On the difficulty of nationals

[InfiniCuber]

Personally, I think there definitely was a large(ish) jump between the difficulty of tests from Division B to Division C. Although I haven't done many study events myself, the ones I have done, namely Nationals tests, greatly increased in difficulty for me.
My latest experience with GeoMaps at Nationals was pretty good and the test proved to be rather difficult and lengthy, which I enjoyed. It was definitely the most challenging geomaps test I have taken in a while. That being said, that doesn't mean there can't be bad/ easy tests for div. C. But for the most part, I seemed to have noticed an upward trend in difficulty.

[Skink]

Heck, the entire setup of Hydrogeology as an event is completely centered around critical thinking and application of knowledge (granted, this is a deviation into the land of Division C in a discussion that so far only pertains to Division B, but still).

In theory, that's true. In practice, it doesn't always work out. The entire set-up of DP is the same idea, but tests rarely reflect that. The reasoning is, of course, supervisors who are ill-equipped, procrastinate, apathetic, or anything like that.

[may f-ma be with you]

As the champion of Simple Machines in 2014 and 2015x, I can definitely say that the test was very easy. My partner and I walked in expexting an extremely hard test but walked out hoping we didn't make a dumb mistake that would take us out of the running as the test was so easy. Now last year, first through around 6 or 7 place I believe were within 1 point of each other. I also plced 4th in Green Generation and the test supervisor was out state supervisor (NC). I felt that test was one of the best formulated tests I had ever taken. The test solely depends on the supervisor.

[Unome]

As the champion of Simple Machines in 2014 and 2015x, I can definitely say that the test was very easy. My partner and I walked in expexting an extremely hard test but walked out hoping we didn't make a dumb mistake that would take us out of the running as the test was so easy. Now last year, first through around 6 or 7 place I believe were within 1 point of each other. I also plced 4th in Green Generation and the test supervisor was out state supervisor (NC). I felt that test was one of the best formulated tests I had ever taken. The test solely depends on the supervisor.

I was also in Simple Machines, and it was basically the same (except we did make two dumb mistakes we got 6th)