Picture This B

[chscioly]

Has anyone else had the problem of being one of the last teams to arrive to Picture and miss their next event? No team ever actually takes 4 minutes, so my partner missed her next event because the proctors wouldn't let her in. There's nothing that's really been done to fixed this issue.

[hscmom]

A good tournament would not have PT sign in slots every 4 minutes! Maybe 10, but 12-15 is better. That allows the pair to come in, to ask any questions and get settled in. Then, the four minutes of the word list. After that, the pair leaves and the supervisors (two minimum, three better) have a couple of minutes to staple the papers to the grading sheet and then talk about anything odd that happened in the four minutes.

[irishfeet123]

I'm rather glad that there's only 2 people on the event this year. Last year, it was too easy with two guessers, as you could focus on lots less of the broad range of material.

Also, there was a lot of trouble with running the event correctly. At state, the poor proctor dropped her cards all over the floor and we got extra (and probably inaccurate) time to finish. At regionals, the proctor only let one person draw, and told us "You think I'm going to walk around you guys?" and we were like...the rules say SPECIFICALLY that we take turns drawing. Also, we had to sit in a very strange orientation, the drawer sitting at the end of a table and both of the others sitting along one side of the table so that we couldn't see very well.

Although I'm not on this event this year, some of my study tips for this event would be to choose a good picture/science book (usborne science encyclopedia is amazing) and have both of you read it, so that you can connect the terms to the pictures that the book uses to illustrate the term. It's much easier then wasting time trying to think up symbols for them and then forgetting or disagreeing on them. Another good tip is to get a card organizer and just write out lots of index cards with terms, and separate them into subjects. Also having piles of ones you and your partner have mastered, and ones that you have still to practice, is a good idea.

Hope this helps!
~Rin

[JoJoKeKe]

Just a question- has anyone ever gotten all 32 words correct in 4 minutes? My partner and I are finding this to be very difficult, and the most we've ever gotten is 27 words in 4 minutes under competition standards.

What has your experience been? What is the most amount of words that you've gotten correct?

[Mini_Muffins]

JoJoKeKe wrote
Thank you to all the people who have commented. It's very helpful.

So, for the example you gave of +___grade___, could you simplify it to '+___grade' to show that the plus comes in front of the word, or do you have to leave it ambiguous?

In addition, can you draw words completely unrelated to the given word, or even science? For example, the word is "Kingdom" in terms of taxonomy, and you draw a crown to symbolize royalty. I doubt this is possible, but want to know before my partner and I go ahead in this.

I feel as if I'm left guessing what you actually can draw. If the word is "gravity", could you draw an earth with an arrow pointing down towards it? It doesn't say arrows are allowed, so I'm slightly confused here... In a similar instance, the word is "mole", is it possible to draw 6 dots with 2 small ones to symbolize the 6.02 in Avogadro's, with an arrow pointing to a question mark that is circled to emphasize that this equals ___?

If these questions could be answered than I would be so grateful, because it would be devastating to my Nationals-Attending team if I were to get disqualified in this event!!!

If you have any other pointers or suggestions please let me know.

Thanks!

EDIT: I apologize everyone, but I have yet another question. My partner and I were practicing for the word "Hypertension" and decided it would be appropriate to draw a heart with an up arrow right next to it. Is this acceptable since there is an arrow pointing up? I'm feeling really stressed about the rules relating to "symbols", and don't really know how to interpret them! I know that this heavily depends on the supervisor, but if you could give me any pointers on things that are and aren't allowed (ex. smiley faces to show symbiotic relationships), then please let me know. I'm also curious to if you can draw a group of words unrelated to the word given (e.g. an asteroid and a belt for "asteroid belt")

Yes. We draw things completely unrelated to science, like your example. For hypertension, me and my partner draw a candy with a heart. And no, you cannot use dots to symbolize numbers, as that would violate the rule that says "no 'codes'". I don't know about your plus sign question. Yes, arrows are allowed. Good luck!

[mangothecat]

For those with more experience than me, did you study computer science terms? Computer science is a branch of science, but they never come up in competitions or in the PT lists I find online. Thanks!

[hscmom]

Computer science terms? Very few - binary code, software, technology, telecommunications (which is not really Comp Sci).

I really don't expect virtual machine, object oriented programming, NP complete, or (gasp!) COBOL to show up.

[Adi1008]

For those with more experience than me, did you study computer science terms? Computer science is a branch of science, but they never come up in competitions or in the PT lists I find online. Thanks!

Computer science terms? Very few - binary code, software, technology, telecommunications (which is not really Comp Sci).

I really don't expect virtual machine, object oriented programming, NP complete, or (gasp!) COBOL to show up.

When I did it last year, we practiced with common words/concepts like algorithm, data structure, polymorphism, and encapsulation. A lot of words were also present in other sciences (like inheritance in genetics), so practicing helps in other areas as well. I've seen computer science words come up a couple of times (we got polymorphism once), so it doesn't hurt to practice

The goal in picture this is to have a system that is super flexible/adaptable - for example, if you get polymorphism at a competition but have never done it before, you should be able to piece it together without even knowing what it means. Exposing yourself to different types of words, like computer science words (sometimes we practiced with non-science words too, like baseball, lamp, etc) helps you get a feel for how you can build words differently

[JoJoKeKe]

So I have my state competition this weekend (wish me luck!), but I came across something that seemed awfully strange... My head coach said that the state Science Olympiad wanted to know which team was the varsity team (my team) so that they could give us and varsity teams from other schools "harder words". By my understanding, everyone gets the same exact words. Is this unfair? I was slightly startled by this news, not for the reason that we couldn't handle it, but that it puts us at a disadvantage to other teams.

How do you feel about this?

[Mini_Muffins]

So I have my state competition this weekend (wish me luck!), but I came across something that seemed awfully strange... My head coach said that the state Science Olympiad wanted to know which team was the varsity team (my team) so that they could give us and varsity teams from other schools "harder words". By my understanding, everyone gets the same exact words. Is this unfair? I was slightly startled by this news, not for the reason that we couldn't handle it, but that it puts us at a disadvantage to other teams.

How do you feel about this?

Wow. Okay. So I've never had this happen to me, but I don't know if that's legal or not. You should ask someone or a committee from a higher level than state, maybe. But I think that's really wrong. By the way, what state comp. is this Saturday?
Also, GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!