January and February always seem to be busy months for academic competitions and extracurriculars. Thursday was the Mississippi College Mathematics and Science Tournament. The competition is actually two days: Thursday and Friday, but we chose to attend on Thursday. Eleven seniors and juniors from MSMS competed.
The morning portion of the competition consists of two written tests, in some combination of Math, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics (each student chooses which tests they would like to take). I took Math and Biology. Math was 40 questions in 45 minutes. It was all material I had learned before, but I was a lot weaker in geometry than I should have been. I last took geometry in the ninth grade, and although the problems were familiar, I had forgotten some of the theorems and postulates that would have been good to know. After a short break, the Biology test was 100 questions in 45 minutes. I thought this would be a struggle to finish in time, but I actually finished with more extra time than I had for the Math test. The questions were very straightforward.
After lunch, there was the Quiz Bowl style competition. Although it is called a "Quiz Bowl" competition, it is actually quite different from anything else I have ever done. I played on the team, along with three of my cohorts. Many teams would play at once, and the games were 40 questions long. Questions were math and science focused, and displayed on a projector screen. Captains had to raise their hand, with their answer written on a folded piece of paper in their hand. Checkers for each team verified if answers were correct, and spotters watched which teams raised their hands first. Points were received for first, second, and third fastest correct answers.
After this, there was the awards ceremony. Disappointingly, the computer system had issues, and individual placements were not announced. For the school wide competition, we do not compete, because MSMS students represent schools from all over the state. However, we did win 2nd place in the Quiz Bowl portion of the competition: Oxford took 1st place, and we beat Jackson Prep for 3rd place. We later looked up our placement for the individual scores. MSMS had four scores in the top 1%, one in the top 3%, and several in the top 10% and top 20%.
It made me miss my quiz bowl team - it was like something I would have done with them. I had thought I would get to see them there, but my home school chose to attend the competition on Friday instead, so that didn't happen, which was a bit disappointing. However, I enjoyed the competition, and the day off of school.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Science Bowl, Part II
We played our own A team. And we won. We weren't expecting it. We didn't really want it - we had enjoyed proving ourselves against them at practice, but knocking them out of the competition was not something we wanted or expected. We were all very upset after that game, but we had to move on to the next round.
We played Oxford for this game. We knew that after we had beaten our own A team, we had to win the rest of the competition. It was the least that we could do. We didn't. The match was very close. 36-26, in Oxford's favor. Ten points difference - less than one tossup and bonus between us. There were a thousand different ways the match could have gone in our favor - any one of us slightly faster on a question, or a lucky guess, or whether Oxford got the bonus correct on the final question - the match hung on the edge, and I suppose we were just on the wrong side of that edge.
After that match, Oxford beat Walnut for the first place. So technically, we took third/fourth place (more like third in my book). One of our A team players and one of our B team players placed for most individual points scored. Perhaps things would have been very different if we had drawn a different bracket. This was the second time in twenty-six years that MSMS did not send a team to the national competition.
We will come back next year, and next year we will be smarter, faster, and better. We have a score to settle, and I know that I will do everything I can to fix that.
We played Oxford for this game. We knew that after we had beaten our own A team, we had to win the rest of the competition. It was the least that we could do. We didn't. The match was very close. 36-26, in Oxford's favor. Ten points difference - less than one tossup and bonus between us. There were a thousand different ways the match could have gone in our favor - any one of us slightly faster on a question, or a lucky guess, or whether Oxford got the bonus correct on the final question - the match hung on the edge, and I suppose we were just on the wrong side of that edge.
After that match, Oxford beat Walnut for the first place. So technically, we took third/fourth place (more like third in my book). One of our A team players and one of our B team players placed for most individual points scored. Perhaps things would have been very different if we had drawn a different bracket. This was the second time in twenty-six years that MSMS did not send a team to the national competition.
We will come back next year, and next year we will be smarter, faster, and better. We have a score to settle, and I know that I will do everything I can to fix that.
Science Bowl, Part I
One of the advantages of going to Mississippi's math and science high school is that there are a lot more extracurricular activities available than what was previously available to me. One of these is science bowl.
I remember when I first came to the interest meeting for science bowl, and even the first several practices. The room was always crowded. I was even quieter than normal during those first few uncomfortable weeks of school. Some of those days, I hardly had a chance to sit down at a buzzer, much less get a question correct. The questions were far harder than anything I had ever tried before - they were much more complex than the science questions asked in quiz bowl.
I was discouraged, and weekly sessions of losing had me ready to quit. I decided to at least stay until I was cut from the team. If nothing else, it was practice for quiz bowl. I was used to quiz bowl practice four days a week, and just once weekly still seems like very little to me.
I really liked the way that science bowl was run. The sponsor kept track of points - who was scoring, and in what subject areas. As the year progressed, players were cut, until the final teams were chosen. A similar program for a quiz bowl team could clear up a lot of confusion that I know was present in my previous team about who was playing for competitions, why, and if feelings would be hurt. With the team run this way, I couldn't hurt anything by coming to practice while practices were open.
I was surprised when I made the first cut. Twenty-one players were kept and sorted into four teams. I've always had a very poor sense of how well I am doing at something as stressful as a competition of this sort without being able to see any numbers or scores. I've frequently played quiz bowl competitions where scores are not visible, and I am under the impression that we are losing, while we have actually beaten the opposing team by a wide margin.
I was captain for my team of five. We only played three games - one against each of the other teams. We lost the first two games, and finally won the last one. After that, I was certain that I would not be making it any farther. However, when the players were cut again, I had made the B team as co-captain. I would be playing at regionals.
Practices were soul-crushing. The A team won, every time, frequently quadrupling our score. (I wonder if that's why they were the A team.) As the regional competition loomed, we increased practices to twice a week, and then daily during the week leading up to competition. We beat the A team a mere two out of the many matches we played against each other.
The competition finally approached. Matches did not begin until 12:30, and this left far too much time for thought. I could not pay attention during my classes that morning. The whole team was stressed - especially before matches and during the frequent breaks. During the qualifying rounds, both of our teams won all three matches and progressed to the single elimination bracket.
Next, we had to draw letters for our places in the bracket. The A team captain drew first: E. I drew later: F. We were playing our own team. Only one of us would make it past the next round - we knew it would be the A team, and that then they would win the rest of the competition. We had joked all day about what would happen if we played each other. We had laughed because we hoped it wouldn't happen - or at least not until the finals.
I remember when I first came to the interest meeting for science bowl, and even the first several practices. The room was always crowded. I was even quieter than normal during those first few uncomfortable weeks of school. Some of those days, I hardly had a chance to sit down at a buzzer, much less get a question correct. The questions were far harder than anything I had ever tried before - they were much more complex than the science questions asked in quiz bowl.
I was discouraged, and weekly sessions of losing had me ready to quit. I decided to at least stay until I was cut from the team. If nothing else, it was practice for quiz bowl. I was used to quiz bowl practice four days a week, and just once weekly still seems like very little to me.
I really liked the way that science bowl was run. The sponsor kept track of points - who was scoring, and in what subject areas. As the year progressed, players were cut, until the final teams were chosen. A similar program for a quiz bowl team could clear up a lot of confusion that I know was present in my previous team about who was playing for competitions, why, and if feelings would be hurt. With the team run this way, I couldn't hurt anything by coming to practice while practices were open.
I was surprised when I made the first cut. Twenty-one players were kept and sorted into four teams. I've always had a very poor sense of how well I am doing at something as stressful as a competition of this sort without being able to see any numbers or scores. I've frequently played quiz bowl competitions where scores are not visible, and I am under the impression that we are losing, while we have actually beaten the opposing team by a wide margin.
I was captain for my team of five. We only played three games - one against each of the other teams. We lost the first two games, and finally won the last one. After that, I was certain that I would not be making it any farther. However, when the players were cut again, I had made the B team as co-captain. I would be playing at regionals.
Practices were soul-crushing. The A team won, every time, frequently quadrupling our score. (I wonder if that's why they were the A team.) As the regional competition loomed, we increased practices to twice a week, and then daily during the week leading up to competition. We beat the A team a mere two out of the many matches we played against each other.
The competition finally approached. Matches did not begin until 12:30, and this left far too much time for thought. I could not pay attention during my classes that morning. The whole team was stressed - especially before matches and during the frequent breaks. During the qualifying rounds, both of our teams won all three matches and progressed to the single elimination bracket.
Next, we had to draw letters for our places in the bracket. The A team captain drew first: E. I drew later: F. We were playing our own team. Only one of us would make it past the next round - we knew it would be the A team, and that then they would win the rest of the competition. We had joked all day about what would happen if we played each other. We had laughed because we hoped it wouldn't happen - or at least not until the finals.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Back to School
My first week back to school is over. I like that so many of my classes are new. It's a fresh start in the middle of the year. I'm taking University Calculus I. We haven't started any actual calculus yet, so I don't know yet how that's going to work out, but I do like the teacher I have for that class. My Waves class is probably two times larger than my Mechanics class, but there's no way to change that without messing up all the classes I'm taking. I do miss having the small physics class.
And there's my brand new biology class, Microbiology. That class is interesting. It's mostly lab-based, and the final exam is a practical. For the final, we will have to identify an unknown organism in a Petri dish, and write a paper about how we did it. The correct identification is actually only five points of the grade. That's exciting, but a bit scary, too. I hope I enjoy biology labs as much as I like my chemistry labs, or I'm going to be in for a bad time. It's been a long time since I did my AP Biology labs, and it's hard to remember how I felt about them. I want to take Microbiology (and do well in it), so that I can take Human Infectious Diseases next year.
And there's my brand new biology class, Microbiology. That class is interesting. It's mostly lab-based, and the final exam is a practical. For the final, we will have to identify an unknown organism in a Petri dish, and write a paper about how we did it. The correct identification is actually only five points of the grade. That's exciting, but a bit scary, too. I hope I enjoy biology labs as much as I like my chemistry labs, or I'm going to be in for a bad time. It's been a long time since I did my AP Biology labs, and it's hard to remember how I felt about them. I want to take Microbiology (and do well in it), so that I can take Human Infectious Diseases next year.
My English class this semester is Shakespeare II. All juniors have a required research paper this quarter, but it doesn't sound bad at all: 5 pages, 3 secondary sources. I have to pick a sonnet or play, but with the amount of other writing about Shakespeare, I hope it won't be too hard to find plenty of sources.
With my new schedule, I get out of school at 2:00 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, which is convenient. However, on Tuesdays, I have class from 8-4 non-stop, which is tiring.
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