Scioly.org

IHateClouds wrote: ↑March 11th, 2020, 7:02 pm

l0lit wrote: ↑March 11th, 2020, 6:56 pm So in the spirit of "replaying" events, I can assume conflicts will be completely the same on the nationals schedule? Changing those up could be a way to make a significant difference without changing too much, although some people will probably get thrown under the bus.

ill just start by saying i have no idea, but i dont see the event schedule changing too much. im not sure how official they are but i've seen event logistics manuals (https://www.soinc.org/sites/default/fil ... 100819.pdf) that specify some suggested conflicts like between similar events so that it might be considered in schedules? i think its mainly so that people can specialize w/o having a bunch of conflicts.

SilverBreeze wrote: ↑March 11th, 2020, 7:25 pm Most of the points I wanted to make have already been brought up, but I'd like to reiterate the monotony of reiterating events. Most test writers will only cover material within a reasonable range, and I'd strongly prefer not spending my sophomore year chasing down the definition for that one oceanography term that returns two Google results, one of which is a research paper, only to be disappointed when I am not tested on it. I don't want to turn studying into a tedious chore I need to complete hoping to stay reasonably competitive when one of my favorite aspects of SciOly is exploring new yet specific fields I wouldn't get to in a classroom. Keeping events really takes the enjoyable aspect out of Science Olympiad, and I want to try new things and continue to learn rather than feel as though I'm wasting a year. In addition, this limits the number of events I can study for over the course of high school, and I feel as though I am only participating in SciOly for one year for the two years' worth of time I will be putting into this. It will make it more difficult for new members to "break in" to the team, especially if some schools with coaches that cannot afford to spend as much time on SciOly decide to reuse tryouts. For every student out there that has complained of a proctor reusing an old test to save time, I expect this to occur much more frequently in the 20-21 season. If a competition is underfunded or short of volunteers or a test writer is short on time, the easiest way out would be to use last year's test. Also, I was anticipating the return of my favorite event my senior year, but now I will not be able to do that event, instead spending that time combing over old events yet again. Many others will be missing out on the events they were anticipating. While there are competitors that will want to keep this year's events because they enjoyed them and did not get a chance to compete at higher levels or at all, and I do understand and sympathize with that, I feel that replaying events is holding SciOly back as a whole and limiting the main purpose: learning.

That was a longer post than I expected.

chalker wrote: ↑March 11th, 2020, 6:47 pm One general policy many of you might not be aware of is that, in general, every year we keep ~50% of the events the same, make minor changes to ~25% of them, and major changes/replacements to ~25% of them. This policy has been in place for almost the entirety of SO for the purposes of ensuring there isn't too much change from year to year.

nicholasmaurer wrote: ↑March 11th, 2020, 7:13 pm To my knowledge, the National Tournament schedule included in the annual rules (which is then used as a guide by many tournaments) is set by that year's National Tournament Director as it needs to be based on what the host site can accommodate. That is why, for example, Disease Detectives was not scheduled for the impound slot this year when it traditionally had been. However, I would expect *similar* conflicts next year simply because they try to minimize student conflicts (i.e. avoiding multiple bio events in the same hour).

SilverBreeze wrote: ↑March 11th, 2020, 7:25 pm Most of the points I wanted to make have already been brought up, but I'd like to reiterate the monotony of reiterating events. Most test writers will only cover material within a reasonable range, and I'd strongly prefer not spending my sophomore year chasing down the definition for that one oceanography term that returns two Google results, one of which is a research paper, only to be disappointed when I am not tested on it. I don't want to turn studying into a tedious chore I need to complete hoping to stay reasonably competitive when one of my favorite aspects of SciOly is exploring new yet specific fields I wouldn't get to in a classroom. Keeping events really takes the enjoyable aspect out of Science Olympiad, and I want to try new things and continue to learn rather than feel as though I'm wasting a year. In addition, this limits the number of events I can study for over the course of high school, and I feel as though I am only participating in SciOly for one year for the two years' worth of time I will be putting into this. It will make it more difficult for new members to "break in" to the team, especially if some schools with coaches that cannot afford to spend as much time on SciOly decide to reuse tryouts. For every student out there that has complained of a proctor reusing an old test to save time, I expect this to occur much more frequently in the 20-21 season. If a competition is underfunded or short of volunteers or a test writer is short on time, the easiest way out would be to use last year's test. Also, I was anticipating the return of my favorite event my senior year, but now I will not be able to do that event, instead spending that time combing over old events yet again. Many others will be missing out on the events they were anticipating. While there are competitors that will want to keep this year's events because they enjoyed them and did not get a chance to compete at higher levels or at all, and I do understand and sympathize with that, I feel that replaying events is holding SciOly back as a whole and limiting the main purpose: learning.

That was a longer post than I expected.

mooonstone wrote: ↑March 11th, 2020, 8:18 pm It's a tough topic. I know many people on the forum have had the chance to compete in at least one regional/invitational tournament, or maybe even states, but for a number of other teams, like mine, we have yet to compete, even at the regional level. While I agree that next year would probably be a lot less exciting and more competitive if the events/rules remain the same, I also would like at least some opportunity to compete in the events that I've spent all these hours on this past year, and I'm sure other people in the same situation as me would agree as well.

If there was some way they could at least postpone the regional tournament to a later date (maybe even during the summer?) when conditions improve I would be willing to have that and still be able to rotate new events for the 2021 season.