User:Gz839918
Hi!! I'm a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I enjoy physics and biology, but I unusually have background in the various social sciences. My research interests include psychology and linguistics, but also acoustics. Despite my experience with physics events, I am still incredibly terrible at classical mechanics.
Science Olympiad is about people, not about winning! Indeed, science is about people, not winning, because science is the scaffolding of humanity—a skyscraper in ceaseless upward construction built to carry the common good of people. If you like helping people, so do I! So, if you'd like to talk about science or people or both, please don't hesitate to message me. (If you hesitate, you can still contact me anyways!)
Oh, and for those reading this for my credentials—I made it to states exactly once; I've been to nationals exactly once; I was the only senior member in my year to medal in nothing at nationals; and I've only competed for two years. You know—the usual thoroughfare.
Division D
| Season | Purpose | Location | Date | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | Carmel High School tryouts | Carmel, IN | October 1-5, 2019 | Sounds of music C writer |
| North Carolina coaches’ clinic | Raleigh, NC | October 6, 2019 | Sounds of music C volunteer | |
| Orlando Science Schools Invitational C | Orlando, FL | November 23, 2019 | Sounds of music C writer | |
| Duke Invitational | Durham, NC | January 18, 2020 | Sounds of music C supervisor | |
| Southern California Regional | CA (South) | It's a secret ;) | Water quality B/C writer | |
| Raleigh Regional | Raleigh, NC | February 1, 2020 | Sounds of music C co-supervisor | |
| Other NC Regionals | Various | Various | Sounds of music C co-supervisor | |
| North Carolina State Tournament | Raleigh, NC | April 25, 2020 | Sounds of music C co-supervisor | |
| National Tournament at NC State University | Raleigh, NC | May 16, 2020 | TBD |
- Writer means I only wrote the test, but could not proctor it.
Most of the images and graphics I use in test questions are my own. You may consider any content I made in a test to be public domain. Most images that I use in tests but aren't my own are already in the public domain anyways. If copyrighted, those I attribute. If you don't know the copyright status of work used in my tests, ask me.
Statistical information
In 2019, the average Div. C FPOW had a placement of 21.737 (= 1239 / 57)
Interestingly, this means that FPOWs on average perform better than the average state-qualifying team in North Carolina (= 25.5). I assume no-shows for teams will be ranked below last place down to 50th when calculating my average for state-qualifying teams. This is to simplify calculation, but it is not unreasonable to believe that teams unable to participate in an event due to lack of interest or membership would probably worse in that particular event than teams who did participate. "Unreasonable," though, doesn't mean correct.
Circuit lab tests
What is typically tested on a good circuit lab test? Not everybody agrees on what makes a test high quality, nor do I believe all the tests listed below are high quality. It turns out that tests from well-regarded tournaments may differ notably. (Did you notice that one-fourth of points for the Princeton circuit lab test comes from recall questions?)
I struggled with op amps as a competitor, and after hearing from other students, it seems like two major stumbling points are op amps in addition to PN-junctions. If you want to practice these topics, the table can point you towards some tests that address these topics in particular.
| Test | Points for MC/word bank/matching | Recall (short ans.) | Understanding (FRQ)1 | Lab | Points for op amps2 | Points for PN-junctions2 | Total points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Troy Invitational | 8 | 3 | 89 | 82? (unclear) | 3 | 85 | 182 |
| Solon HS tryouts | 0 | 16 | 84 | N/A | 4 | 8 | 100 |
| Princeton | 25 | 34 | 69 | ? | 10 | 20 | 128 |
| Battle at Valley Forge | 4 | 4 | 12 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 33 |
| Rice | 11 | 0 | 45 | 20 | 12 | 7 | 76 |
| Mira Loma Invitational | 11 | 2 | 27 | 10 | 2 | 18 | 50 |
| Cerritos Invitational | 10 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 31 |
| Sylvania Northview Invitational | 44 | 0 | 23 | 25 | 1 | 1 | 92 |
- 1. Math, explanations, descriptions, comparison, concepts. If a question could be answered from recall but probably wasn't supposed to be (for example, unlikely to be memorized), then I categorized it as an FRQ.
- 2. Including laboratory section
Do larger universities hold more teams per tournament?
No
Lounges, dining halls, non-lecture performance halls have been excluded if possible. Special department-only classrooms are included. |
