Cornell Invitational (Division B and C)

[builderguy135]

How did everyone think of the quality of the events?

[LiteralRhinoceros]

Dynamic Planet (9). Really well made test, multiple choice portion covered most of the topics on the event sheet. The open ended portion was super challenging, and required you to really understand the topics, and the processes behind whatever you were studying. The only thing that I can talk against is that they used a scantron. 9/10

Solar System (9). The first portion of the test was relatively simple, including parts about formation of the moon, missions, and identifying images (although what they were looking for was pretty vague). The open-ended portion part of the test however, was ridiculous. We were asked about galaxies, Cepheid variables, the stellar sequence, etc, stuff that shouldn't be on a solar system test, and that would be better suited for Astronomy. 5/10

Meteorology (1). This test was pretty easy, although it covered a lot of topics. I especially liked all the weather map readings, which got you a chance to apply your skills. 7/10

(edit: punctuation)

[Name]

Scitech (12): was fine nothing much to say. No final round though, although I did like that they started awards earlier instead of a final round.
Duct Tape (3): Task was highest tower that can hold a golf ball in a cup for 3 sec. Judges were pretty lenient on the "3 sec" because ours was kinda iffy. Was fun though.
Astro (5): good test, well ran. Nothing too special about anything but nothing to complain about.
Fermi (1): 31 question test, was way too short considering none of the questions were that difficult. Should've either made it longer (50 questions maybe) or made the questions harder. I didn't really like the test personally but at least it was still well ran.
Code (6): uhh yeah that was bad. They refused to wait like at all for our third member and that hurt our time bonus although I don't think that affected us getting an extra question. The test expected us to have the running key key memorized which in my opinion is stupid. I'm pretty sure the affine is unsolvable because the key was found to be 12x+3 and 12 isn't coprime to 26. Then for the rest of the test we started getting tripped up on everything and making really stupid mistakes which is our fault. Besides the 2 questions everything else was fine, but code was really frustrating for me.

Also I had all 5 of my events all right after each other... And all across campus from each other. That was not fun constantly running around trying not to get lost and getting there on time. I didn't particularly enjoy Cornell but that's probably from my schedule and how far away everything was from each other.

[hmmm]

Game On:typical game on test, nothing special
Water Quality:way too easy. There were only 27 questions on the test. There was also a 4-part question(that was a tiebreaker!) that was on estuaries which clearly aren't part of the rules for this year.
Fossils:challenging test. We had barely enough time to finish the stations. It covered almost all of the topics on the rules.

[satvik03]

Experimental Design (5th): 8/10
This event was really well run, the topic choice was good, and the materials provided also made sense. The only thing I did not like was that instead of giving us part 1 at the beginning and then part 2 20 minutes later (like the rules said), they gave us the whole test at the same time. Overall though, the event was really well run, the proctors were really nice, and they knew what they were doing.

Thermodynamics (2nd): 8/10
This event was really well run as well. I came in about 2 minutes late because I had to run from experimental design, but the event supervisors were understanding. The test was really good, had a good level of difficulty, and covered a lot of topics. However, I feel like point values were assigned a bit off. There was one big problem that was worth 30 points, while all the multiple choice questions and free response questions were one point each. The build section was run well. They used a syringe to squirt water into the beakers, and this caused the temperature to drop a lot. For us, the temperature we measured in our device after they poured was 14 degrees less than the source temperature. This happened to a lot of teams, so it was fair and didn't impact the event overall. Overall, the event was run in a fair and efficient way.

Circuit Lab (10th): 9/10
This event was run fabulously. Lab section was challenging, and you really had to use your brain (there was no formula). The test was really hard, so me and my partner know what we have to put into our binder and study for future competitions.

Overall: 9/10
The tournament was run in a great way. The one thing that was a challenge was the distance from my homeroom to all the events. Especially for circuit lab, the walk was really far, and navigation was hard (I cant navigate at all!). The tests were really good quality. Thanks for a great invitational!

[builderguy135]

Glider (1st)
The venue was terrible. There were so many obstacles in the way (tables, air conditioners, even walls) that made it impossible to fly. There was a door constantly opening on the third floor that let in a lot of wind, and it was snowing outside I don't blame the supervisors though, but they should really fix this for nats. (4/10)

Parasitology (4th)
Pretty good test, but it was extremely hard. I came to this late because I tried to fit in glider and parasit in the same block lol. (9/10)

Road (1st)
Well written test. It was kind of short though but the questions were harder than usually and high quality. (8/10)

Duct Tape (16th??!?!)
I had buggy in the same block as this. Since buggy took so long, we didn't go. I'm honestly not sure how we got a placement lol. I'm sure that no one on our team went either because no one bought duct tape and my roll is still sitting on my desk unopened lol. (16/45 lmao)

Buggy (6th)
The supervisors were strict and they explained all the rules clearly to us before they started the run. Really well ran. One specific parent has been viewing our runs for all of the previous invitationals though and it's been appearing kind of stalkish since he's come up to us multiple times. Not the ES's fault obviously. (9.5/10)

Mystery (8th)
The prompt was pretty good. Only thing they were missing was a counterweight for each team, so everyone had to share. (7/10)

Roller (4th)
They didn't really check all the parameters, but they did check dimensions. One of the supervisors took her phone out right after our runs and pointed it at our coaster. She wasn't wearing a shirt so I'm not sure why she did this, but she may/may not have taken a picture of our coaster. I don't want to throw any accusations out though. (8/10)

[C8H10N4O2!]

Scitech (12): was fine nothing much to say. No final round though, although I did like that they started awards earlier instead of a final round.
Duct Tape (3): Task was highest tower that can hold a golf ball in a cup for 3 sec. Judges were pretty lenient on the "3 sec" because ours was kinda iffy. Was fun though.
Astro (5): good test, well ran. Nothing too special about anything but nothing to complain about.
Fermi (1): 31 question test, was way too short considering none of the questions were that difficult. Should've either made it longer (50 questions maybe) or made the questions harder. I didn't really like the test personally but at least it was still well ran.
Code (6): uhh yeah that was bad. They refused to wait like at all for our third member and that hurt our time bonus although I don't think that affected us getting an extra question. The test expected us to have the running key key memorized which in my opinion is stupid. I'm pretty sure the affine is unsolvable because the key was found to be 12x+3 and 12 isn't coprime to 26. Then for the rest of the test we started getting tripped up on everything and making really stupid mistakes which is our fault. Besides the 2 questions everything else was fine, but code was really frustrating for me.

Also I had all 5 of my events all right after each other... And all across campus from each other. That was not fun constantly running around trying not to get lost and getting there on time. I didn't particularly enjoy Cornell but that's probably from my schedule and how far away everything was from each other.

I know that its frustrating when you have to start without your third person, but I was in that testing room with you. You had her hold up the start of the test by 5 minutes, which caused some of us to be late to our next events. We were all a little frustrated with that because we got less time on our next events.
On a different note, I agree with you on the affine. I kept redoing my math, but it was such basic math to find it and I couldnt tell what I was doing wrong!

[emmalasagna]

Heredity(20th)
This test was really different from the ones I’ve seen so far. It was stations, which definitely made it more difficult, but I overall think the test was pretty good. It was definitely challenging but it covered a good range of topics, and while we could’ve done better, I think it was overall pretty good. (7/10)

Herpetology (5th)
This was,again, different from what I’ve seen so far. It wasn’t stations, so that was a nice change, but the test was a little iffy. Several times we were asked to ID species, which we aren’t required to do, so I’m not sure what was going on there. It was also very heavy on anatomy and more general topics, which I think is fine, but I would’ve liked to see more ID and that type of thing. The test was also pretty long, and my partner and I barely finished. Overall a difficult test, but the proctors were super nice. (6/10)

Fossils (5th)
This test was pretty standard as far as fossils tests go. The questions were well-written and they were distributed over a lot of topics. There wasn’t a lot of time for each station, especially for the amount of writing we had to do for some questions, but I think this was to test the competitors test-taking strategies. Overall, a pretty good test. (8/10)

Cornell was overall well run and a great experience. Congrats to everyone who competed!

[shoujolivia]

hello friends;
cornell was pretty lit but i would really like a feedback survey for some of it.
expd: this event started late but i kinda understand why. this event slot ended at the same time the next started, so i ran to baker in the snow and that kinda sucked. all in all, not something the committee can necessarily control. however, maybe the times between events didn’t really provide for the actual time taken to travel. also they gave my team 5th but wrote 2nd on their test :\\\\
scitech bowl: i liked this, 10/10. my teammates and i had a great time.
parasitology: i medaled in this, 10/10. i actually studied so hard and i kinda had a mental breakdown but i really enjoyed this event. thanks for the 3rd place!!!!
herpetology: didn’t follow the rules super closely but i think it was a pretty great, creative test otherwise
protein: i know not rly under their control but the computers were kinda tragic and they changed the residues midway through our timeslot. 6/10
wright stuff: alright.... next time please listen to coaches when they voice concerns about the venue. if possible, please check in/do flights simultaneously (like check in outside the flight room) so that they don’t have a giant holdup like what is what happened. 3/10 (can’t believe they got a branch from outside to get that plane down from the ceiling)
awards: i really appreciated that they shouted out nevada even though they said nevada not nevada. i had a great time chatting w/ camas and screaming for everyone HAHA.

clark hs had a great time thanks cornell + all the buds we met!!!!

[Unome]

hello friends;
cornell was pretty lit but i would really like a feedback survey for some of it.
expd: this event started late but i kinda understand why. this event slot ended at the same time the next started, so i ran to baker in the snow and that kinda sucked. all in all, not something the committee can necessarily control. however, maybe the times between events didn’t really provide for the actual time taken to travel. also they gave my team 5th but wrote 2nd on their test :\\\\
scitech bowl: i liked this, 10/10. my teammates and i had a great time.
parasitology: i medaled in this, 10/10. i actually studied so hard and i kinda had a mental breakdown but i really enjoyed this event. thanks for the 3rd place!!!!
herpetology: didn’t follow the rules super closely but i think it was a pretty great, creative test otherwise
protein: i know not rly under their control but the computers were kinda tragic and they changed the residues midway through our timeslot. 6/10
wright stuff: alright.... next time please listen to coaches when they voice concerns about the venue. if possible, please check in/do flights simultaneously (like check in outside the flight room) so that they don’t have a giant holdup like what is what happened. 3/10 (can’t believe they got a branch from outside to get that plane down from the ceiling)
awards: i really appreciated that they shouted out nevada even though they said nevada not nevada. i had a great time chatting w/ camas and screaming for everyone HAHA.

clark hs had a great time thanks cornell + all the buds we met!!!!

Wait why did Clark do so poorly? I didn't even notice you guys on the scoresheet until you posted and I went back to check.