Hardest Science Olympiad Event, in your opinion?

[texas]

For me, there's a hardest event for individual topics
Bio:
Microbe Mission because it requires a blend of memorization, conceptual understanding, and good cheatsheet making
Earth/Space:
Reach for the Stars because of the sheer amount of information you need to learn within such a short amount of time
Physical Science/Chem:
Optics because its the hardest to pick up imo
Builds:
Mission because so much cab go wrong, everything has to be aligned precisely

Out of these, which does everyone think is the hardest?

I think Mission Possible is the hardest event I've ever done. I did it last year, and I spent at least 40% of my waking hours building it, and I still was trash at it. If you want it to be perfect, then you probably have to start building it in the summer.

[BuildingFriend]

I agree- mission possible is quite the nightmare... but Fermi is also quite an event

[ericlepanda]

Mission Possible takes a sheer amount of time to yield a good device, so I would say it is the hardest event (as a huge amount of time can be really hard to get). After mission, Ecology is the hardest event for me, as there are just a ton of terms, several equations, and many concepts that have to be memorized and understood.

[homesciencenerd]

Boomilever, and Materials are up there for sure.

[T-55M]

It might just be our state, but for me, Astronomy and Materials Science are my easiest events. Both are just physics events at their core, even if you count all the other math you have to do. As for the breadth of Astro, a computer really helps.

In my opinion, the hardest events are:
Robot Arm: expensive. Requires mechanical and electronic skills.
Elastic Launched Glider: no power to cover for mistakes in launching
(IIRC, until this year, our school has never placed in a flying event at States.)

The most inconsistent events are:
WIDI: if you and your partner aren't in sync, then you're gonna take an L
Optics: small errors in the mirror aiming = you miss

[LittyWap]

My team usually requires you to do 3-4+ events (and do well in them) in order to have a good chance of being accepted on the team. This year, the building portion of Hovercraft was such a disaster that I was basically excused from Ecology and Crime, in order to improve Hover. It took 150+ hours, my coach got 5 stitches on his right index finger tip from a fan-blade accident, I broke my nail-bed and suffered a subungual hematoma on my right index finger (my dominant hand, and most often used finger), but hey, I got 4th at Nats, so it worked out in the end.

[LittyWap]

I just accidentally quoted my previous post and posted it.... How do you delete a post? Could never figure that out.

[LittyWap]

Oh, and our vehicle sucked a lot of money out of our Science Olympiad fund. It was in the $500 range, having built 3 vehicles and spent numerous endless weekends on finding the best skirt.

[Raleway]

It might just be our state, but for me, Astronomy and Materials Science are my easiest events. Both are just physics events at their core, even if you count all the other math you have to do. As for the breadth of Astro, a computer really helps.

In my opinion, the hardest events are:
Robot Arm: expensive. Requires mechanical and electronic skills.
Elastic Launched Glider: no power to cover for mistakes in launching
(IIRC, until this year, our school has never placed in a flying event at States.)

The most inconsistent events are:
WIDI: if you and your partner aren't in sync, then you're gonna take an L
Optics: small errors in the mirror aiming = you miss

I gotta disagree from that...

Materials Science is terribly hard- reading three textbooks cover to cover and working through all of what could be tested is a nightmare. Especially when you compete with other USNCO people and national camp people... it's a living nightmare. And Materials Science IIRC is a Chemistry event at its core- at least what everyone around me and other teams feel (for sure it covers both though)

RA it depends on what you do and what not- our builder spent less than 200 on his and got 1st place at states and other invitationals, never below top 10 unless he dropped it (don't drop builds kids!)- at least I only heard him say that but I never did that event, but he spent hours upon hours into the nights calibrating and practicing so just lots of hard work and time

ELG: The purpose of the event is to learn flying as an introductory part to helicopters and wright stuff. I picked it up easily in my first year to get 2nd at states and provided a great springboard into my high school years doing heli and WS. And in my opinion, since everyone builds from the same kit, yes it's build quality and flying experience to beat the field, but experience comes with time and practicing launching thousands of times is what enables success

I mean, every event is difficult, especially at the highest levels of competition. Some events like matsci cover material outside HS and thus are harder to learn and prepare. What might truly be the hardest event (not from competitor's skills, preparation, or anything on their part), is Helicopters. The unavailability of good flying venues is KILLER. Again, KILLER. This year, with complaints at Yale, NJ, and probably MANY other places, finding a good flying venue that rewards builders spending hours on their craft and practicing rather than luckily not hitting an obstruction is paramount but very hard to do.

[SciolyMaster]

All the coaches on my team agree that the building events are the "hardest", but that's probably just because we usually don't do well in them. They do take more dedication and innovation to do well in compared to study events, so many students would rather do a ton of study events instead so they can get more medals... But in the end, all the events are equally hard because their difficulty is relative to how good the other teams are.