MIT Invitational 2018

[nicholasmaurer]

In all honestly, nothing would make me happier than if one of these big tournaments decided to do it, and followed through even if some teams decided not to attend. Then, more of the teams that were actually going for the tournament experience could be the ones attending.

The above opinions reflect that of EastStroudsburg13, and not of Scioly.org. Also note that the above opinions only apply to invitationals, and not regionals, states, or nationals.

As one of the MIT Event Supervisors, I would have preferred they follow their previous practice of publicly posting all of the exams. MIT Science Olympiad runs the largest and most competitive tournament in the Eastern US, and possibly the whole country. Their tests are all provided by alumni who are trying to give back to Science Olympiad as a program. However, many teams are not financially able to attend and share in that experience. It seems to me that my effort would be more beneficial if my exam was shared openly in the same spirit as open license software.

Science Olympiad is a competition, but it is also about teamwork and learning. The latter two are better served (in my opinion) by open test sharing, rather than the complex test exchanges and trading networks that have blossomed over the past few years.

Please note these comments do not reflect the position of Solon High School Science Olympiad.

I would much prefer this as well, of the two options. I believe last year the exams were only published after nationals though, which as far as I saw, did not prevent private trading in the months before then. As the most prestigious invitational being run currently, MIT is in a unique place where they could likely release tests immediately after the tournament and not face too many repercussions, and could potentially start a trend in that regard.

Agreed - while access to high-quality tests is certainly a draw, MIT's main appeal (from my perspective) is the extremely high level of competition and participation from teams across the country.

[nicholasmaurer]

Just wondering, how are they preventing test trading

They are putting a unique watermark onto the tests for each team (e.g. the files sent to School A will have a watermark saying "School A"). If they then find those tests posted or traded publicly, they will no longer allow School A to attend MIT in the future.

But MIT will still be posting all the tests to their website without a water mark right?

Only after the National Tournament in May. While some of these tests will still be valuable study materials because the underlying event is unlikely to change much next year (e.g. Disease Detectives), other events may drastically change topic or rotate out (e.g. Rocks and Minerals).

[Rêveur]

They are putting a unique watermark onto the tests for each team (e.g. the files sent to School A will have a watermark saying "School A"). If they then find those tests posted or traded publicly, they will no longer allow School A to attend MIT in the future.

But MIT will still be posting all the tests to their website without a water mark right?

Only after the National Tournament in May. While some of these tests will still be valuable study materials because the underlying event is unlikely to change much next year (e.g. Disease Detectives), other events may drastically change topic or rotate out (e.g. Rocks and Minerals).

Unfortunate.... oh well.

Do people know of other invitationals that release 2018 tests immediately after their tournaments?

[antoine_ego]

But MIT will still be posting all the tests to their website without a water mark right?

Only after the National Tournament in May. While some of these tests will still be valuable study materials because the underlying event is unlikely to change much next year (e.g. Disease Detectives), other events may drastically change topic or rotate out (e.g. Rocks and Minerals).

Unfortunate.... oh well.

Do people know of other invitationals that release 2018 tests immediately after their tournaments?

UTAustin does. I recommend their Astro test which is actually pretty difficult.

[Ashernoel]

Can’t people photoshop out the watermark if they really care?

[Adi1008]

Only after the National Tournament in May. While some of these tests will still be valuable study materials because the underlying event is unlikely to change much next year (e.g. Disease Detectives), other events may drastically change topic or rotate out (e.g. Rocks and Minerals).

Unfortunate.... oh well.

Do people know of other invitationals that release 2018 tests immediately after their tournaments?

UTAustin does. I recommend their Astro test which is actually pretty difficult.

It was written by someone who got second at nationals last year and helped with Astronomy this year at MIT!!

[ellesbelles]

In all honestly, nothing would make me happier than if one of these big tournaments decided to do it, and followed through even if some teams decided not to attend. Then, more of the teams that were actually going for the tournament experience could be the ones attending.

The above opinions reflect that of EastStroudsburg13, and not of Scioly.org. Also note that the above opinions only apply to invitationals, and not regionals, states, or nationals.

As one of the MIT Event Supervisors, I would have preferred they follow their previous practice of publicly posting all of the exams. MIT Science Olympiad runs the largest and most competitive tournament in the Eastern US, and possibly the whole country. Their tests are all provided by alumni who are trying to give back to Science Olympiad as a program. However, many teams are not financially able to attend and share in that experience. It seems to me that my effort would be more beneficial if my exam was shared openly in the same spirit as open license software.

Science Olympiad is a competition, but it is also about teamwork and learning. The latter two are better served (in my opinion) by open test sharing, rather than the complex test exchanges and trading networks that have blossomed over the past few years.

Please note these comments do not reflect the position of Solon High School Science Olympiad.

I loved how you put this in perspective. Right now, I've been using MIT and Princeton's old invitational tests to learn what information's out there that I need to study (because event descriptions are vague) and they've been so valuable and well written. I think it's unfair that the teams with the most money have access to these resources, and I was really touched by the fact that Princeton became the first to waive invitational registration fees which shows we're slowly taking the steps to make science education more equitable and financially accessible to all.

[Raleway]

Definitely agree with many of the points that were made. MIT's opening speech was all about the helping and teamwork that goes around despite the competitive aspect of Science Olympiad... maybe they ought to take a listen? But regardless, they ran quite an amazing Invitational. My team was quite lucky to first get a bid to this tournament and then after finance the means to attend. Adding on to the previous comment by ellesbelles, it seems that PUSO, Cornell, SOUP, and GG might have plans to openly release tests after a set amount of time. This seems quite reasonable as it gives competitors some advantage (the draw) but still those invitationals release tests in a manner so that they are useful for this competitive season. Hopefully this trend is embraced at all the next invitationals!

[daydreamer0023]

Definitely agree with many of the points that were made. MIT's opening speech was all about the helping and teamwork that goes around despite the competitive aspect of Science Olympiad... maybe they ought to take a listen? But regardless, they ran quite an amazing Invitational. My team was quite lucky to first get a bid to this tournament and then after finance the means to attend. Adding on to the previous comment by ellesbelles, it seems that PUSO, Cornell, SOUP, and GG might have plans to openly release tests after a set amount of time. This seems quite reasonable as it gives competitors some advantage (the draw) but still those invitationals release tests in a manner so that they are useful for this competitive season. Hopefully this trend is embraced at all the next invitationals!

Speaking of the opening ceremony...the admissions guy who stalled by telling stories. That was fairly entertaining. XD

Anyhow, I do agree with you Raleway on the timely release of tests. I come from a team where this is our very first invite that we have ever attended, since we don't have any high caliber (or even mid-caliber for that matter) ones available in our state. We've had our share of difficulties, so I understand the effort it takes for a team not within the surrounding states to be able to attend such a tournament.

Additionally, if tests aren't released immediately (and don't have a preventive measure for spreading beyond the teams in attendance), this only furthers the development of privatized test trading (which I didn't even know existed until this year), which can potentially (and I mean potentially) undermine the teamwork and cooperation that Science Olympiad seeks to promote.

Again, this has been a bit of a touchy topic lately, so I'm hoping that the discussion on this will remain civil and we won't blow each other to bits. :/

[knottingpurple]

The thing is it must have been schools which attended MIT last year which shared the tests in the past, so did other schools which attended complain or something about other schools getting access to the same resources as them? Because it's not like it really has any impact on the invite itself...