<p>Thanks for the advice. I’ll just e-mail a few other schools in my area and then return to my school if none of them reply (and yes, there is actually proctoring service, for a fee. But then, considering that collegeboard tests often cost just as much as amcs and that amcs are much more important in a decision than sat scores once I get into te margin, I won’t mind paying $60 for the test). Definitely, I shouldn’t procrastinate. </p>
<p>Well, most of the community is proud of my school’s ‘academic excellence,’ so decrying the school for its lack of support for academic ambition isn’t really an option since it’ll just result in my being ostracized from the teachers (and even though none of them will provide me support outside of class material, I still need their recs).</p>
<p>I’ve always wondered, how do these type of schools see Science Olympiad? Presumably not on the level of the Chemistry, Physics, Math ones, but still meritorious?</p>
<p>Science Olympiad - I’m sure it will be seen in a favorable light - it involves actual hands-on experimentation- and so many prospective scientists these days aren’t even doing experiments - they’re studying their college textbooks MIT’s motto is “mens et manus”. I was thinking of persuading my school to go towards National Science Bowl but once I found more about the Olympiad and found that the Bowl = memorization, I’m nowleaning towards the Olympiad.</p>
<p>Also, as for the AMC situation at my school - my school has a new math head - so I talked with her. She said that she’ll talk to the coach of the math team (for some reason, I keep on forgetting to talk to the coach of the math team about it) - I told her that I’d be willing to share the expenses with a couple of classmates (not as ambitious to the point of e-mailing every school in the area, but still ambitious enough to be willing to pay a partial fee for the exam). Hmm. I suppose I was too shy of contacting another teacher. Actualy, I didn’t even contact any teachers at my school - I shied away since I didn’t want to strain any relations; this is not the attitude of an independent scientist… - the teacher who rejected my offer was one who offered the AMC 10 at the junior high - and I wanted to take the AMC 10 since I don’t want an empty slot for it on my MIT app. Still though, who cares about AMC 10 when there’s the AMC 12? (since it really isn’t much more difficult to get to AIME via AMC 12 and first 10 q;s are very similar).</p>
<p>I’m surprised - Lakeside did reply and it doesn’t offer the AMC on the second date.</p>
<p>MIT has 2 slots for “AMC10/12”, lumped together. I interpreted this to mean that you put down your top 2 scores, regardless of which test it was, not that one slot is for AMC 10 and one slot is for AMC 12. The top 9th and 10th graders, trying to qualify for USAMO, may choose not to take the 10 at all.</p>
<p>I see. Thanks for the info. =) OTOH I might enter the local university’s early entrance program and apply for MIT for grad school so this may no longer apply to me if I’m accepted to the early entrance program.</p>
<p>I’ve succeeded into getting my school to register! It almost came to the point in which I had to pay the $65 fee but the school volunteered to pay for it, so I only needed to pay the $15 proctoring fee. I hope anyone else as ambitious as I am will read this and find what they want to do if they want to register for the second date.</p>
<p>Thanks, Texas! Dunno about how well I’ll do (well, I really must study over the break) although I do consent to having bombed on the USACO round that I’ve just taken (oh well, I’m first year and was completely unprepared for how to submit the solution so it shouldn’t be too damaging to my self-esteem). I didn’t prepare at all either (I really need to do those sample problems without time limits now).</p>
<p>my teacher submitted my name for the state-level because i was one of the top three scorers at my school (the best and top students took it, and our school is a top-ranking school). how do we know if we are a semifinalist? i know the system is different from that of the biology olympiad.</p>
<p>Thank you texas. However, I have already checked the schedule thoroughly, and I still do not know whether I have done anything significant to merit recognition (on say, applications) for this chemistry olympiad.</p>
<p>schools have until April 2nd to administer the local exam. The regional coodinator (a professional chemist, not a chem teacher at your school) will look at all the results for the region and decide who gets to take the nat’l exam based on the quota of exams for the region. The coodinator will choose the top students from all of the participating schools in the region, with a max of 3 students per school. So if students from several other schools do better than you, you might not advance even if you were one of the top 3 at your school. </p>
<p>If you feel confidant that your teacher did what s/he was supposed to, I’d sit tight a little longer. There may be schools in your region who have not done the local exam yet. The regional coodinator has until April 4th to tell the nat’l office who will be taking the exams in your region. You could ask your teacher to contact the regional coodinator to find out when the schools with eligible students will be contacted about the nat’l exam.</p>
<p>thanks again. do you know usually what is the cut-off score for chem semifinalists in california then? i got a 48 out of 60. im sorta frustrated because i need to submit this application by april 1st, which is still spring break (so i can’t contact teachers), and according to u i probably can’t know for sure my standing for chem olympiad until april 4th. i think being able to put chem olympiad semifinalist might boost up my app a bit. what do u suggest that i do?</p>
<p>you can’t really predict the cut-off because it depends on the scores of other students in your region. 48/60 certainly sounds good. I’ve only had one student qualify for the nat’l exam, and he made a 45 or 46 out of 60 on the local. But if you are in a region with a lot of strong schools, the cut-off could be higher for you than for kids in our region.</p>
<p>If you are really wanting to know your status, have your teacher contact the regional coodinator.</p>
<p>THe cutoff for my region was 45. Unfortuntely, because I was foolish enought o study for the Science Olympiad instead of extra organic chemistry, I got a 44. I feel so terrible. :(</p>
<p>For some reason, Lakeside doesn’t seem to be into the Chemistry Olympiad. Only 7 students total took it in my region, 3 from Bellevue High.</p>
<p>yes, that does suck, to be only 1 pt away. however, there’s always next year =)! yea, i got a 22 for bio olympiad; cutoff was a 26. i misread several questions. sad sad…</p>
<p>for chem olympiad, if you qualify for the national exam, that means you’re a semifinalist right? all three of us at our school made the cutoff, but only two per school get to take the national exam. my teacher submitted my name as alternate, in case one of the students can’t go. as of now i don’t know whether both of those two are going or not…i wonder if im still counted as a national exam qualifier…gah im in a lot of science activities but i think being able to put that on my app might give it an extra boost</p>
<p>avocado - “Semifinalist” is not a term the chem olympiad people use for this. I suppose you could use it anyway, but you would need to provide some info about what you mean (“top 3 in my school on Chem Olymp exam”.). If you get to take the next exam, you could say “qualified for Nat’l Chem Olym exam.”</p>
Dunno about how well I’ll do (well, I really must study over the break) although I do consent to having bombed on the USACO round that I’ve just taken (oh well, I’m first year and was completely unprepared for how to submit the solution so it shouldn’t be too damaging to my self-esteem). I didn’t prepare at all either (I really need to do those sample problems without time limits now).</p>