National Test Discussion

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Jaol
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National Test Discussion

Post by Jaol »

Ayyy let's goooooo. Since the tourney is done, let's start this thread back up again. Always a useful thread I think.

1. State your event, provide commentary negative and positive. Grade it on a scale that you wish. I believe that this is a useful thread for the test writers and a useful platform to call out or praise writers or proctors.

WIDI C: I'm the doer, so based on what I did and what my partner said afterwards, it was a fairly simple widi, but with a couple of interesting twists. 6/10. (Does anyone know what the metal piece on the left side was? The one with the straw and the nut?)

Invasive Species C: Overdone on ID I think. Fairly straightforward test however, with no suuuper confusing questions. I believe it was based heavily on last year's test. 5/10
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Re: National Test Discussion

Post by Trohans »

Bottle Rocket B- They were expecting bad weather so everyone had to go before 10:00. We got there at 5:45 and didn't launch until 7 because people claimed they had 7 o'clock events and had to go first. It turns out at 2:15, our designated launch time, it was sunny and warm with no wind . The 10 minute rule wasn't applied and the inspection was quick and not thorough. This might have been fine for an invitational but definitely not Nationals 3/10

Road Scholar B- This test was amazing. By far the best Road test I have ever taken. It was funny and creative and really tested your knowledge, separating the good teams from the rest of the competition. The only negative thing I have to say is that it was a long test (which can be good) but most teams still had a few questions left when time ran out. The Event Supervisors obviously knew what they were doing and were very helpful 9/10

WIDI B- The test was very nicely run and the ES's were very helpful. They made sure everyone had the same pieces and they screened off all the windows into the rooms. They taped off the area to avoid people from coming and eavesdropping. The model didn't have many parts but each piece was worth many points and they were mostly intricately placed. There were three rooms which they rotated through each block so that the model wouldn't have to be moved to be scored. Even if the model wasn't extremely difficult, the test was very well organized and executed and the rules were followed well, which is rare in WIDI 7/10
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Re: National Test Discussion

Post by sciolyFTW_aku »

Hi,

A+P (6): Nice and legitimate except for the BAC part, which was more like a health final than part of an anatomy test. 8/10

MM (30): Good, hard test but no industrial processes; I didn't really study/work/try so bad. 8/10

HV (6): Test had good questions and was varied. My partner did poorly on the test, but I did pretty well on the build (1988g, 19.67s) so yay. 9/10

Thanks,
sciolyFTW_aku
B-)
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Zioly
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Re: National Test Discussion

Post by Zioly »

Bottle rockets (5) C. Poorly run. Supervisors were unclear in what defined the cracking of an egg. Their reasoning caused me (and others) to be tiered. Thankfully, I appealed and i got a medal! Agreed with Trohans.

Hovercraft (14) B. Test was excellent with a good mix of easy and difficult problems, despite lacking in variety. I made this comment to the supervisors: don't ever let build trials be done in the test room. It's very distracting. I'm a little disappointed our craft hit 13 instead of the target 21, which it could have. 14th is still good though.

Ecology (9) A. A brilliant test, reminiscent of last years gg test, as I believe the tests were written by the same person.

Scrambler (20-something) A-. Nice judges and well run despite a slight hiccup at the start.

I'm a little disappointed I didn't medal twice, particularly in hovercraft, but I won my schools first national medal and in my favorite event after a nerve wracking appeal. I'm happy. Great tournament this year. Looking forward to next year!
Bottle Rockets: 5th
Ecology: 9th
Hovercraft: 14th
Scrambler: 29th (with a failed run too  ;))
Mousetrap Vehicle
Hovercraft
Ecology
Experimental Design (or other inquiry :P)

...Yes, my profile picture is G2 apEX at the PGL Major Qual.  :lol:
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John Richardsim
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Re: National Test Discussion

Post by John Richardsim »

When do we start asking chalker for scores?
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Re: National Test Discussion

Post by ptabraham_nerd01 »

Anatomy (27): 7/10 Yeah, forgot a calculator... I didn't like the BAC questions. Most of the multiple choice were good except the questions that ask for the number of cells. I was pretty disappointed overall at my performance, but the test itself was pretty good.

Disease Detectives (15): 9/10 It was a little easier than normal, but I think I made some simple mistakes that probably bumped us back.

Remote Sensing (22): 10/10 Uhhhh... It was a really good test!!! Really happy with my placement considering I didn't focus on this event (left half the test blank)
2019 Interests: Anatomy, Disease Detectives, Fossils, Experimental Design, Geologic Mapping, Designer Genes
Anatomy/Disease/Experimental/Fossils/Circuit Lab:
MIT: 12/25/13/22
Regionals: 1/1/x/x/1
State: 1/1/2/1/x
Nationals:
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Re: National Test Discussion

Post by sciolyFTW_aku »

Sorry but I feel like my previous post's discussion about A+P wasn't through enough, so here we go:

Anatomy and Physiology (6th): Overall the one of the best tests I have taken this year. It was a mixture of easy and hard questions, and the first 95 questions were very much doable for a person like me who has read through multiple textbooks. However, it did focus heavily on the nervous system, with little about sense organs and the endocrine system. I feel like because the event is sponsored by the SfN, Brain Facts material was prevalent throughout the test (i.e the neurotoxin MPTP causes synthetically-induced Parkinson's). Needless to say, the next part was rather erratic. The treatments section may have been part of the rules, but some of the medications were too specific and most likely kept on the reference sheet rather than learned about. In addition to this, the BAC part of the test was bad. First of all, I am a rising junior but still haven't taken my permit test. So, it might be common knowledge to know the legal limit for alcoholic blood concentration? (oops I gave this section to my partner because it was trivial math) but IMO it conferred an advantage to the upperclassmen. There is no need to know this, as we are asked to study about the effects of alcohol on predominantly the CNS. Also, I should not have to learn this through a health class or something similar. Furthermore, may of the questions following this depended on this limit, and as my partner and I both did not know it we got the rest wrong, which may have cost us a higher placement. In addition, I felt they should have not given us the Nernst equation as it would have been known by someone who bothered to study about neuronal electrophysiology in detail (i.e Vander's), and made the section just trivial math as well. One more thing- the college deaths due to alcohol question was not even a good question. It had nothing to do with the event, and I don't know why you would have to know it. Some might argue that you have to know stuff outside of the rules (which I totally agree on) but this is just plain obscure and nonessential. However, the hypothyroidism case study was nice, and the tiebreaker questions were hard as well. Finally, the test might have seen long but really wasn't. I predominantly took the test, leaving my partner to only do the BAC part and some of the sparse and easy sense organ questions, and we were able to finish with a little bit of time to check our answers before time ran out. All in all, it was a very good test but slightly "jank" in a few places. 8/10
B-)
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Re: National Test Discussion

Post by efeng »

Disease Detectives B (1st place): Even though I was not at the national tournament last year, I took the test. I think that the test this year was easier, but only by a little bit. I was also somewhat surprised that the first section was not a foodborne illness, but instead a respiratory illness. However, I don't think this is a big deal, because nationals disease tests are all about the applications and the process of the investigation. Also, the second section had no math whatsoever. Other than that, it was good. Another thing that I heard from our Division C Team (Mounds View High School) said that the event proctor was giving out the formula for odds ratio and relative risk. Side note: the Division B room was REALLY nice. Extra points! 8/10

Mission Possible B (25th place): Our test run got perfect score, and by the time we set up, we had 2 seconds left until the 30 minutes to set up was over. However, we didn't have time to go over our checklist, and ended up getting 500 points off (don't question it). RIP. The event supervisors and timers were pretty good, and the venue was pretty nice. 7/10
Mounds View HS, Minnesota

2017 Nationals Disease Detectives 1st (Div B)
2018 Nationals WiFi Lab 3rd (Div C)
2019 Nationals :(

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allopathie
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Re: National Test Discussion

Post by allopathie »

Ecology (7): 3/10, bad test overall. Most of the questions were too easy and could have been done by someone who picked up the event in the past week, and too much material from Green Gen. 5 or 6 of the questions tested miscellaneous or unlikely to be known knowledge, but likely were the determinant as to who placed top 10. Case in point: LASA, who placed 1st at MIT, got 41st in the event.
Harriton '18, Penn '22.
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Re: National Test Discussion

Post by Adi1008 »

allopathie wrote:Case in point: LASA, who placed 1st at MIT, got 41st in the event.
Just to add on: not just 1st at MIT, but also 1st at Golden Gate (with competition like Troy and Mira Loma), 1st at UT Regionals, and 2nd at State
Stanford University
University of Texas at Austin '22
Seven Lakes High School '18
Beckendorff Junior High '14
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