Releasing graded tests at Regionals and States

[Alex-RCHS]

Most invitationals with which I have experience will have all event supervisors ready at least a few weeks ahead of time, but regional and state tournaments are typically still filling spots the week of the tournament (at least, they are in Georgia). I know this from personal experience, having been picked up for Dynamic Planet at a Div B regional last year the Monday before the tournament, and likewise less than two weeks before the tournament for Solar System at Div B State this year. I don't know enough about the invitationals in your area to comment in detail, but I would agree that ESes at invitationals should be better than that.

In NC, event supervisors often supervised the same event last year, and even if not most of the events are filled over a month before states.

NC is on the ball. We met one of their teams at Cornell (very nice folks) and I was watching a couple of the review YouTube videos today from a NC teacher (Thermodynamics and Optics).

Ah, that must have been Piedmont. I consider them the Troy of NC. And yes those NC tutorials are great!

To avoid pulling this off topic, I can say that in NC for the past two years we’ve gotten regional and state raw scores back, but we can’t see other teams raw scores and we don’t get tests themselves back.

[windu34]

Unome, East, and Bernard all hit on the completely valid reasons why the vast majority of regionals and states do not release tests. That said, individual supervisors in events are never told not to release testing materials afterwards and if they felt so inclined, they could post test materials to the test exchange here (this never actually happens, but is certainly something that could happen if someone felt to inclined. I know I for one fully intend to release any tests I write for regionals/states to the test exchange for others to utilize

[maxxxxx]

Unome, East, and Bernard all hit on the completely valid reasons why the vast majority of regionals and states do not release tests. That said, individual supervisors in events are never told not to release testing materials afterwards and if they felt so inclined, they could post test materials to the test exchange here (this never actually happens, but is certainly something that could happen if someone felt to inclined. I know I for one fully intend to release any tests I write for regionals/states to the test exchange for others to utilize

Some states don't allow supervisors to share tests unfortunately. I don't know how widespread it is but I know Southern California prohibits it (my sister wrote a test a few years ago and couldn't share it with me), and I've heard New Jersey also has restrictions. I believe the reason for New Jersey is that the tests may need to be used in States or Regions that couldn't get test writers, and as bad as reusing tests is, I think I'd rather have an event reuse a test that we are 100% isn't public than to not run the event.

For States that are allowed to share tests like PA, I hope more people upload theirs especially as there is a big influx of alumni test writers this year.

[Unome]

Restarting this because of something new I saw,

At our state tournament, we received tests mailed back to us, presumably after the appeals window ended and scores were considered final. Thoughts?

[kate!]

Restarting this because of something new I saw,

At our state tournament, we received tests mailed back to us, presumably after the appeals window ended and scores were considered final. Thoughts?

That's interesting. Maybe your state has some policy not letting proctors reuse old tests? I guess it's different for every state, New York isn't allowed to give tests back nor scores. Have you ever seen a test or question reused?

[venules]

Restarting this because of something new I saw,

At our state tournament, we received tests mailed back to us, presumably after the appeals window ended and scores were considered final. Thoughts?

I understand some of the concerns with releasing tests from regional competitions (in fact, I've only received one answer key from regionals in my entire SO career, and I never got my own answers back), but if anything, I think releasing state tests before nationals or by the end of the season is probably more beneficial than harmful. Even if state tests are pulled from the Internet as some people have mentioned, they're *hopefully* less likely to be reused between seasons than regional exams are, and seeing answer keys/graded responses can help teams improve for Nats or the upcoming season.

[bearasauras]

Having been a competitor, I had been a proponent of releasing tests to students afterward since it allows students to figure out where they can learn more. That is, until this year's National when I saw the number of people trying to figure out who the Event Supervisors are so that they can study to the writing style of the test writers instead of the content. Releasing tests seems to give an unfair advantage to those who did better in the past, raising the entry barrier for Science Olympiad.

[knightmoves]

Restarting this because of something new I saw,

At our state tournament, we received tests mailed back to us, presumably after the appeals window ended and scores were considered final. Thoughts?

It's always nice to get your tests back, so you can see if you did as well as you think you did...

Although I can't help thinking that if you do get your test back after the appeals window ends, and you find grading issues, you'd be more upset than if you never knew. I think I'd rather just think that the other guy nailed the test than feel wronged by dubious grading.

[venules]

That is, until this year's National when I saw the number of people trying to figure out who the Event Supervisors are so that they can study to the writing style of the test writers instead of the content. Releasing tests seems to give an unfair advantage to those who did better in the past, raising the entry barrier for Science Olympiad.

I've never heard of people studying a supervisor's writing style before. How could that possibly help?

[pb5754]

That is, until this year's National when I saw the number of people trying to figure out who the Event Supervisors are so that they can study to the writing style of the test writers instead of the content. Releasing tests seems to give an unfair advantage to those who did better in the past, raising the entry barrier for Science Olympiad.

I've never heard of people studying a supervisor's writing style before. How could that possibly help?

Actually, I find it to be quite common, especially before Nats. Certain supervisors like to include specific questions about a topic, others like to reuse questions from previous years in their test (iirc Jon Aros does this with Chem Lab Nats tests? you can probably find more information about this on the Nats forums...). If you know the type of questions that may be asked, it can give you a huge advantage during the test.