User:Hterrapin
Baton Rougean and former Glaswegian who used to manage some Glasgow lore.
Results
2022-2023 Season (7th Grade)
My first year competing :) I participated in Meteorology, A&P, and Forestry. Ended up slacking a little bit in Meteo, doing mediocre at best at A&P, and putting most effort into Forestry. Our coach also put me as an assistant in Wheeled Vehicle and, at one point, Storm the Castle, since for States and Nats I was only really competing in Forestry.
| Event | BullSO | Boyceville | Texas A&M | BirdSO | Louisiana State | Nationals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forestry | 8th | 1st | 5th | 5th | 1st | 13th |
| Anatomy & Physiology | 20th | ?* | 2nd | 35th | -- | -- |
| Meteorology | -- | -- | 5th | 93rd | -- | -- |
| Wheeled Vehicle | -- | -- | -- | -- | 2nd | 43rd |
| Storm the Castle | -- | -- | -- | -- | 2nd | -- |
*i forgot
2023-2024 Season (8th Grade)
8th grade, 2nd year competing :)
| Event | Rickards | Dodgen-Walton | Boyceville | Texas A&M | BirdSO | Louisiana State | Nationals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anatomy & Physiology | -- | -- | -- | -- | 44th | -- | -- |
| Forestry | 2nd | 8th | 1st | 1st | 7th | 1st | 5th |
| Ecology | 33rd | -- | 2nd | 1st | 13th | 1st | 28th |
| Microbe Mission | 10th | -- | 1st | 5th | 15th | 1st | 11th |
| Wheeled Vehicle | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 4th | 34th |
| Lean Mean Meme Machine | 1st | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- |
2024-2025 Season (9th Grade)
First div C year.
| Event | Rickards | Boyceville | Louisiana State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ecology | 16th | TBA | TBA |
| Entomology | 6th | TBA | TBA |
| Wind Power | 146th | TBA | TBA |
| Forestry | 2nd | TBA | -- |
| Geoguessr | 29th | -- | -- |
Reflections
2022-2023 Season (7th Grade)
I was mediocre in BullSO. Not surprising, seeing as that was my first ever invitational.
For Boyceville we got 1st place (exhibition) somehow (we completely relied on our field guide)
TAMU was eventful for me because I would have fully expected to place in forestry (my favorite event by that point), but I ended up doing so in A&P. This was surprising because my cheatsheet was completely last-minute and I was also competing solo. Interestingly, after the award ceremony, the coach told me that the test-graders had made a mistake and I had actually gotten first, only for them to tell me the next morning that I was still in 2nd place. First place winner was Beckendorff.
We got a few points off of the BirdSO forestry test because of grading errors, but we ended up placing anyway. Watching the awards stream was very exciting :)
I found the state competition to be rather easy but this might have been due to the fact that I was only competing in forestry (though in addition, our coach had put me in Wheeled Vehicle and Storm the Castle as an assistant).
In contrast, I found the national competition quite overwhelming. This was kind of disappointing because Dea (forestry partner) had promised to face reveal if we placed, and we didn't. No face reveal this year :(
2023-2024 Season (8th Grade)
Rickards was a very fun competition and I enjoyed taking the tests! Glasgow did surprisingly well and watching the awards was really fun also.
I actually know how Boyceville works this year (last year's exhibition medals & subdivisions were confusing for 7th grade me); the placements in the chart were the placements we got for our division (division 3). They are not exhibition medals because I'm on A team this year (pretty sure I was on C team last year). Overall, out of all 3 divisions (i.e. as it shows up on Duosmium), I got 2nd place in Forestry, 7th place in Microbe Mission, and 15th place in Ecology.
Texas A&M was really fun this year (I really like in person comps). Also got to meet zsfh and rooni and did NOT verbally abuse dea during testing
During BirdSO my joining Anatomy & Physiology really shook up the teams and had basically all the A team people moved to C team (I don't really know what happened) so sorry about that. I did pretty ok though. I feel like we definitely could've done better in forestry but neither me nor dea had studied for a month oops.
State was stressful and I was pretty tired by the end of it, but Glasgow won :) all in a day's work. also we drew a baby goat on the ecology test for bonus points (their name is Granola)
I loved nationals this year, even though half the team including me were sick the whole time. We finally medaled in Forestry after sadly not placing last year, even though I think we could've done better as our silviculture knowledge was pretty bad. I think I did pretty well in my other events too :)
2024-2025 Season (9th Grade)
Tests were really fun to take and I earned 3 medals! (Rickards Forestry silver for the second time in a row!) As always the tests were very high quality.
Opinions
Anatomy & Physiology: Genuinely a really interesting event. Unfortunately it takes a lot of work and it is very difficult to actually place well in this event. It's a great event that's very suitable for its permanent spot on the event list but it's not for me.
Ecology: While I'm not that good at it, it's definitely up there. Eco is really fun and interesting, I just wish I understood it better.
Entomology: I haven't competed long enough to give a definite opinion but I'm enjoying the event so far (I've been looking forward to it ever since I got into ID events). My general interest in bugs definitely plays a role.
Forestry: Might be my favorite event of all time. Writing notes for this event was strangely therapeutic and trees are really interesting. (Despite my love for this event I am not affiliated with Forestry's cult following.)
Geoguessr: Only tested on this once and bombed it. So it's not my favorite
Lean Mean Meme Machine: It's not better than Forestry but it's one of my favorites. LMMM tests are very fun to take and I hope to be able to write one in the future.
Meteorology: I never actually read the rules for this event so I'm probably not very qualified to give my opinion. Good event but I did not know the material at all.
Microbe Mission: Mixed feelings. On one hand the concept of this event looks very promising, but on the other hand, once you start studying for it, it gets very mid. I lost motivation very easily and did not do all that well while testing (my partner carried). Testwriting for this event is fun though.
Storm the Castle: I was only in this event to assist the main builder; I don't really know what this event entails. I probably wouldn't do it again though.
Wheeled Vehicle: Kind of grew on me. I have a general dislike of all build events but WV is one of the better ones. It may have given me a mental breakdown before states but it's really not that bad an event.
Wind Power: Not liking this so far. Too much physics