Practice

[windu34]

How many hours a day (or week) would you say the average person on your team puts into their events? Also specify what school you are from
For my team: 3 hours a day, Boca Raton Community High School

[samlan16]

For Milton High School:
A team: 6 hrs/wk
Everyone else: 2 hrs/wk

This is for practice time only and does not count independent study.

[Unome]

I have no idea how much other people put in, but if I had to guess, I and the upper two-thirds of the A team all put about 5-15 hours per week (varies, both between people and between different times of the year) and the rest probably 2 hours or less.

This is counting independent study time; actual practice comprise ~45 minutes per week (since they occur one every two or sometimes one week for about an hour each).

[Jaol]

When you're sad because you have to go to sleep at 8:00 or so every night.....

[Verdigris]

Hey, another Floridian c:

Lake Nona High School- two club meetings a week, so when we're focusing on SO (and not on Science Bowl or some other competition) we get about 2.5 hours a week just from that. I don't know how much the average club member puts in aside from that, but I usually get about an hour a week at best. (Probably not enough. XD)

[watermydoing14]

Our team has "practices" (they're not really practices, more like meetings) that mostly C and D team attend - our first 5 or so meetings have been introducing new members to the club: rotations of 4 events per meeting with an A team mentor for each event explaining how to prepare for the event. With this system, people only have to come when their events are meeting, so each person is generally only required to come to 2-3 meetings a month. We have 1 meeting each week for a little less than an hour long. For build events, we do 1-on-1 checkins with a build officer. We hold extra study/build meetings at officers' houses during breaks. Later in the year, when we actually have build materials and start building, we have "open build time" after school every day, which people can show up to if they are unable to build at home. I would say that most of our members (even A team) spend no more than 1 hour per week actually studying/building outside of meetings right now. Usually, most of our studying gets done in the week (or sometimes the night) before competitions because almost all of our members are in full IB so they have a lot of homework and aren't willing to sacrifice their grades for scioly. I try to study for at least an hour or two each week, and some weeks, if I'm able to study during class, I can get 3 or 4 hours of studying done.

My suggestion for other teams that have procrastinating members: hold more mock competitions and make them actually feel like competitions. Put team placement on the line, see if you can attend more invitationals.

[Fluorine]

Our team has meetings every Tuesday from 2 - 4. The first half is usually to discuss admin and updates stuff and then the second part is for working on events. Monday and Wednesday we have flat practices from 2 - 4 so everyone will come in and work on their events. People usually do a good chunk of their work during their own free time too. To encourage people who are procrastinating we have check points where everyone is given a test in their events, and if anyone is under performing it shows at this point. Throughout the seasons about twice a month we have a late night practice that goes from 2 - 7ish (depends on everyone's schedule). If you wanted a number it would be about 10 hours a week for everyone working. This varies depending how much is going on during the week. For example finals week just passed for us and most people put SO on the end of their priorities list. However during the winter break most people do a ton of their work.

[windu34]

Our team has meetings every Tuesday from 2 - 4. The first half is usually to discuss admin and updates stuff and then the second part is for working on events. Monday and Wednesday we have flat practices from 2 - 4 so everyone will come in and work on their events. People usually do a good chunk of their work during their own free time too. To encourage people who are procrastinating we have check points where everyone is given a test in their events, and if anyone is under performing it shows at this point. Throughout the seasons about twice a month we have a late night practice that goes from 2 - 7ish (depends on everyone's schedule). If you wanted a number it would be about 10 hours a week for everyone working. This varies depending how much is going on during the week. For example finals week just passed for us and most people put SO on the end of their priorities list. However during the winter break most people do a ton of their work.

Where do you get the tests from?

[Fluorine]

Our team has meetings every Tuesday from 2 - 4. The first half is usually to discuss admin and updates stuff and then the second part is for working on events. Monday and Wednesday we have flat practices from 2 - 4 so everyone will come in and work on their events. People usually do a good chunk of their work during their own free time too. To encourage people who are procrastinating we have check points where everyone is given a test in their events, and if anyone is under performing it shows at this point. Throughout the seasons about twice a month we have a late night practice that goes from 2 - 7ish (depends on everyone's schedule). If you wanted a number it would be about 10 hours a week for everyone working. This varies depending how much is going on during the week. For example finals week just passed for us and most people put SO on the end of their priorities list. However during the winter break most people do a ton of their work.

Where do you get the tests from?

I try to pick ones that most people would not have access too . However, just taking one from the test exchange works fine. Most people are not going to look at the answer key just to pretend they did well.

[ScienceOlympian]

My school does probably 2-5 hours a month during school months, and probably 5 hours per week during winter break.

Yeah, my school isn't super committed aside from the officers.