Advice For New People in Div C

For anything Science Olympiad-related that might not fall under a specific event or competition.
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MorningCoffee
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Advice For New People in Div C

Post by MorningCoffee »

Now that the season has basically come to end, I and many others are going into Division C for the first time. I thought it would be beneficial for those who have already participated in Div C to give advice to those newcomers. So, what do you think would be beneficial to know, going into a new level of SO?
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Re: Advice For New People in Div C

Post by CookiePie1 »

While this certainly doesn't apply for everyone, I know that the transition from B to C was a pretty big jump in terms of the competitiveness and time spent studying/preparing for competitions. In our school, we only went to regionals and states in division B, so there were no invitationals, and the placings were fairly high. However, it was a bit of a shock when some middle schoolers came to the high school and saw that there were a lot more teams and high placings didn't come as naturally. If I could give any advice to y'all, I would just say that you should definitely put as much effort into scioly as you can. If you don't do as well initially, don't get discouraged - instead, double down and hopefully you'll do better the next time around.
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Re: Advice For New People in Div C

Post by donjuanpond »

So I'm in Div B (going to C) and I have some questions. I am not entirely sure about the purpose of this forum (can I ask questions here or is it just for advice giving?), but I have a question about team forming. Me and my team have been together for a couple years but are now being divided because some of us got into choice schools and some of us didn't. What should we do? Should those of us going to School A (the majority) create an entirely new team, or should we try and assimilate into preexisting teams? If we are forming a team, should we create a team fully with 9th grade noobs like us so that we can be together for the whole 4 years, or should we try and get veterans who might be older so that we might be able to glean some knowledge off them (and do better ofc)? Also, is it worth it to stick with events you are good at even if you don't ever think you will need or use in your career, and if not, is it worth doing SO just for trial events that you might be passionate about? If we do change events from one that we are good at to one we care about, should we give the notes / resources that we have accumulated to whoever is doing that event in the team??


Side question that isn't really about going to Div C but I'm putting it here anyways: we are having an internal disagreement in our team whether or not we should give our notes / builds to other teams in our school so that they may do better. Me and some others think that it is cheap and unfair because it allows for those teams we helped to do better without necessarily putting in effort proportionally, also because they don't learn anything by us just handing notes. Some others think that we should give the notes because that's kind and because they would go to waste otherwise (like if the event they are for is Div B only), and there is a third party who says that we shouldn't give notes but should give resources so that they don't have to look for those sources themselves. I'm posting this here for external opinions so that we can finally settle this disagreement.
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Re: Advice For New People in Div C

Post by shadow19 »

hi! in regards to team forming, first check if there's a preexisting team/club LOL. If there is, I'm not sure if you're allowed to create your own separate team, so be sure to inquire with the science teachers there. I think that science olympiad should be quite inclusive, and definitely not restricted to your own grade, and thus I wouldn't recommend creating your own, 9th grade exclusive, team.

You should definitely do events that you enjoy and are passionate about! Especially since yall are still quite young, who knows what career you would like to do in the future!

I'm personally ok with sharing notes within the team but know many who aren't. The main conflict is that you're essentially giving hours' worth of work for free, providing a crutch to the recipient. I think that while the notes provide a good base to work off of, there's no way you'll get competitive off of the notes alone, meaning that they'll still need to put in a lot of effort. Especially with the binder events, I felt that sharing the binder reduces the burden on each member, and gives more time to actually learn the event instead of just copying notes down.
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donjuanpond (May 31st, 2021, 1:32 pm)
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Re: Advice For New People in Div C

Post by knightmoves »

donjuanpond wrote: May 30th, 2021, 12:31 pm Should those of us going to School A (the majority) create an entirely new team, or should we try and assimilate into preexisting teams? If we are forming a team, should we create a team fully with 9th grade noobs like us so that we can be together for the whole 4 years, or should we try and get veterans who might be older so that we might be able to glean some knowledge off them (and do better ofc)?
OK.

Science Olympiad is a school competition. The only entity that can enter teams into competitions is your school. So you can't set up donjuanpond's private SO team.

Your first question is "does school A currently have SO teams", and your post suggests that they do. Find out the name of the teacher(s) in charge of science olympiad at school A, and send them an email introducing yourselves: "Hi, I'm Don Juan Pond, I'm an incoming Freshman, I was on the X middle school SO team, and am looking forward to taking part in SO at A High School. When do you get started for the new season?" or something.
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