"Each participant may bring one sheet of paper"

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"Each participant may bring one sheet of paper"

Post by knightmoves »

Several events this year (Chem Lab, for example) contain the rule "each participant may bring one sheet of paper" and the FAQs have clarified that this means that teams with two competitors get to bring two sheets, and small teams with only a single competitor only get one sheet of paper.

This seems gratuitously unfair to teams that don't have a full complement of 15 members, and so can't fill all the seats. How can you justify giving those teams access to less information? Why would you not just say "each team may bring two sheets"?
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Re: "Each participant may bring one sheet of paper"

Post by EwwPhysics »

I don't do any of those chemistry events which are almost completely lab based, but my guess is that they meant it to make it easier for partnerships to split up - do different aspects of the lab or have one person work on the test while the other does the lab(s). This could prevent them from having to run back and forth because they have to share the same cheat sheet. I'm curious if most teams have mostly the same or mostly different information on the cheat sheets for these events.
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Re: "Each participant may bring one sheet of paper"

Post by JoeyC »

knightmoves wrote: March 13th, 2020, 7:44 pm Several events this year (Chem Lab, for example) contain the rule "each participant may bring one sheet of paper" and the FAQs have clarified that this means that teams with two competitors get to bring two sheets, and small teams with only a single competitor only get one sheet of paper.

This seems gratuitously unfair to teams that don't have a full complement of 15 members, and so can't fill all the seats. How can you justify giving those teams access to less information? Why would you not just say "each team may bring two sheets"?
It's easier to share the notes if they're 2 sheets and not a back and front.
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Re: "Each participant may bring one sheet of paper"

Post by jimmy-bond »

EwwPhysics wrote: March 14th, 2020, 8:43 am I don't do any of those chemistry events which are almost completely lab based, but my guess is that they meant it to make it easier for partnerships to split up - do different aspects of the lab or have one person work on the test while the other does the lab(s). This could prevent them from having to run back and forth because they have to share the same cheat sheet. I'm curious if most teams have mostly the same or mostly different information on the cheat sheets for these events.
After learning about this rule, my forensics partner and I divided our notes. Forensics has many subtopics to work on, so we split them almost 50/50. For example, he'd take powder ID and mass spectrometry, while I would do plastics and any trivia. If our state tournament wasn't canceled, I'm sure the chem lab and protein teams would do the same.
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Re: "Each participant may bring one sheet of paper"

Post by SilverBreeze »

I agree that two notesheets are easier so teams aren’t flipping back and forth, but I believe knightmoves was asking why not “each team may bring two sheets of paper “ instead so a one-person team is not further impaired by only being allowed one notesheet.
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knightmoves (March 14th, 2020, 3:51 pm)
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Re: "Each participant may bring one sheet of paper"

Post by knightmoves »

SilverBreeze wrote: March 14th, 2020, 11:50 am I agree that two notesheets are easier so teams aren’t flipping back and forth, but I believe knightmoves was asking why not “each team may bring two sheets of paper “ instead so a one-person team is not further impaired by only being allowed one notesheet.
Yes, that's the question. My experience is that everyone does what jimmy-bond suggests, and has almost completely or completely disjoint resource sheets, so the team has twice the information going in.
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Re: "Each participant may bring one sheet of paper"

Post by jimmy-bond »

SilverBreeze wrote: March 14th, 2020, 11:50 am I agree that two notesheets are easier so teams aren’t flipping back and forth, but I believe knightmoves was asking why not “each team may bring two sheets of paper “ instead so a one-person team is not further impaired by only being allowed one notesheet.
Last year, my team did not know about this rule so we only had one sheet for forensics. We did not feel confined for space, but obviously more competitive teams will include more information on their sheets. It's definitely not impossible to cram everything for chem lab or protein onto one sheet, just sometimes very difficult.
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Re: "Each participant may bring one sheet of paper"

Post by SilverBreeze »

jimmy-bond wrote: March 14th, 2020, 7:33 pm
SilverBreeze wrote: March 14th, 2020, 11:50 am I agree that two notesheets are easier so teams aren’t flipping back and forth, but I believe knightmoves was asking why not “each team may bring two sheets of paper “ instead so a one-person team is not further impaired by only being allowed one notesheet.
Last year, my team did not know about this rule so we only had one sheet for forensics. We did not feel confined for space, but obviously more competitive teams will include more information on their sheets. It's definitely not impossible to cram everything for chem lab or protein onto one sheet, just sometimes very difficult.
Eh, true, but define "everything." You can always copy and paste in random information you probably won't use.
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Re: "Each participant may bring one sheet of paper"

Post by knightmoves »

SilverBreeze wrote: March 14th, 2020, 7:44 pm Eh, true, but define "everything." You can always copy and paste in random information you probably won't use.
I don't think it actually matters whether you can fit "everything" for Chem Lab on one sheet or not, as long as the playing field is level, and at the moment, it isn't. I don't think preferring "one sheet of paper per human" over "two sheets of paper per team" in the rules is defensible.
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Re: "Each participant may bring one sheet of paper"

Post by Michae1l »

knightmoves wrote: March 14th, 2020, 3:51 pm
SilverBreeze wrote: March 14th, 2020, 11:50 am I agree that two notesheets are easier so teams aren’t flipping back and forth, but I believe knightmoves was asking why not “each team may bring two sheets of paper “ instead so a one-person team is not further impaired by only being allowed one FaceTime notesheet.
Yes, that's the question. My experience is that everyone does what jimmy-bond suggests, and has almost completely or completely disjoint resource sheets, so the team has twice the information going in.
This could prevent them from having to run back and forth because they have to share the same cheat sheet.
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