Is Science Olympiad worth it?

[BrS]

I've always contemplated over dropping Science Olympiad or not, and I'm so glad that I chose not to. My school has not always been the best at Science Olympiad, and we have bright students, but they just do not seem motivated. We have a few students who definitely want to go to nationals including me, and we work very hard in our events and do relatively well, but then again, we can only qualify if our team score is low enough. This year, we started to see signs of improvement, but the changes weren't big enough to send us to nationals Do any of you all who have been on qualifying teams have any advice for me such as parents who coach or is it solely based on the students?

[windu34]

I've always contemplated over dropping Science Olympiad or not, and I'm so glad that I chose not to. My school has not always been the best at Science Olympiad, and we have bright students, but they just do not seem motivated. We have a few students who definitely want to go to nationals including me, and we work very hard in our events and do relatively well, but then again, we can only qualify if our team score is low enough. This year, we started to see signs of improvement, but the changes weren't big enough to send us to nationals Do any of you all who have been on qualifying teams have any advice for me such as parents who coach or is it solely based on the students?

My team (Boca Raton Community High School, 1st in Florida for the last 6-7 years) has only one coach. All events are solely prepared for by students only. We do not have event coaches, but rather very motivated students. We work on events every day after school for at least 3 hours in our coaches classroom and that number increases as competition approaches. Team placement is determined both by effort/hard work as well as placement at invites/regionals/states.

[BrS]

I've always contemplated over dropping Science Olympiad or not, and I'm so glad that I chose not to. My school has not always been the best at Science Olympiad, and we have bright students, but they just do not seem motivated. We have a few students who definitely want to go to nationals including me, and we work very hard in our events and do relatively well, but then again, we can only qualify if our team score is low enough. This year, we started to see signs of improvement, but the changes weren't big enough to send us to nationals Do any of you all who have been on qualifying teams have any advice for me such as parents who coach or is it solely based on the students?

My team (Boca Raton Community High School, 1st in Florida for the last 6-7 years) has only one coach. All events are solely prepared for by students only. We do not have event coaches, but rather very motivated students. We work on events every day after school for at least 3 hours in our coaches classroom and that number increases as competition approaches. Team placement is determined both by effort/hard work as well as placement at invites/regionals/states.

how do your builders test their devices? Do they usually test in your school gym? And what do you all specifically do in the three hours after school besides study?

[Unome]

I've always contemplated over dropping Science Olympiad or not, and I'm so glad that I chose not to. My school has not always been the best at Science Olympiad, and we have bright students, but they just do not seem motivated. We have a few students who definitely want to go to nationals including me, and we work very hard in our events and do relatively well, but then again, we can only qualify if our team score is low enough. This year, we started to see signs of improvement, but the changes weren't big enough to send us to nationals Do any of you all who have been on qualifying teams have any advice for me such as parents who coach or is it solely based on the students?

Motivation is the most important thing, more than almost anything else (except possibly good planning and making efficient use of time). Other than that, starting early, planning well, and doing a lot of events is the best you can do individually for your team; however, it's better if you can get a few other people to commit to this as well (post-8th grade me and two other team members sat down and basically split up the new/weaker events in order to make them stronger so we could get the team to Nationals; that's how I joined Fossils and Meteorology).

[GeorgeOrwell77]

I understand your frustration. My Science Olympiad team missed nationals by 6 points just because we did horribly in one event.

[Entomology]

I understand your frustration. My Science Olympiad team missed nationals by 6 points just because we did horribly in one event.

Competition days are so frustrating and unpredictable sometimes, but they are honestly the best days of my life. I forgot where I saw this quote, but it summed everything up completely.

"Never let the pursuit of winning ruin the joy of competiting."

[Unome]

I understand your frustration. My Science Olympiad team missed nationals by 6 points just because we did horribly in one event.

Competition days are so frustrating and unpredictable sometimes, but they are honestly the best days of my life. I forgot where I saw this quote, but it summed everything up completely.

"Never let the pursuit of winning ruin the joy of competiting."

That's in Z's sig.

[Zioly]

I know this thread is a bit old, but I want to say one thing. I'm not a believer in luck. My dad instilled in me the notion that you get what you pay for at a very young age. His exact words, though in Chinese, are "Pay more, get more; pay less, get less." Although I am a hard worker and fortunate enough to go to nationals very soon, I have had my share of disappointments. For example, the Scrambler that my partner and I took to regionals was nearly flawless, I must say. Very clean, professional, and stopping like a charm. However, due to a focus in build quality and chart numbers, sheer reassembly practice was taken to neglect, so we ended up getting last because we could not reattach the falling mass to our device. How this reflects my mentality? Well, in my opinion, we simply did not prepare enough in the certain area that tripped us up. The reason for frustration is not bad luck, but an annoyance that we neglected something that seemed so insignificant...

And judges... ahhh those judges...

[T-55M]

I know this thread is a bit old, but I want to say one thing. I'm not a believer in luck. My dad instilled in me the notion that you get what you pay for at a very young age. His exact words, though in Chinese, are "Pay more, get more; pay less, get less." Although I am a hard worker and fortunate enough to go to nationals very soon, I have had my share of disappointments. For example, the Scrambler that my partner and I took to regionals was nearly flawless, I must say. Very clean, professional, and stopping like a charm. However, due to a focus in build quality and chart numbers, sheer reassembly practice was taken to neglect, so we ended up getting last because we could not reattach the falling mass to our device. How this reflects my mentality? Well, in my opinion, we simply did not prepare enough in the certain area that tripped us up. The reason for frustration is not bad luck, but an annoyance that we neglected something that seemed so insignificant...

And judges... ahhh those judges...

I'm very much a believer in luck. Especially in Robot Arm. Our controller's parts failed, so the arm flipped a goal carton, spilling it, but at the same time knocked over two dice to 6. We got our placement on a tiebreaker.
praise rngesus

Also, Science Olympiad is a big time commitment, so it might not be worth it. Science responsibly.

[appleshake123]

I understand your frustration. My Science Olympiad team missed nationals by 6 points just because we did horribly in one event.

Competition days are so frustrating and unpredictable sometimes, but they are honestly the best days of my life. I forgot where I saw this quote, but it summed everything up completely.

"Never let the pursuit of winning ruin the joy of competiting."

I believe in 2012 in PA, Penncrest missed nationals by 2 points to Bayard Rustin and TJ missed nationals by 2 points to Langley in 2015 I think.