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I had my first invitational SO competition and most of my school medalled except for 4 and that was including me. I feel really terrible and I kind of lost motivation. I have another invitational before they start switching out people and I really want to medal next competition. Any tips?

You can improve more than you think, because you have a lot more time than you think (if you use it right). If you're really able to focus, 30 hours in a school week and 50 during break is very doable.

For specific event questions, ask in the event threads.

Oof, I also just had my first invitational and the medal record was pretty much the opposite of yours.....

Practice with your teammates. Go over to their house or something and make sure you/they know what they/you are doing in the event. (My Battery Buggy teammate had no idea what we were doing and just sat there. Might be why we bombed on that event.) You've gone to the event, so you'll most likely know how it's going to be run and what the proctors will be looking for.
Revise your builds (if you have any). Make it faster, more powerful, more efficient. And do LOTS of testing. And don't leave it until the last minute. Oof
STUDY. Study a whole lot.
Ask your teachers and/or people with knowledge of your events. Your science teacher, your parents, your coaches, etc.

I hope this maybe helps! (I might have to follow these tips myself.....)

Honestly, this might be a bit different because of the length of time I had, but after states 2013, I felt horrible because I had gotten 15th in astronomy, my only event. I really just told myself to work harder and smarter and realize what I needed to work on. I first started out by improving my organization system so that I could find information faster (since that is the key to a lot of events where you're given a cheatsheet - don't just plop a ton of information on a sheet of paper as small as you can, but arrange them so that you can find whatever the question is asking for within 5 seconds maximum) I also told myself to practice math problems and make sure I could identify images quickly and in different orientations. Finally, I told myself to work better with my partners and not just study by myself, making sure to work together with study materials and understanding the material in general. This worked wonders for me as the following two years I would get 6 medals. So just keep at it and know that even the best Science Olympians out there have stumbles every now and then.

Unome wrote:You can improve more than you think, because you have a lot more time than you think (if you use it right). If you're really able to focus, 30 hours in a school week and 50 during break is very doable.

For specific event questions, ask in the event threads.

How do you plan on motivating yourself to do 50 hrs of scioly in a week?

Qu€€nMon€y wrote:I had my first invitational SO competition and most of my school medalled except for 4 and that was including me. I feel really terrible and I kind of lost motivation. I have another invitational before they start switching out people and I really want to medal next competition. Any tips?

I didn't medal at my first 3 SO competitions; I was also the reason my team didn't go to nationals last year. Don't lose sweat over invitationals; they're meant to help you get better, and are intended to better prepare you for Regionals, States, Nationals. Put in the work, never make the same mistake twice, and you'll medal eventually.

Also, consider the difficulty of the invitational; if it has a lot of competitive teams and you place pretty well, be proud of yourself.

Don't lose hope or spirit; have fun!

What events do you do? If you do study events, did the invitational return your tests? If not, can you remember anything about the questions that you didn't understand? A good starting point would be to research the areas that you know you need to work on and learn as much as you can before your next competition. The same applies for lab and build events; identify your most glaring weaknesses in the hands-on sector and see if you can improve them. If you are unsure, ask your partner or someone you trust to give you feedback. Don't be overly critical of yourself; some things are within your control, some things aren't.

Also, Crayola mentioned the presence of competitive teams; on the converse side, if it was a smaller invitational and there were fewer medals, consider looking at the scoresheets to see where you actually placed. You may not have been that far behind. (eta: even if it was a large invite, still check the scoresheets.)

Name wrote:

Unome wrote:You can improve more than you think, because you have a lot more time than you think (if you use it right). If you're really able to focus, 30 hours in a school week and 50 during break is very doable.

For specific event questions, ask in the event threads.

How do you plan on motivating yourself to do 50 hrs of scioly in a week?

Decide to do it, and resist any urges to procrastinate.

Unome wrote:

Name wrote:

Unome wrote:You can improve more than you think, because you have a lot more time than you think (if you use it right). If you're really able to focus, 30 hours in a school week and 50 during break is very doable.

For specific event questions, ask in the event threads.

How do you plan on motivating yourself to do 50 hrs of scioly in a week?

Decide to do it, and resist any urges to procrastinate.

But don’t forget that as important as scioly may be to you, you’re still a student in your classes first. Even though scioly can be rewarding, it shouldn’t have a cost of tanking in your classes in favor of working on it. That’s not something I would condone. I guess if you’re as crazy as Unome and can pull off good grades while still putting that much time into scioly, then by all means be my guest, but please do not sacrifice your grades for it if that might happen. Uncle Fester said it pretty well here once to another young sciolyian back in the day:

Uncle Fester wrote:You failed AP Chem. Ouch. School comes first, and I've heard dozens of stories where someone becomes ineligible two days before States due to grades. Not worth the risk.

(here’s the original post that he made)

Unome wrote:

Name wrote:

Unome wrote:You can improve more than you think, because you have a lot more time than you think (if you use it right). If you're really able to focus, 30 hours in a school week and 50 during break is very doable.

For specific event questions, ask in the event threads.

How do you plan on motivating yourself to do 50 hrs of scioly in a week?

Decide to do it, and resist any urges to procrastinate.

DON'T do 50 hours per week, even if it's during break! You have other things in your life to do alsolike debate!