Hardest Science Olympiad Event, in your opinion?

[Unome]

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.

Also, polls are usually limited to 10 options.

[jakool6]

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.

Also, polls are usually limited to 10 options.

Thanks for shedding light, makes sense now.

[jakool6]

Astronomy and Remote Sensing were my favorite two events, and of the two I'd say Astro was harder. There was just so much more you had to know and research and everything that it took the majority of my time. Remote took more general knowledge, so you needed a much wider base of knowledge, the knowledge itself wasn't as in-depth, so with practice you could get the hang of it. Also, you could frame your short answers in a way that got you partial credit a lot of times, while that is less common in Astro.

After looking at the rules, Materials Science looked pretty difficult since there's nothing like it in high school. Also, it's hard to study for the lab because it can be tough setting up the lab if you haven't done it before. Mission Possible is definitely difficult because it takes so much time to do. And I've heard lovely things about Geologic Mapping from our NY friends.

Well, I heard that Astro and RS overlap a lot, so that may help in one's studies.

[windu34]

Best part about remote is the learning curve: its steep, but once you're past it, the event is a breeze. The case studies all merge and become very similar and there are really only a few general types and are easy to answer once you understand that. The math is very simple and global energy balance is quite straightforward. It's an easy event to do well in if you know what you're doing, but if you're still stumbling around, it seems difficult. Very similar to geomapping in that aspect, but much easier than geomapping to master in my opinion.

[kenniky]

Is GeoMap actually considered that hard? Granted, I came into the event inheriting our school's 200-page binder, but I always found it to be relatively straightforward. Once you figured out how to do stuff like stereonets and three-point problems (all of which were pretty simple if you looked at a couple videos) GeoMap was pretty fun imo

Of course there were those geologic maps that were impossible to actually find anything on, but I figured that no one else knew how to do those either, and only MIT and Nationals ran those.

[Avogadro]

I might be a bit biased in this (or, ah, a LOT biased) but for me it's either Astronomy or maybe Robot Arm. MatSci has also been fairly challenging this year, but that might just be because it's new/because of people's interesting interpretations of what should and shouldn't be in the event at various invitationals.

[Skink]

Is GeoMap actually considered that hard? Granted, I came into the event inheriting our school's 200-page binder, but I always found it to be relatively straightforward. Once you figured out how to do stuff like stereonets and three-point problems (all of which were pretty simple if you looked at a couple videos) GeoMap was pretty fun imo

Of course there were those geologic maps that were impossible to actually find anything on, but I figured that no one else knew how to do those either, and only MIT and Nationals ran those.

GeoMaps is hard because it's one of those more esoteric subjects that most participants (and coaches) have no background in, not necessarily because of the conceptual or mathematical rigor (or sheer volume of work in the case of something like Invasive). I noticed that it's a standard class for earth science peeps in college (Structural Geology?); for the rest of us, it's one of those weird events that fits right in with Proteins, Remote, Astro, Mat Sci, etc (maybe WQ to a lesser extent). They're all accessible with the right mindset and resources but daunting at first glance.

[Unome]

Is GeoMap actually considered that hard? Granted, I came into the event inheriting our school's 200-page binder, but I always found it to be relatively straightforward. Once you figured out how to do stuff like stereonets and three-point problems (all of which were pretty simple if you looked at a couple videos) GeoMap was pretty fun imo

Of course there were those geologic maps that were impossible to actually find anything on, but I figured that no one else knew how to do those either, and only MIT and Nationals ran those.

GeoMaps is hard because it's one of those more esoteric subjects that most participants (and coaches) have no background in, not necessarily because of the conceptual or mathematical rigor (or sheer volume of work in the case of something like Invasive). I noticed that it's a standard class for earth science peeps in college (Structural Geology?); for the rest of us, it's one of those weird events that fits right in with Proteins, Remote, Astro, Mat Sci, etc (maybe WQ to a lesser extent). They're all accessible with the right mindset and resources but daunting at first glance.

A combination of that and the maps, I agree that most of the basic stuff isn't too hard, which is why I could win in-state at every tournament I competed in, but fail badly at MIT and Nationals.

[raxu]

Mostly posting just so I have a bookmark for the thread, but my votes will go to Astronomy and Mat Sci. Astronomy is just so much information - after 3 years, I still find a lot of things unfamiliar on every test! (Also, the Princeton Invitational this year really reinforced that idea...) Material Science has a lab portion that I'm always very worried about, and the information are not easy either.

[NeilMehta]

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?