Microbe Mission B/C

[Ashernoel]

By this do you mean that the only subject change for this event will be the disease list?

Also, do you expect the entire list to change, or just parts?

Based on previous lists, it seems like around 5-10 diseases change each year, similar to what happens for ID lists between years (though strangely Invasives didn't change at all).

Do the numbers of diseases change or do they stay at 50?

*thinking about room on the cheat sheeat* hmmm

but its fine i use times new roman so if i switch to arial narrow i have a lot more room

[Alex-RCHS]

I'm not sure if this is allowed, but if it is can someone describe the Div. C test? What topics did it emphasize? Was it stations or sit-down? Was there anything surprising? Any labs? How detailed were the disease or microscope questions?

[allopathie]

I'm not sure if this is allowed, but if it is can someone describe the Div. C test? What topics did it emphasize? Was it stations or sit-down? Was there anything surprising? Any labs? How detailed were the disease or microscope questions?

Without a doubt one of the most difficult yet well-written tests I have taken. There were 120 questions non-station (very diverse, covering all of the topics) with gram staining fixed cells, but we were incredibly pressed for time; we managed to complete everything with 5 minutes to spare and got 3rd, probably with 1-2 questions seperating us from 1st. There were clinical vignettes (yay!) and images where you needed to identify both the microscope and the type of organism.

[Unome]

I'm not sure if this is allowed, but if it is can someone describe the Div. C test? What topics did it emphasize? Was it stations or sit-down? Was there anything surprising? Any labs? How detailed were the disease or microscope questions?

Without a doubt one of the most difficult yet well-written tests I have taken. There were 120 questions non-station (very diverse, covering all of the topics) with gram staining fixed cells, but we were incredibly pressed for time; we managed to complete everything with 5 minutes to spare and got 3rd, probably with 1-2 questions seperating us from 1st. There were clinical vignettes (yay!) and images where you needed to identify both the microscope and the type of organism.

When you say "one of the most difficult", is that relative to other tests or in general? Personally I found the test to be pretty easy for the most part, but ended up 26th (probably because of the section on identifying the type of microscope & microbe - I thought I finished it, and only realized we hadn't with 1 minute left).

[Ashernoel]

Yea we messed up IDing some pictures and general symptoms and he id section so we got 22

[winchesetr]

I'm not sure if this is allowed, but if it is can someone describe the Div. C test? What topics did it emphasize? Was it stations or sit-down? Was there anything surprising? Any labs? How detailed were the disease or microscope questions?

Without a doubt one of the most difficult yet well-written tests I have taken. There were 120 questions non-station (very diverse, covering all of the topics) with gram staining fixed cells, but we were incredibly pressed for time; we managed to complete everything with 5 minutes to spare and got 3rd, probably with 1-2 questions seperating us from 1st. There were clinical vignettes (yay!) and images where you needed to identify both the microscope and the type of organism.

When you say "one of the most difficult", is that relative to other tests or in general? Personally I found the test to be pretty easy for the most part, but ended up 26th (probably because of the section on identifying the type of microscope & microbe - I thought I finished it, and only realized we hadn't with 1 minute left).

What I think allopathie means (seeing as we were partners and discussed this after the event) is that the length and breadth of the test were difficult (in a fun way)! There were almost no other practice tests that we took this year that could compare in terms of size for one. Although some of the general knowledge wasn't exactly difficult, there were definitely a few questions that required more critical thinking and certainly played a role in placings I would say. Sure, there were a few super challenging invites tests, but this test blew most of the tests we took away, and it was great - super fun and interesting. I also did the Gram Stain portion which was awesome because not many of our competitions actually had a lab portion! Also, to be fair, we weren't super pressed for time, we just double checked our work and were pretty happy with it at 5 mins. Personally, the "disease" portion of the test was my favorite. I would have liked a few more in-depth questions about specific microbes (more in-depth questions on algae, fungi, etc), but overall great test. To the original poster, if you want to check out the test and have the resources, I recommend ordering the nats tests from the Soinc store when they are available

[Skink]

Yea we messed up IDing some pictures and general symptoms and he id section so we got 22

How'd it compare to State?

[Ashernoel]

Yea we messed up IDing some pictures and general symptoms and he id section so we got 22

How'd it compare to State?

Hmm state was very different, it was a lot more of the microbiology and stuff of things. We did really well on it, but it was also sognifantly harder. On the nats test, there were a lot of sections that were very clear and everyone possibly aced, and then there were sections where the directions were a little confusing and the questions difficult (a picture of jaundice and expectation of identifying which disease?? The iding microbes from the low result on images where you couldn't see what was going on (or we couldn't I guess)).

I'm pretty biased tho because we crushed the state test and then failed nats. I'm sure Stevensons opinion on it will be different because they did ok at state and crushed it at nats @elaine

[Skink]

Thanks. Congrats to those who placed at Nationals!

I'm pretty biased tho because we crushed the state test

Btdubs- the high score was below 50%

[Tailsfan101]

Congrats to my team's high school team for finishing 17th and beating Ladue Horton Watkins, New Trier, William P. Clements, and Mira Loma!