Hardest Science Olympiad Event, in your opinion?

[mattclaridge]

Yea, I'd have to say Astronomy and Material Science. Theres just SO MUCH in Astro. And Material Science is new, and such a broad category

[gneissisnice]

Hardest Event: Sound of Music. There's just an insane amount of stuff you need to do for the event. It's part building event, so you have to be able to construct two instruments that meet as many requirements as possible (for max points, you need two totally different instruments, a 2.5 octave range, etc.). Then you have to write an arrangement for two songs that will show off the instruments and sound good, and play the songs well, as well as scales and notes that will be checked with a tuner. And then there's a physics test. It's a very in-depth event that's part tech event and part study event, and also includes musical ability.

Also, special mention goes to Geologic Mapping, the NY trial event (in my experience, NY trial events almost always become real events). Most of the event is college level geology; I didn't cover stereonets or tectonic diagrams until my 400 level Structural Geology class in college, and even I don't know some of the topics that are covered on the event even though I'm an Earth Science major with a focus in Geology. While I love that there's a geology event that's not an ID event, it's definitely a very tough one from what I've seen.

Easiest Event: Rocks and Minerals/Fossils. I know that most people don't feel that way, but in my personal opinion, these events are pretty easy by design. The key is identification. Every specimen has some sort of feature that makes it easy to narrow down, and you should be able to identify them by sight. It's very possible to identify most specimen in under 10 seconds, and then you can answer station questions by flipping to your binder, which should have all of the information you would need. Because there aren't really too many samples that you could easily mix up (the only samples that are very difficult to tell apart are bornite/chalcopyrite and olivine/epidote for Rocks and Minerals and possibly certain brachiopods in Fossils), it's pretty straightforward to just ID the sample and get the answers. I'd say that the bio ID events are harder because you don't get a homemade binder, just a field guide, and I feel like the specimens tend to be more difficult to tell apart. Then again, I'm also an Earth Science major now, so clearly I have a special affinity for the earth science identification events.

I also found Ecology to be very easy. Most ecological principles are pretty simple, so the only difficult part is memorizing as much stuff as you can about the assigned biomes, which is just a matter of studying the right stuff. Water Quality is similar too.

[silverheart7]

Hardest Event: Sound of Music. There's just an insane amount of stuff you need to do for the event. It's part building event, so you have to be able to construct two instruments that meet as many requirements as possible (for max points, you need two totally different instruments, a 2.5 octave range, etc.). Then you have to write an arrangement for two songs that will show off the instruments and sound good, and play the songs well, as well as scales and notes that will be checked with a tuner. And then there's a physics test. It's a very in-depth event that's part tech event and part study event, and also includes musical ability.

I feel like I have to thank gneissisnice for the fact that on Thursday, it only took us 45 minutes to arrange a last minute chosen piece! He's really kind and helpful so it's really awesome that we get to have him around. Also, please note that he is extremely intelligent.

[gneissisnice]

Hardest Event: Sound of Music. There's just an insane amount of stuff you need to do for the event. It's part building event, so you have to be able to construct two instruments that meet as many requirements as possible (for max points, you need two totally different instruments, a 2.5 octave range, etc.). Then you have to write an arrangement for two songs that will show off the instruments and sound good, and play the songs well, as well as scales and notes that will be checked with a tuner. And then there's a physics test. It's a very in-depth event that's part tech event and part study event, and also includes musical ability.

I feel like I have to thank gneissisnice for the fact that on Thursday, it only took us 45 minutes to arrange a last minute chosen piece! He's really kind and helpful so it's really awesome that we get to have him around. Also, please note that he is extremely intelligent.

Haha, all I did was offer some advice about the bass line, you did most of the work. But thanks for the compliment

[Kristina]

Rocks and minerals. My partner and I had 105 pages of notes and we got 17th out of 21 time goes by too quickly in that room...

[Piggy]

For Division C, Astronomy & Robot Arm

[ashmmohan]

Astronomy in my opinion...maybe anatomy

[CVMSAvalacheStudent]

Optics, unless you are good with Crave the Wave.

[jakool6]

Why didn't the OP make this a poll?

[cookie75]

Why didn't the OP make this a poll?

Because people put reasoning behind their answers that they give. Besides, it would be a very big poll.