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Word on the street is that Reach for the Stars at my regional competition was also...well, here's the account of one of the people competing in it on my middle school's team:

They gave us what I think was a division C test (at least the math equations were anyway) and then realized their mistake. So naturally they let the last group of the day, the group after us, go out during the test and grab calculators and phones to help with the math stuff. They then continued to allow phones for the entire test.

So at my regionals, disease was literally a one page test. Both B and C had the same test, but it was very tough for most schools since there were a few words that only our team knew. We got first, but I'm putting it as poorly run, since it took five minutes and was ONE PAGE....

The events were all run by first time college students, so it isn't completely their fault, just some stuff to look out for.
1) Mission Possible
I wasn't in this event, but one of my partners was. The event coordinator apparently decided that all inclines were "illegal" and "didn't count". Everyone, including other schools, was really mad.
2) Fossils
This event was actually okay-the test made sense, and I ended up winning the event. However, there were maybe 4-5 tables, so they crammed 3 stations onto each table. THREE STATIONS. That's six people sitting at one table. Due to this, there may have been cheating because we were so packed. (I was literally underneath someones elbow the entire time, it was awful)
3) Scrambler
A coach forgot about his schools testing time slot, and they showed up 3 hours later when they were wrapping it up. They shouldn't have been allowed to compete, but they were.

Entomology wrote:A coach forgot about his schools testing time slot, and they showed up 3 hours later when they were wrapping it up. They shouldn't have been allowed to compete, but they were.

Be a little understanding

UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F wrote:

Entomology wrote:A coach forgot about his schools testing time slot, and they showed up 3 hours later when they were wrapping it up. They shouldn't have been allowed to compete, but they were.

Be a little understanding

I know, I know, I feel bad for that team cause it wasn't their fault. However, it's hard to be understanding when you would have made nats if they were not allowed to compete.

Entomology wrote:

UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F wrote:

Entomology wrote:A coach forgot about his schools testing time slot, and they showed up 3 hours later when they were wrapping it up. They shouldn't have been allowed to compete, but they were.

Be a little understanding

I know, I know, I feel bad for that team cause it wasn't their fault. However, it's hard to be understanding when you would have made nats if they were not allowed to compete.

I totally understand! In Wheeled Vehicle last year a team used a laser pointer to align their car and did pretty well. We filed an appeal, and instead of giving them a competition violation or disqualifying them, they let them run again. But they already knew the distance and alignment. We, naturally, were the 7th place team, and places 1-6 get medals (they got 4th ).

At the UT Invitational:

Fossils: 1 question per station and usually ID but not to genus. To class, order, etc. Very rarely did they ask for genus.
Green Generation: probably the worst test I've ever seen and I've seen some pretty crappy tests. It was 2 pages long front and back, 100 points. There were 9 multiple choice/fill in the blanks at 5 points a piece. And then the free response was too easy as well. So it all came down to this one question about COP21 which isn't even allowed on the rules and the winner was determined by who could BS what happened at COP21 the best. The gap between 1st and 5th was 2.5 points. The proctor was also very rude about giving extra sheets of paper to elaborate on the free response and claimed that at Nationals they don't give extra paper which is a complete lie because Nationals is run as stations with MC, fill in the blank, matching, and math questions. I was just appalled at the lack of effort put into the event. Anyone could have wrote a better test.


On the other hand:
Invasives was a very well written, difficult test where the amount of effort and time put into the test was apparent.
Anatomy was decent. It should have been longer but the case-studies/ER situations were an interesting way of testing us over diseases.

dragon_fruit35 wrote:

Entomology wrote:

UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F wrote: Be a little understanding

I know, I know, I feel bad for that team cause it wasn't their fault. However, it's hard to be understanding when you would have made nats if they were not allowed to compete.

I totally understand! In Wheeled Vehicle last year a team used a laser pointer to align their car and did pretty well. We filed an appeal, and instead of giving them a competition violation or disqualifying them, they let them run again. But they already knew the distance and alignment. We, naturally, were the 7th place team, and places 1-6 get medals (they got 4th ).

That's what happened in scrambler this year for quite a few teams! No one was DQed or anything though...

Entomology wrote:The events were all run by first time college students, so it isn't completely their fault, just some stuff to look out for.
1) Mission Possible
I wasn't in this event, but one of my partners was. The event coordinator apparently decided that all inclines were "illegal" and "didn't count". Everyone, including other schools, was really mad.
2) Fossils
This event was actually okay-the test made sense, and I ended up winning the event. However, there were maybe 4-5 tables, so they crammed 3 stations onto each table. THREE STATIONS. That's six people sitting at one table. Due to this, there may have been cheating because we were so packed. (I was literally underneath someones elbow the entire time, it was awful)
3) Scrambler
A coach forgot about his schools testing time slot, and they showed up 3 hours later when they were wrapping it up. They shouldn't have been allowed to compete, but they were.

Entomology, the feedback you gave is always important for us so we can improve the quality of the events at our tournamnts. There are a few points I want to address:
These events weren't run by first time college students. 90% of the Event Supervisors had at least 3 years of experience competing in Science Olympiad and each event had one or more lead Event Supervisors who have judged befored
1) Mission Possible: The Event Supervisor overseeing this event is one of the National Event Supervisors for Mission Possible. He and I are both on the committee answering national rules clarifications for Mission Possible. Based on what I've seen, I think his ruling is correct.
2) Fossils: I stopped by Fossils during the day and I absolutely agree with you that the room is too small. If we go back to Caltech next year, we'll be sure to use a bigger room.
3) Scrambler: This event was running behind and the team you're referring must have been one of those the Event Supervisors asked to come back at the end of the time slots since this event ran nonstop practically up until right before awards ceremony

At Wisconsin State for Division B, half of Green Generation was about laws. The ES appaerently didn't realized that laws are for Div C only. The questions about ecology were really basic, such as what trophic level a tree was.
Wind Power had a pretty good test, but the testing was horrible. For low power testing, they used a fan which had a piece of wood blocking the intake. We got 35.1 points on the build section, and didn't get any movement on low power. My team watched everyone test, and they said only a couple of teams got it to move. The turbine normally works very well on low power.
Bio Process Lab was too easy, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd were all away by 1 point.