Is Science Olympiad worth it?

[why...]

Science Olympiad is the worst competition/after school activity I have ever done. Honestly, it is a giant cheating competition. It's all about how much info you can on a certain amount of pages. It doesn't require effort, but takes up way too much precious time, time in which you can be preping for something that really does matter, like ACT/SAT, finals, etc. Because of Science Olympiad, I am not seeded high on my tennis team (due to the fact that I haven't been attending practice much) even though I am one of the top players. Basically, it is a complete waste of time and not worth it.

Sounds like someone's a bitter hypocrite who spends time on a forum for an activity they obviously hate.

If you really feel that way, just quit. Don't waste your time on a club that you don't want to be in, and don't waste our time.

I see where you are going with the whole "hypocrite" thing. No, as a matter of fact, I most certainly am not a hypocrite. The only reason why I joined scioly.org was because I needed to talk to people who are doing the same events I am doing. A high school I am applying to requires that the student shows "interest in math and science." I am missing the science criterion. This is where Science Olympiad comes in handy to manipulate. Frankly, I am not going to learn anything from this competition. I mean, look at it. It is so unorganized. Every region test is different, every state test is different, and there is no proper way to do practice tests other than the 3 or 4 that some people have put on test exchange over the years. You have no idea what to expect on the test due to this. Placing first in the events at state would look great when I apply to the school, but they probably don't know that I can carry a binder packed with everything from the internet, have 8 pages of notes for Dyn.Planet, or just look up how to make a chart on Excel on Google the day of the test, considering Science Olympiad is a small competition. Honestly, placing first of 20 to 30 schools in state is NOT that big of an achievement.

Now, let's see.

Science Olympiad is the worst competition/after school activity I have ever done. Honestly, it is a giant cheating competition. It's all about how much info you can put on a certain amount of pages.

1. Cheating? Not every event requires a cheat sheet. Dedication and effort are required to succeed; you can't just waltz in and win. Despite the fact that I have a massive fossils binder, I only got 3rd at state, and it was because the other two teams knew more than I did and could do more work in a shorter amount of time.

It doesn't require effort, but takes up way too much precious time, time in which you can be preping for something that really does matter, like ACT/SAT, finals, etc.

3. Doesn't require effort? DOESN'T REQUIRE EFFORT? You insult me.

First off, I would like to point out that last year's State Meteorology winner and Ecology runner-up hated ever single moment of it. He believes in everything I am saying on this forum. All he did was print pages from Wikipedia and walk up to take his "much deserved, effort-necessary" medal, as all of you no-social-life people would say.
No, it doesn't require any effort. The only think you seriously need to know how to do is find the page you want on Google, and press print. Oh yeah, sorry you needed the effort to have ink and paper. My bad. Apologies please.

Yeah it doesnt require any talent just lots of money ink and a printer i also have better things to do like archery

[EastStroudsburg13]

I'm not going to tell you how to feel about Science Olympiad, because it's different for everybody. However, I don't think you're looking at it in a way that conducive to actually enjoying it. The idea behind SO is the exploration of science; in an ideal world, the effort you put in is because of your interest in the topic, first and foremost. If you're just going through the motions, yeah technically you can succeed, but you won't get as much out of it.

Also, you haven't provided a state, but I can guarantee you that to medal at nationals, you need to know more than finding pages on Google and printing them. Maybe at (most) regionals you can get away with that, but that doesn't fly at higher-level tournaments without a fundamental understanding of the subject matter.

[shrewdPanther46]

What state are you talking about?

By simply reading the post you made about battery buggy, I can tell the level that you compete at. You are clearly not familiar enough with science olympiad to know how truly difficult and "effort-necessary" it is, because all you do is go out and buy a 100+$ kit for the event (which itself is a complete waste because the kit is garbage and won't win anything in competitions). Hours of designing and testing results in a lot of applicable knowledge in the future, but its clear that you were never exposed to this. At higher levels of competition, it is very demanding, and regardless a great experience.

ALSO, yall are doing this for college and its clear. It is impossible to enjoy the experience (or learn anything) if you are comparing it with productive output for college apps against sports lol, so I recommend you stop ranting and just go do whatever you are interested in, leaving the forums for only those who actually intend on competing.

Reading posts like these just makes me criiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinge

EDIT: looked at ur old post again... wdym "hard to find" ???? After several hours of research, my partner and I were able to formulate a plan for our drivetrain and purchase a the parts necessary right off amazon... It just takes a bit of time and effort (which you were clearly not willing to put in, so you might as well direct that energy towards your interests such as archery instead of ranting on the forums)

[syo_astro]

I do not think that science Olympiad is worth it because it takes up WAY too much time , money , and effort for junk that you wont need later in life (unless you are into cars and electronics)

...All he did was print pages from Wikipedia and walk up to take his "much deserved, effort-necessary" medal, as all of you no-social-life people would say.
No, it doesn't require any effort....Yeah it doesnt require any talent just lots of money ink and a printer i also have better things to do like archery

So before you said events take too much time, now you say the events take little to no time? You pointed out many specific examples without much context (like state, who was helping to run the tourny, etc), so I'm confused. Are you saying build events are worth it, study events aren't?

In any case, all states run differently, and sorry that you run into issues / feel the club wasted your time. Other organizations also have different issues (e.g. Quizbowl, sports, other olympiads), but if you dislike something enough, nobody should force you to do anything. Though, it would be good to reflect on why these issues exist, and whether it is a local problem or a global problem with an organization. Your statements sounded relatively broad, applying to scioly as a whole, so I couldn't tell if this was just a personal issue.

Also, not all events use so much paper (e.g. Astronomy, a high school event). [This is a joke, realistically most people shouldn't need to print so much, though]

Anyway, good luck with archery.

[JonB]

Yeah it doesnt require any talent just lots of money ink and a printer i also have better things to do like archery

I would suggest that many individuals who spend years competing at the highest level of competition think about science olympiad in the same way that you might think about archery. If you want to be a master at archery, it will take much more than just picking up a bow and firing. Every detail would need to be perfected which requires countless hours and effort.

[rafaelnadal]

Sounds like someone's a bitter hypocrite who spends time on a forum for an activity they obviously hate.

If you really feel that way, just quit. Don't waste your time on a club that you don't want to be in, and don't waste our time.

I see where you are going with the whole "hypocrite" thing. No, as a matter of fact, I most certainly am not a hypocrite. The only reason why I joined scioly.org was because I needed to talk to people who are doing the same events I am doing. A high school I am applying to requires that the student shows "interest in math and science." I am missing the science criterion. This is where Science Olympiad comes in handy to manipulate. Frankly, I am not going to learn anything from this competition. I mean, look at it. It is so unorganized. Every region test is different, every state test is different, and there is no proper way to do practice tests other than the 3 or 4 that some people have put on test exchange over the years. You have no idea what to expect on the test due to this. Placing first in the events at state would look great when I apply to the school, but they probably don't know that I can carry a binder packed with everything from the internet, have 8 pages of notes for Dyn.Planet, or just look up how to make a chart on Excel on Google the day of the test, considering Science Olympiad is a small competition. Honestly, placing first of 20 to 30 schools in state is NOT that big of an achievement.

Now, let's see.

1. Cheating? Not every event requires a cheat sheet. Dedication and effort are required to succeed; you can't just waltz in and win. Despite the fact that I have a massive fossils binder, I only got 3rd at state, and it was because the other two teams knew more than I did and could do more work in a shorter amount of time.



3. Doesn't require effort? DOESN'T REQUIRE EFFORT? You insult me.

First off, I would like to point out that last year's State Meteorology winner and Ecology runner-up hated ever single moment of it. He believes in everything I am saying on this forum. All he did was print pages from Wikipedia and walk up to take his "much deserved, effort-necessary" medal, as all of you no-social-life people would say.
No, it doesn't require any effort. The only think you seriously need to know how to do is find the page you want on Google, and press print. Oh yeah, sorry you needed the effort to have ink and paper. My bad. Apologies please.

Yeah it doesnt require any talent just lots of money ink and a printer i also have better things to do like archery

"I have better things to do" wastes time here and rants about how he hates S.O and insults people. Just being really honest, instead of wasting time here and insulting people, you should probably go practice archery. You've clearly haven't been to nats and actually competed against the top schools like Troy (or so I gather from the way you post), so you can't come at all of us with this 'high and mighty, oh it's so easy to win' attitude when you're not actually better than all of us. After you and your school have defeated all the other top schools at nationals, I'll gladly take any criticism you might have because that would mean that your school is better than the others and it validates your point of how Scioly takes no effort since you and your school would have won that way.

On another note, S.O isn't only about science, medals, and awards. It's about enjoying the trips and being able to make new friends. A lot of my best high school memories so far are from hanging out together with my friends during s.o trips, and acting stupid during overnight trips with them. If you're solely focused on yourself and making yourself look good to colleges, you shouldn't be in a team club. You're probably better suited toward individual events such as USABO, and those sorts of contests.

[RasmitDevkota]

If you're just looking to fill your resume to look good for colleges in the most time-effective way possible to maximize yield, I would agree that competing in Science Olympiad at the National level is not the most conducive way to accomplish that because admissions committees simply don't award as much weight to an applicant with a National medal than an applicant that formed their own tech startup for example.

HOWEVER, what Science Olympiad does do, at least for those who truly immerse themselves into the competition, is it gives competitors a true respect and passion for learning which I believe to be absolutely priceless. There are so many students in college that simply want to get their A's in their classes that they completely miss the entire point of university, which is to LEARN. It truly breaks my heart to see my peers enveloped in this state of mind and Science Olympiad alumni consistently stand out as individuals with so much more quality in their academic character. There are no other STEM competitions (other than the international olympiads and maybe science bowl) that truly evoke this characteristic in students.

So now you must ask yourself this question: Is getting accepted to some elite private university worth that >$200,000 tuition cost if you aren't oriented in such a way that will allow you to maximize the utility of its resources that your tuition is covering? Now you may already have a deep and well-developed passion for learning and in that case, maybe you are right about where you should spend your time, but in the vast majority of students I have met, that is not the case.

I personally didn't realize this until my freshman year in college and I have no regrets about what I put my time into in high school. Science Olympiad defined my high school experience and often times came before my schoolwork and while I would not endorse this to others, it was certainly right for me. If the cost of being able to skip English and Economics in order to program robots and study invasive species was having to attend my state's public university over an ivy league school, then that was a cost I was willing to pay because in the end, it made me not only a better, more driven student, but a more mature and wise human being.

[antoine_ego]

If you're just looking to fill your resume to look good for colleges in the most time-effective way possible to maximize yield, I would agree that competing in Science Olympiad at the National level is not the most conducive way to accomplish that because admissions committees simply don't award as much weight to an applicant with a National medal than an applicant that formed their own tech startup for example.

HOWEVER, what Science Olympiad does do, at least for those who truly immerse themselves into the competition, is it gives competitors a true respect and passion for learning which I believe to be absolutely priceless. There are so many students in college that simply want to get their A's in their classes that they completely miss the entire point of university, which is to LEARN. It truly breaks my heart to see my peers enveloped in this state of mind and Science Olympiad alumni consistently stand out as individuals with so much more quality in their academic character. There are no other STEM competitions (other than the international olympiads and maybe science bowl) that truly evoke this characteristic in students.

So now you must ask yourself this question: Is getting accepted to some elite private university worth that >$200,000 tuition cost if you aren't oriented in such a way that will allow you to maximize the utility of its resources that your tuition is covering? Now you may already have a deep and well-developed passion for learning and in that case, maybe you are right about where you should spend your time, but in the vast majority of students I have met, that is not the case.

I personally didn't realize this until my freshman year in college and I have no regrets about what I put my time into in high school. Science Olympiad defined my high school experience and often times came before my schoolwork and while I would not endorse this to others, it was certainly right for me. If the cost of being able to skip English and Economics in order to program robots and study invasive species was having to attend my state's public university over an ivy league school, then that was a cost I was willing to pay because in the end, it made me not only a better, more driven student, but a more mature and wise human being.

I really wish there was a like button on the forums, because this post is truly amazing. It sums up everything I feel about SciOly.

[kenniky]

I feel like everyone just got massively triggered by one troll lol

[syo_astro]

I feel like everyone just got massively triggered by one troll lol

That happens very often here...but I did want to throw in one or two jokes because I was amused:P