Chem Lab (3rd): Fun and a good difficulty. I appreciated the fact that the test sectioned the MCs into Physical Properties and Acid Base parts. I ran a bit short on time so I showed zero work on the last page of FRQs which probably cost me some points. I was hoping for some hard equilibrium problems though, since I studied a lot of that post-MIT.
I don't know what the question asking you to draw the different d orbitals was trying to test, but maybe I'm just salty I didn't remember it. I thought the lab task sounded very easy but it took my partner almost the whole time so maybe not. [8.5/10]
Geo Maps (15th): The matching and MCs were really short and fairly easy, but everything else was pretty challenging. The image quality was kind of poor for some of the maps, but it didn't affect readability. Neither my partner nor I were really sure how to draw the geologic cross section, so we probably lost most of our points there. Anyhow, this test showed me that I have a lot of work to do, and I am very happy about that.
[7.5/10]
Protein Modeling (2nd): The test covered a lot of stuff. The CRISPR/Cas9 questions were very relevant--pulling from actual papers is always cool. Like with Chem Lab, the test was split by subject which made splitting it up pretty nice. Worth noting that I didn't realize that a lot of the MCs were select all that apply until halfway through though, so I lost some time being confused over that, but that's my fault for not reading the directions carefully. [8/10]
Duct Tape (15th): I did this for fun and it was very fun. Didn't do well but didn't expect to either. ESs and the other teams in our session all seemed like wonderful and upstanding people. I also finally got to show off my dotted-line drawing skills on the chalkboard in the room
[10/10]
Science Trivia (1st): Only one of our team members showed up on time for this, with me and our third person showing up around 5 minutes in. Even then, we finished 5 minutes early, and I saw a lot of other teams leave early too, so I think the questions definitely could stand to either increase in difficulty or number. Full disclosure, however, I only did the chemistry, earth/space, and some of the biology questions, so I don't know how hard the physics section was. I also kind of wish they ran the buzzer round, but we wouldn't have been able to stay for that anyways since we left right as our events ended. [8.5/10]
Echoing what a few people have already mentioned, Wright Stuff ran very slowly, and, from what my teammates told me, they couldn't test their device because of that. On another note, our bus got stuck in a ditch in the morning, but Cornell let the event supervisors know about it, so we didn't have to spend time getting our wristbands for the first two sessions. Later, one of the people running the tournament came into our home base and chatted with our coach for a bit and made sure we were all good, which was very nice. After the tournament, awards started on time and results were released really quickly. The Facebook livestream of the ceremony was also extremely cash, especially since we couldn't stay. Cornell was the last invitational I'll ever compete in, and I had a really fun time. Thanks to all the volunteers and congratulations to all the competitors!
EDIT: I take back what I said about the d orbitals question. I now know enough about transition metal chemistry to see that it related to the following question about the relative energies of the d orbitals in an octahedral complex. Cool stuff!
(8/10)
we took 1:42 for the timed question, although we forgot to write in the first word of each line and wasted around 15 seconds realizing and fixing that, lol.
