User:Thenerdicat
Thenerdicat (Nerdi, Cappptain Nerdi) is an eighth grader who goes to Luther Jackson Middle School; she did the events Dynamic Planet, Water Quality, and Mousetrap Vehicle (2020-2021), and did Dynamic Planet, Disease Detectives, Ornithology, Food Science, Bridges, and Electric Wright Stuff (2021-2022) (rip Rocks & Minerals and Green Generation). She captained the team.
| LJMS | User attends Luther Jackson Middle School. |
 | Thenerdicat attends Federal Bird Intelligence. |
| Thenerdicat | |
|---|---|
| General Information | |
| Years in SO | 2 |
| Current Team | Luther Jackson Middle School |
| Grade | 8th |
| State | VA |
| Division | B |
| Medals | |
| Total medals | 7 (mid amount for 2 years of SO do not attack thankies)
|
| Competitor Info | |
| Competitions attended | 6
|
| Events competed in | 8 |
| Volunteering | |
| Years volunteered | 2 |
| Number of competitions | 4-5 |
| Number of tests written | 5 |
2020-2021 Season (7th Grade)
Nerdi had just entered the world of SO (virtual L) and was very much a noob. There are memories of chaotic virtual meetings she would call "more chaotic than a Twitter cancellation". She did the events Dynamic Planet and Disease Detectives at the Lake Braddock Invitational 2021 and placed 20th and 39th respectively for the events. Major throwing but Nerdi was not provided any rules or knowledge of the event by anyone, not coach nor teammates and thus relied on the wiki as a crutch. Scrolling the Disease Detectives page for her on the wiki brings much nostaliga now.
Given that LJ was under a new (err inexperienced) coach and they had not stacked nor filled out both A and B Teams so towards the end of the Winter Break of 2020 she was pulled into a much better student-organized meeting where the old eighth graders decided how to stack A & B Team (the introduction to a skill she had to learn the hard way). She was given the events Water Quality and Vehicle Design (Mousetrap Vehicle) and had to drop Disease Detectives. Her Vehicle Design partner was also her Dynamic Planet and former Disease Detectives partner so they split work evenly between events. Partner would carry Vehicle Design and Nerdi would carry Dynamic Planet. Nerdi only drew the diagrams of the potential vehicle and read through what would be known to her as past rules to learn little about the event. She stressed greatly over the Q&A replacement for virtual testing at Newton Regionals and now still has trouble finding peace with the event because of that (5th at regs though). Dynamic Planet she did not throw too much (8th at Newton but stupidly long binder). Water Quality was another story, though; she completely fell off and threw (awkward DQ happened at regs she will never disclose details of).
Water Quality put Nerdi in a state of mental despair and she continued to grind Dynamic Planet to forget the debacle. States was an underwhelming experience as it was virtual on Scilympiad for most of her day. Vehicle Design was a disaster, Dynamic Planet was mid, and Water Quality Nerdi and her partner laughed over stupid meme answers. Water Quality states was a special case, though. Same questions from regionals would pop up now and then, the overlap between DP Oceans and Water Quality was visible, etc. She placed 6th at states in Dynamic Planet, 9th in Vehicle Design, and 11th in Water Quality. Nerdi misses Water Quality greatly and has developed a crippling envirosci addiction as a result.
Overall the test quality of 2020-2021 was ok, very VASO. She learned that not all eighth graders call seventh graders "sevies" and the basics of Scilympiad (tob/oob time would sneak up again on her). She rates entry year of SO 6.2/10.