Poorly Run Event Stories

[cemsc10]

In addition to my above Meteorology post, we had one fossils test that started ten minutes late. Also they gave us 1.5 min. per station, and test was done in 20 minutes. Some stations were ridiculous for such a small time limit...

[Eggo]

So at this invitational at Mesa Robles, I had to compete for Disease Detectives with this other person from my team. When we got there, we saw that the tests were basically 2 tests (one by SoNerd) from the Test Exchange section mashed together. Literally all the questions were the same and the answers were the same. And that's probably why we failed at that competition.

Event Supervisors need to stop creating DD tests by just combining tests from the text exchange. However, that test wasn't too hard and we got 1st.

[SOnerd]

So at this invitational at Mesa Robles, I had to compete for Disease Detectives with this other person from my team. When we got there, we saw that the tests were basically 2 tests (one by SoNerd) from the Test Exchange section mashed together[...]

Dang, that's pretty sweet. So was it basically the same test?

[watermydoing14]

This weekend at the Seattle Central Northwest Washington Regional, the Cell Biology test my partner and I took was in stations but it was never made clear how we were supposed to rotate... The proctor mentioned something about a "serpentine" rotation pattern and then halfway through, she told everyone to move to their right. We had just come from the right, so at that point we just went to whatever station we wanted to without paying attention to the proctor telling us to rotate since we were running out of time for the stations. I'm pretty sure I only heard her say to rotate about 5 times but there were many more stations (about 14) so I don't know how we were supposed to do that test. Last year, when our test was in stations, there were only a few stations and the majority of the test was just a written test, and everyone was free to go to each station at their own pace, and I think that works a lot better for an event like Cell Bio

[[NerdyTotoro]]

I'm sorry if I responded to your comment SOnerd the wrong way (I'm new to this website).
Yeah, the test was basically yours and a another person called Navigator's test. In the middle of the test, my partner turned to me and was like wait, we practiced these tests a lot before. And they even used your extra credit section on the test @SOnerd!

[John Richardsim]

From what I heard from kids on my middle school's team, today at regionals the Division B Invasive Species proctor apparently allowed a group of 3 people to compete, and there were also teams with 2 binders...

[bernard]

This weekend at the Seattle Central Northwest Washington Regional, the Cell Biology test my partner and I took was in stations but it was never made clear how we were supposed to rotate... The proctor mentioned something about a "serpentine" rotation pattern and then halfway through, she told everyone to move to their right. We had just come from the right, so at that point we just went to whatever station we wanted to without paying attention to the proctor telling us to rotate since we were running out of time for the stations. I'm pretty sure I only heard her say to rotate about 5 times but there were many more stations (about 14) so I don't know how we were supposed to do that test. Last year, when our test was in stations, there were only a few stations and the majority of the test was just a written test, and everyone was free to go to each station at their own pace, and I think that works a lot better for an event like Cell Bio

Cell Biology was one of several events the site had difficulty finding a supervisor for, so a member of the Science and Math department at the college ran it. I was asked to write a test for it, but I was already investing too much time into overdoing a Bio-Process Lab test.

[LIPX3]

For Bio-Process Lab at Wisconsin State last year, the ES used a test I had taken in science class in 6th grade. Everyone above 15th place was separated by bonus questions.

At Regionals, the Wind Power ES had the wrong measurements for impound. He said the diameter of the turbine had to be less than 28 cm in Division B, when it is 40 cm. He said nothing was allowed behind the CD, and no more than 2 cm in the front, when it should be 3 cm and 2 cm. He also made us put the tester 20 cm away from the fan, when it should be 5 cm. We were lucky because we have three blades, and one of them was small enough to impound. Somehow we won.

Disease Detectives at Regionals was really bad. We got points knocked off for incorrect formulas for attack rate and odds ratio, even though we were right (Our coach checked it and told us we were.) We got 65%, but we actually got 85%. It was bad. At least we won.

[0ddrenaline]

For Bio-Process Lab at Wisconsin State last year, the ES used a test I had taken in science class in 6th grade. Everyone above 15th place was separated by bonus questions.

At Regionals, the Wind Power ES had the wrong measurements for impound. He said the diameter of the turbine had to be less than 28 cm in Division B, when it is 40 cm. He said nothing was allowed behind the CD, and no more than 2 cm in the front, when it should be 3 cm and 2 cm. He also made us put the tester 20 cm away from the fan, when it should be 5 cm. We were lucky because we have three blades, and one of them was small enough to impound. Somehow we won.

Disease Detectives at Regionals was really bad. We got points knocked off for incorrect formulas for attack rate and odds ratio, even though we were right (Our coach checked it and told us we were.) We got 65%, but we actually got 85%. It was bad. At least we won.

I would recommend to everyone that you should bring a copy of the rules to building events, events that allow binders, and impounds. Know the rules by heart. If you absolutely know that the ES is wrong, then bring out the rules and show them. Maybe then you'll get lucky, but possibly not because they "already used this rule for the previous teams, so it would be unfair."

[LIPX3]

For Bio-Process Lab at Wisconsin State last year, the ES used a test I had taken in science class in 6th grade. Everyone above 15th place was separated by bonus questions.

At Regionals, the Wind Power ES had the wrong measurements for impound. He said the diameter of the turbine had to be less than 28 cm in Division B, when it is 40 cm. He said nothing was allowed behind the CD, and no more than 2 cm in the front, when it should be 3 cm and 2 cm. He also made us put the tester 20 cm away from the fan, when it should be 5 cm. We were lucky because we have three blades, and one of them was small enough to impound. Somehow we won.

Disease Detectives at Regionals was really bad. We got points knocked off for incorrect formulas for attack rate and odds ratio, even though we were right (Our coach checked it and told us we were.) We got 65%, but we actually got 85%. It was bad. At least we won.

I would recommend to everyone that you should bring a copy of the rules to building events, events that allow binders, and impounds. Know the rules by heart. If you absolutely know that the ES is wrong, then bring out the rules and show them. Maybe then you'll get lucky, but possibly not because they "already used this rule for the previous teams, so it would be unfair."

We did, and he threatened to DQ us.