The Society for the Discontinuation of the Pentathlon

[Over9000]

I have competed at Pentathlon at the Invitational level.

It's garbage. No skill involved at all.

[jweil_buddha]

i think that pentathalon is a good way to test students on broad topics of science without having to do multiple events. i mean they dont even grade you that hard on the physical activities, its way more focused on the academic portion. so who cares if you have to do like 10 seconds of a slightly athletic task? it wont kill you and its kind of fun in a hectic sort of way. it may seem lame to have to throw a ball in a bin, but that isnt the main focus of the event anyway.

[Phenylethylamine]

The score on Pentathlon is actually determined only by total time to complete the course. You can retry a question as many times as you like, I believe, and so if there's a multiple choice question, you can simply cycle through the answers until you get it right. The academic portion does not count any more than the physical portion.

[danger will robinson]

One of the other teams in my region (and I am NOT getting mad at them for this-it was a good strategy) just put the things in a different order really really fast until they got it right because they didn't know the answer. No skill at all.

[sk8lynne]

i think this event is soo stupid...there's no point

[denmarksoccer]

One of the other teams in my region (and I am NOT getting mad at them for this-it was a good strategy) just put the things in a different order really really fast until they got it right because they didn't know the answer. No skill at all.

What place did they get? And are you sure they don't get points deducted for that?

[GGuy5]

i thought it was kinda hard at state (question wise)

[sadistic_cottoncandy]

i think this event is soo stupid...there's no point

scioly is a team thing. you can't move on without the rest of your team....well, you couldn't earlier...some people do now. the point of pentathlon is to test A) how well you work as a team, and B) how much you know in general. if you're able to finish the academic part quickly, then you won't completely fail. and, chances are, if you're having trouble with the physical part, someone else is too, unless it's something like jump rope...my poor teammate. she's really short, and they gave her a really long jump rope (i'm a few inches taller that her, and i would have had trouble with it, it was that long). but that was at regionals, and state and nats are usually at least a little bit better run.

[croman74]

On the powerpoint, they wrote that Pentathlon was a perfect team building exercise. So I guess that what sadistic cottoncandy is saying is true. It helps bring back the team aspect of SO.

[Over9000]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but on my team the team aspect never really left. I mean, sometimes the coaches' FAVORITES out of the Alternates get special treatment, but other than that everyone is about the same and works together.