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The Eviscerator wrote:

fanjiatian wrote:Anyone experience really heavy competition for Microbe?

I got 1 question wrong out of a test of 60 something, and placed 6th o.O

I think the people above me probably milked the tie breaker more than I did.

That doesn't necessarily mean that there was really heavy competition. Ususally that means that the test was so easy that everyone did well and that a very small number of points could make a big difference in the placings.

That was my experience at state. I actually also got 6th.

One of the biggest problems in how mine was run was that you had to do the tiebreaker as you did stations. Any extra time you had needed to be spent on that, and sometimes there really wasn't enough extra time to do anything. Plus, I write really slowly.

Hello! Did anyone take Microbe Mission as a trial event last year? If so, then can you please describe the test? Since Microbe Mission is such a broad topic, the more test descriptions, the better!

Did anyone have awkward moments while identifying the diseases, or was it just me?

sweetgirl964 wrote:Hello! Did anyone take Microbe Mission as a trial event last year? If so, then can you please describe the test? Since Microbe Mission is such a broad topic, the more test descriptions, the better!

Unfortunately, no, but if you're looking for more test descriptions, I'll see what I can do about getting more tests on the exchange.

Trilobite wrote:Did anyone have awkward moments while identifying the diseases, or was it just me?

Oh man. Not to sound immature, but at state, my partner (of the opposite gender, no less) made a great innuendo when identifying a type of bacteria in a disease question. I had to try really hard not to laugh, because I knew if I laughed, I would have to explain what was so funny. And we were already kind of short on time.

FullMetalMaple wrote:

sweetgirl964 wrote:Hello! Did anyone take Microbe Mission as a trial event last year? If so, then can you please describe the test? Since Microbe Mission is such a broad topic, the more test descriptions, the better!

Unfortunately, no, but if you're looking for more test descriptions, I'll see what I can do about getting more tests on the exchange.

Trilobite wrote:Did anyone have awkward moments while identifying the diseases, or was it just me?

Oh man. Not to sound immature, but at state, my partner (of the opposite gender, no less) made a great innuendo when identifying a type of bacteria in a disease question. I had to try really hard not to laugh, because I knew if I laughed, I would have to explain what was so funny. And we were already kind of short on time.

Yeah, I had a similar experience, but don't worry, it's probably worse than yours, lucky!
My partner (opposite gender) and I had to identify a disease based off of symptoms, which were very detailed...

Trilobite wrote:Yeah, I had a similar experience, but don't worry, it's probably worse than yours, lucky!
My partner (opposite gender) and I had to identify a disease based off of symptoms, which were very detailed...

Most likely, considering mine was just funny. But I'm sorry about that. XD Honestly, I don't remember seeing any STD-related disease questions at all on any tests this year.

Speaking of tests, to get slightly more on-topic, does anyone have any use for some tests I could put on the exchange? It's a bit late in the year, but they might help with nats practice. Then again, maybe not.

Reminder to teams going to nats: make sure you practice using an actual microscope and preparing slides quickly. We had to do that at states, and we got through it fine, but it kind of caught me off guard.

FullMetalMaple wrote:

Trilobite wrote:Yeah, I had a similar experience, but don't worry, it's probably worse than yours, lucky!
My partner (opposite gender) and I had to identify a disease based off of symptoms, which were very detailed...

Most likely, considering mine was just funny. But I'm sorry about that. XD Honestly, I don't remember seeing any STD-related disease questions at all on any tests this year.

Speaking of tests, to get slightly more on-topic, does anyone have any use for some tests I could put on the exchange? It's a bit late in the year, but they might help with nats practice. Then again, maybe not.

It would be great if you could put them on the exchange. We're having problems finding any good Microbe Mission tests. So far, all the ones that we've found online have been way to easy.

amerikestrel wrote:Reminder to teams going to nats: make sure you practice using an actual microscope and preparing slides quickly. We had to do that at states, and we got through it fine, but it kind of caught me off guard.

Also remember to study the additional nats-only topics (microbial competition, for example). Some of them could probably get rather complicated.

The Eviscerator wrote:It would be great if you could put them on the exchange. We're having problems finding any good Microbe Mission tests. So far, all the ones that we've found online have been way to easy.

No problem, I'll see what I can do. Fortunately, one of the tests I took that I can post is more challenging that others I've seen.

What exactly is Microbial Competition?