excluded because C division exclusions (which they should do away with) but, also, prereq knowledge that you wouldn't have in middle school that would spice up the event. Anyway, not every Microbe test is easy. I prepared four of them this season, and they were all brutal. :D
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Re: Microbe Mission B/C

Post by The48thYoshi »

Skink wrote: Anyway, not every Microbe test is easy. I prepared four of them this season, and they were all brutal. :D

Really wanna take one in order for me to gain my respect back for this event :D
On a side note, I'm always looking for more tests :P
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