EXAMS
 

I was just wondering, do any other schools have exams during build season? ours are this coming week and we dont have meetings at all during exams to promote ;studying' for them. this is pretty annoying because it gives us 5 weeks instead of 6.

also, because its during the winter, do any of you teams up north have problems with winter weather preventing you from getting to the shop or whatever to work on the robot?

Re: EXAMS
 

we had our exams this past week. Basically we just kept meeting at normal times, we just encouraged kids to study and that it isnt necessary to come to every meeting, but we also encouraged them to keep in contact and contribute when they could.

Being from the north, I'd have to say we really haven't had much problem with snow and ice. We have left an hour early due to ice storms but other than that, no biggy. We even met on a snowday last year I believe. Our city does a pretty good job of keep the roads plowed and salted, and most people have cars that can take it. (the winter)

Re: EXAMS
 

We are in virginia, so its in that geographic area where the first snow of the season, although its an inch thick max, takes all the bread and milk off the shelves and closes the schools. Obviously the roads are okay to go to school for robotics meetings, but i doubt the school would let us in. One other issue our team has is that we are a magnite school. There are a group of 3 guys from powhatan county, a good 45min to 1hr drive from school in richmond, so they have trouple coordinating being at meetings and such. Because we have other rural counties represented as well, snow could become a real problem for us if we actually got any.

Re: EXAMS
 

We have midterms from Tuesday to Friday this week, in the mornings. There is no school in the afternoons for the same reason, and school activities are technically not supposed to meet during those afternoons. Last year we met after exams anyway, until late afternoon.

Re: EXAMS
 

ya our are coming up in 2 weeks the 29, 30, and 31 of January. We do not have meetings the weekend before, to promote studying. But we do meet till about 5 or so on the week days still. Seems to work for us here.

Re: EXAMS
 

More than likely if you live up north, snow/ice is a very normal, "no biggie" occurance. (If the roads aren't closed due to a state of emergency, travel is never a problem)

Re: EXAMS
 

Heh, we have finals during the first week of build, which is always quite stressful because (a) we're worrying about finals all during kickoff and (b) thinking about robotics all during finals.

Re: EXAMS
 

We have always been fortunate enough for our semester exams to be before the holiday break. We have a new state law that takes effect the 2007-2008 school year that prohibits schools from starting before 14 days prior to Labor Day which means that 1st semester exams will be January 15-17 for Orange County Schools -- 10 days after kickoff. BUT, following exams we will have a 4-day weekend.

Re: EXAMS
 

All of the Canadian teams in Ontario are faced with this dilemma - and our exams are a week and a half, so we only get 4.5 weeks of build time, which makes it quite stressful, on top of the stress from the actual exams

Re: EXAMS
 

We just had exams over the last week. (half day every day)

We didn't get much of a turnout through the beginning of the week, but our meetings on Friday and today had great turnout of students, as we all don't have any real school work over this weekend!

Re: EXAMS
 

Our district, to accommodate the new law passed in Texas, that school can not start before the fourth Monday in August, will be having finals 3 weeks after the new year next year. Which means the first week after holidays we have nothing, than the second week after the Kickoff, we have our exams. But the good think about that is we also have half days and if you are in certain classes, you do not have to even show up for your exams, but since you guys do not have Robotics during that time, I wonder what will happen to us? Maybe start early and finish early because we all get off early?


Pavan.

Re: EXAMS
 

Word to that... although I sort of know that we would still end up in the same kind of time crunches we do now even if we DID have that extra week.

Re: EXAMS
 

Our finals are this coming week. We're taking Sunday and Monday off because just about everyone has a final that day. Aside from that, meetings just about every day.

As for snow. It did snow lightly yesterday but we all ignored it on the ground today.
Even when it does snow badly, we still have meetings.

Re: EXAMS
 

We had our finals this past Wed-Fri, with Friday being a half day, so we ended up gaining four build hours yesterday. Also, school was out for MLK day on Monday, so we just moved it to last Tuesday. And then we're closed for in-service day this Monday, so we gain another 8 1/2 hours. Pretty much, we actually got more done during exam week.

Same here. We had blizzards during the last two meetings, but it didn't bother us one bit.

Re: EXAMS
 

Yah but its cool i only have like two anyway theyre uber easy to web page design and english.:) :) :) :)

Re: EXAMS
 

I had mine this past week. Thankfully, my first 4 periods of the day are my core classes, and then I have band, lunch and then two periods of photo. Thus, with two exams a day, I had two days of core exams, my photo exam (which I was allowed to design myself), and then my band exam. And then of course, my lunch exam, which is a speed-eating contest. Just kidding.

Unfortunately, the shop still didn't open until 4, but after Wednesday, I was there from open to close.

I guess my exams weren't that bad this year. Last two years they really sucked the life out of me. Guess that means I failed at least half of them then.

Re: EXAMS
 

We always have them the first week after kickoff. It's really quite annoying. I think our team attempted to have meetings during midterms a couple years ago but this year we decided to not have them because no one shows up anyway, so no work really gets done.

I wasn't aware so many teams had midterms during the build season.

Re: EXAMS
 

On Thursday I finally finished final exams. It's miserable not to be able to work on the robot because you have to study for finals; it's even worse how when I am trying to study I can think of nothing but robots. I envy the teams that have final exams before build season; I bet they also have good robots, too.

Re: EXAMS
 

Sad part was, I didn't even study (I know, I know) but I feel I've done pretty good. Only one I don't feel so confident in is Biology, and I hate that class.

Re: EXAMS
 

Yup not going to lie there. It does manage to be a problem. But our teacher will be in the shop anytime he isn't supervizing an exam, so if we don't have one we can go in and get some work done!

Re: EXAMS
 

it sounds like exams are a big problem for most teams. i wonder if first would want to consider pushing back kickoff 2 or 3 weeks or so to avoid conflict with exams. I think it would make build season restraints more consistent if everyone had a very similar number of hours to work on the robot.

Re: EXAMS
 

Luckily we had our exams before Winter Break this year, so we now don't have to worry about the extra stress during build season. Last year though, it was during week 2 or 3 when we were all eager to get in the shop, and even though school ended earlier, we still had to go home to study for exams the next day.

How about we just have an exam exemption for all FIRST teams!

Re: EXAMS
 

We have exams this week. But we do robotics anyways

Re: EXAMS
 

The kick-off to the new season has always been followed by the kick-off to midterms the following week.

Re: EXAMS
 

We have exams Tuesday-Friday this week, but we are still having build afterwords. I use build time as a stress reliever after school, especially after I had my AP Physics midterm earlier this week.

And then there is snow. During the past week we have had ice, snain (snow and rain), snow, snow and wind, and ice rain all occur while building. This is especially fun for going back and forth to our pod which holds all of our parts and what we have built so far. Yesterday we had to force the key into the lock in order to get it open and someone shoved to make it earlier to bring our robot cart in and out of our pod which now needs a welcome mat to keep the place dryer. Safety glasses are becoming more useful when going outside because it keeps the snow from going into your eyes when the wind is blowing and making it hard to see outside.

Re: EXAMS
 

Our exams are This week also, Tues - Fir.
The week before us sophomores had it relle rough with like 3 inclass midterms and also 2 test too take on top of it all
I think that was the day my brain was truly in shock

Anywho this week is cake.....

Re: EXAMS
 

My school has mid terms all this week, 2 per day. But we are still allowed to do robotics, they trust that we know how balance school and robotics.

Re: EXAMS
 

MY school had exams the first week of the build season so we met every day at 12:15 so we could still get some work done. we left by 5 each day so everyone had time to study.

Re: EXAMS
 

we have midterms all this week as well. We haven't had any problems with snow closing stuff down atleast not yet:D it does inhibit our team meeting attendance but the way I see it, I need to do well in school and it would be nice to work on robotics durring this week but school comes first.:rolleyes:

Re: EXAMS
 

Bwahaha... Our school exams are next week, wednesday through thursday. Each day we only have 3.5 hours of exams, so we get a good six hours of worktime all week this week. We have off on Friday, so we get a full day on friday and saturday...

The school lets us meet. Unfortunantly, we're kicked out of the school after school hours if there isnt a sporting event going on. The school opens for sporting events, but not for us. B.S.


I wanted our chassis done by the end of last week... if it's not done by the end of this week, with all the work time we get, I think I will go nuts :ahh:

... Even though it's entirely my fault... $@#$@#$@#$@# myself for mismeasuring those transmissions! And $@#$@#$@#$@# the schools welder which for some reason doesn't work! :o ~frusturation~
[edit] the censors make it seem like I said something much worse than I actually did... can't believe that's censored. O.o

As for the snow.. We got somewhere around 8-10 inches of snow today... just one day too early, we could have had a full work-day tomorrow too :p

Re: EXAMS
 

Our team has exams mid-build every year. They are this coming week for our kids, actually. The general rule of thumb is a) we don't meet until 2:30 (school gets out at 12 during exam week) b) everyone goes home by 5:15 latest. This gives the kids ample time to get in PLENTY of studying. School HAS to come first, and it's something we always strive to focus on.

Re: EXAMS
 

our school is on trimesters, so our exams start the week after the build season is over. we get to go from one stressfull time(the ship date) to exams. how lovely

Re: EXAMS
 

If FIRST changed the schedule to make kickoff later, after exams, it would push the competitions out into May and start interfering with AP exams. Unless you mean you want only a 4 or 3 week build period! :eek:

Re: EXAMS
 

We had our exams this past week and the meetings were optional instead of mandatory as usual. Most of the team showed up anyway and during any "downtime" we got out our books and studied.

Re: EXAMS
 

our exams just started. it was so hard to take the physics exam right next to the shop. i was itching to go inside and work some the entire time, i couldnt focus on the test. luckily we have a meeting tomorrow so all the parts that have been coming in during the off time can be put to use.

Re: EXAMS
 

Many oklahoma teams lost at least a week of build time due to inclimate weather, and some even went without power for a week or more.
Shipping hassles and icy roads set us back 7 days, but we were lucky enough to atleast be at home with the heater and tv on.

Re: EXAMS
 

Our first year as a 'home town' team, rather than a commute to team, where we were on the road for 4 hours per day, was a year of snow storm after snow storm. I think we lost almost a third of our build days that year. We pulled it off, and built a robot!

Exams are an issue. We continue to meet, telling kids to be there when they can and let their adult school mentors know when they need to prep for exams and they're excused. We're a five school team, different schools have slightly different schedules, so there's never a day when nobody's there, but some days the student population is thin. Saturdays are always full!

Weather is usually an issue, too. So far this year, we've been lucky!

Re: EXAMS
 

Yes, we also have mid-terms in the middle of build season and we always lose hours during this week long period