2019 Princeton University Invitational

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Re: 2019 Princeton University Invitational

Post by kate! »

sourpatchkids wrote:Congrats to all! Anyone know what happened with FM? I know they were ranked very high coming into this, but they ended up getting 14th.
Usually they do better at states and worse earlier in the season, so they'll probably improve later.
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Re: 2019 Princeton University Invitational

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kate! wrote:
sourpatchkids wrote:Congrats to all! Anyone know what happened with FM? I know they were ranked very high coming into this, but they ended up getting 14th.
Usually they do better at states and worse earlier in the season, so they'll probably improve later.
FM usually looks weaker at invites then they actually are, but this time they look unusually weak. We'll get a better look next week at cornell.
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Re: 2019 Princeton University Invitational

Post by whythescratchyface »

really loved how this invy was run - everything was done pretty smoothly and even the paper the tests were printed on seemed high-quality lol

it was nice meeting Unome at geomapping. he writes really difficult but rewarding tests. just wish i was better at structural geology
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Re: 2019 Princeton University Invitational

Post by Flyingfish »

Is anyone stacking scores? Interested to see how that plays out.
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Re: 2019 Princeton University Invitational

Post by Raleway »

Flyingfish wrote:Is anyone stacking scores? Interested to see how that plays out.
Personally stacked the notable teams and it turns out the order is WWPS, WWPN, LM, Montgomery, and then Rustin. The scores in the respective order would be: 102, 126, 165, 206, and 268.
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Re: 2019 Princeton University Invitational

Post by windu34 »

Post-Comp Discussion (Herpetology)
Once again, the Princeton SO team did a marvelous job running their tournament.
From a supervisor's prospective, they did a great job providing materials and rooms and communication was very good. From what I have heard, events were run very well and the other supervisors that were flown in all had a great time.
I plan to post a more extensive review of my Herpetology exam in that event forum, but here are a few interesting tidbits.
High score: 200/398: Although I usually aim for a 60% high on my exams, I was pretty satisfied to see one team get almost exactly a 50% (test was supposed to be out of 400, but I messed up). The distribution was pretty much exactly what I aim for - large point differences among the top 6 that are clearly distinguished and then a nice, continuous downwards slope among the rest. ~60 points separated 1st and 6th place, which as very nice to see. There are always grading errors that I estimate to mess up scores within +/- 5 points due to inconsistencies, and having large differences among the top 6 ensure the right teams are getting medals regardless of grading errors.
Difficulty: During the competition, it was clear to me that the test was too hard. There were numerous questions that no teams attempted and many stations that I expected a decent number of teams to finish had questions left blank. That said, the test did produce a good distribution and so I consider it a success.
Observations: Based on what I observed, it seems that the bast majority of teams are not used to taking fast-paced ID exams - Im not sure if that has become uncommon everywhere (except MIT) or perhaps in the area, but even the best teams didn't ave great test-taking strategies for this event. I think alot of people could have done better if they had practiced testing under such harsh time crunches.

All in all, I hope that competitors will enjoy reading through the answer key when it gets sent out in the next few days and learn some new things from the exam. If you have any questions, feel free to email me!
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Re: 2019 Princeton University Invitational

Post by terence.tan »

does anyone know if they will be releasing their test like last year?
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Re: 2019 Princeton University Invitational

Post by windu34 »

terence.tan wrote:does anyone know if they will be releasing their test like last year?
They will be
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Re: 2019 Princeton University Invitational

Post by AWildMudkip »

Hi friends!

I was the Fossils event supervisor and the Earth Science Director for the tournament. Hope all of you had a good time! Here's a breakdown for Fossils:

Scores: The top score was an 88/301 (though I messed up a question so max score is a bit lower, forgot the exact value). First and sixth had a 28 pt gap, and the average score was around a 12%.
Difficulty: I heard many competitors cry murder (jk). The test was definitely exceedingly difficult. The major conceptual questions had almost no teams attempt them (and some had none). I wrote it in the perspective of paleontology as a field instead of paleontology as a science olympiad event, which definitely got the teams there (I still adhered to the Nationals Rules).
Observations: The teams that did comparatively well (kind of) knew how to ID. Like windu said, even the best teams didn't have the best strats. For example, a binder will not save you no matter how much you flip through several hundred pages of notes. Proctoring MIT with Varun and running Fossils here made it seem like teams are just memorizing how to ID and then binder flipping for everything else. At both comps, the best teams could ID, but were generally lacking beyond ID. I think teams can improve by learning core paleontology concepts and relying less on the binder.

I hope you guys enjoyed the specimens, and big shoutout to the teams since none of them were damaged! I'll be releasing photos along with the exams soon™. Feel free to email or message me on FB if you have any questions about the test or Earth Science in general!
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Re: 2019 Princeton University Invitational

Post by RRapples »

windu34 wrote:Post-Comp Discussion (Herpetology)
Once again, the Princeton SO team did a marvelous job running their tournament.
From a supervisor's prospective, they did a great job providing materials and rooms and communication was very good. From what I have heard, events were run very well and the other supervisors that were flown in all had a great time.
I plan to post a more extensive review of my Herpetology exam in that event forum, but here are a few interesting tidbits.
High score: 200/398: Although I usually aim for a 60% high on my exams, I was pretty satisfied to see one team get almost exactly a 50% (test was supposed to be out of 400, but I messed up). The distribution was pretty much exactly what I aim for - large point differences among the top 6 that are clearly distinguished and then a nice, continuous downwards slope among the rest. ~60 points separated 1st and 6th place, which as very nice to see. There are always grading errors that I estimate to mess up scores within +/- 5 points due to inconsistencies, and having large differences among the top 6 ensure the right teams are getting medals regardless of grading errors.
Difficulty: During the competition, it was clear to me that the test was too hard. There were numerous questions that no teams attempted and many stations that I expected a decent number of teams to finish had questions left blank. That said, the test did produce a good distribution and so I consider it a success.
Observations: Based on what I observed, it seems that the bast majority of teams are not used to taking fast-paced ID exams - Im not sure if that has become uncommon everywhere (except MIT) or perhaps in the area, but even the best teams didn't ave great test-taking strategies for this event. I think alot of people could have done better if they had practiced testing under such harsh time crunches.

All in all, I hope that competitors will enjoy reading through the answer key when it gets sent out in the next few days and learn some new things from the exam. If you have any questions, feel free to email me!

I found the Herpetology exam to be one of the best that I have ever taken. It was challenging, yet not impossible or discouraging in any way.
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