Question on tryouts and selecting final teams

[Prasanna S Adavi]

All,

When you have more kids than the allowed 15/team, how do you hold the tryouts? Do you test them on prior year topics? Do you test toooc wise or a standard exam for all? Do you give them time to prepare for the tryouts? 

Just trying to understand how to resolve this scenario for next year.

Thanks in advance.

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[PRMS SciOly]

Hi Prasanna,

Two things to note:

1. Pick 15 students to get coverage for all 23 events

2. If you are still left with more than 15, run practice tests either from previous years with same topics(might need to combine multiple tests) or write your own test. You can also use results from any invitational tournaments you attended.

Hope that helps

Thanks - Arjun

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On Feb 5, 2025, at 8:51 PM, Prasanna S Adavi <prasan...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Sara Cupp]

This is a great question! We had 45 kids to start the year. We had 3 teams, and then we tracked who showed up at 3 invitationals and who performed well. Some kids dropped and some kids added. 5 weeks before regionals we have reorganized the teams. I believe we have a good chance to advance to state with 1 and maybe 2 teams. 

I’m not sure the best way to handle the changes though the year. We should have given a test at the beginning and also had people list classes taken, like ap bio and chem and physics I and II. I’ve considered maybe it would be good to give everyone 4 events and have 2 partners (same for 2 events) to give more flexibility when availability changes. I’d love to hear what has worked for large teams. 

Thanks!!

Sara J. Cupp

sara...@gmail.com

Cell:      425-753-0540

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[Sara Cupp]

I think it is sad to “cut” anyone from Science Olympiad. Have enough teams so everyone can compete. 

We also have some members that do not want to compete, but that like to volunteer at middle school and elementary events. 

Figuring out how to motivate everyone is a trick for sure:)

Sara J. Cupp

sara...@gmail.com

Cell:      425-753-0540

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ScienceOlympiadCoaches/F23C76A0-755B-4351-AE2C-9C770B15F5B7%40gmail.com.

[Dugger, Jaclyn]

We have a very small (3 kids) second team so we don't have to cut anyone, most invitationals only 1 of those 3 actually competes on the secondary team because they are moved up to fill in kids who couldn't make it (illness or other obligations). To decide who is on the "main team" we use the results of the first invitational of the year. This motivates them to study well for the events they want to compete in.

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Kind regards,

Jaclyn Dugger

DCHS Science Department

Science Olympiad Head Coach

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[Garland Dughi]

Our high schoolers run the SciOly club; the Executive Committee (ExCom) is a small group of elected students chosen the prior year.  During the summer, they participate in the Captains' Summer Exchange to get access to tests written by other high schoolers across the country. At the start of the school year, before rules drop, they start the application process: every student has to fill out an application form asking what classes they've taken that might help with SciOly, what other extracurriculars are vying for their attention, how many hours they will devote to SciOly, what their priorities are, what events they want to do, and if there is anyone they'd like to partner with (or not partner with).  Every student also is interviewed by ExCom and takes a 1-hour test that is a distillation of questions from the available Captains' Summer Exchange tests in all non-build events.

Students are chosen for their devotion and past performance, which might put a great newcomer on a lower team, but those great newcomers are encouraged to continue the next year with expectation of advancing to a better team.  Team announcements are made the week after rules drop.

While I agree that students who want to do Scioly shouldn't be turned away, the reality is that some students are just there to bolster their college applications, so our process seeks to weed out those who are just there to say they were on the team but aren't willing to put the time into it.  We have had 4 teams for the last several years and will probably not increase the number -- we've found that you can realistically have 2 really good teams and 2 other teams of reasonable quality, but beyond that it's hard to find really motivated students.  Plus 4 teams is about as many as an event coach can realistically mentor.  We have occasionally made adjustments to the roster, but that's rare.

Hope that helps!

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ScienceOlympiadCoaches/CA%2BbQ3O9abuVmHkYwP-wW2yVmtpCq2V1NqqKksiYHLrU7rKNKaA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Prasanna S Adavi]

Thank you all. This is really helpful. In summary, either there is a test BEFORE the team starts preparing, or at some point after the teams are formed.

A follow-up question: DO you administer tests by topics (or) give a generic test and later decide who gets which topic? As much as we want to give students their preferences, sometimes the logistics do not work out. How do you make that determintion?

Again, thank you all for chimimg in.

[Joanna MacDonald]

The latest post I found on the SciOly wiki was an update in 2021 and it didn't have very much information. How do captains join this?

[Garland Dughi]

I think that coaches or student team leaders need to determine how it works best with their program; there's no one-size-fits-all answer to your questions.  We give a generic test on the current non-build events of that season (seeking to be as close to current rules and topics as possible), and ask students to answer questions in at least 2 of the event sections but anything further will be counted as a bonus.  And you're right -- sometimes the events that students test on do not coincide with the events they choose as their top picks for the new season.   Students may have chosen to test on those events because they did the event last season, but perhaps there's a new event that intrigues them this year and they really want to do that -- this is OK.  We make the assumption that if they can do well in a different event, they have the perseverance and learning ability to do well in a new event.  The main thing we try to do is get students who are motivated to work hard.  Take one of those kids and put them in any event and they'll do fine.

As to the question on how to join the Captains' Summer Exchange, that's by invitation only for students who are team captains.  They should join the blue or red Discord servers, create a name for themselves by being part of the community, and reach out to one of their newfound friends to invite them.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ScienceOlympiadCoaches/783cb075-0703-40c5-a7e0-737846b0eccdn%40googlegroups.com.