Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

Actual debate on one of my college teams: For competition, do we go to Texas for finals, or California for spring break (lots of profs like to give tests right before spring break, especially during our 2-day travel window)?

Knowing that there is a conflict coming up, or a potential conflict coming up, means that plans can be made to mitigate the damage, if any, that that would cause. Even if your team is one of those teams that will only go to the Championship if they qualify, you should discuss this now.

Why now and not when (if) you qualify? Let's assume that you do not qualify first. You've had a discussion about what you want to do in the case of qualifying, which covers topics like time management and studying ahead--not a bad discussion to have anyway. Now, let's assume that you do qualify. Instead of trying to figure out who can and can't go due to tests and what-have-you in the 3 days you get, you know that, say, 5 students won't be able to go, 10 students will definitely be able to go, and 4 students are questionable right from the get-go, and can plan accordingly.

My personal opinion is that if you think it's not a good idea for your team for whatever reason, don't do it. Lack of studying for finals and APs would probably qualify as a good reason not to go to the Championship.

Bonus idea: Don't go to a third competition at all, and save the money for a) a second robot to practice with, b) postseason events, c) next year's registration, d) next year's championship, e) seed money for a big fundraiser (assuming that the school district or sponsoring organization will allow you to save the money, of course).

Now, about that dilemma I opened with: The decision the Aero Design team (who had that question) reached was CA for spring break, partly because we didn't want to have to make up finals, and partly because the weather would probably be better (and partly because we'd be on spring break as soon as we got done with the competition). Note that mid-semester tests are a little bit easier to make up than finals at SDSM&T, so that played a little bit of a role.

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

:confused: Check the dates. VEX World Championships are on the same weekend. :-(

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

Our team constantly battles championships and exams, but more so on the college level. The last 5 years the championships have fallen either on the week of final exams, or the week before final exams. Obviously this is tough on the mentors because they either need to make up the exam, or study in a very short amount of time.

However, I can't recall a single mentor in the past 5 years who didn't go to the Championship because of finals, and as far as I know everyone did okay on their exams.

It's been said here, but I'd like to reiterate. Particularly in AP classes, you are learning for an entire year for one test. Most likely you've taken countless practice exams in addition to the usual class work that needs to be completed. Hopefully your hard work over the course of the year has allowed you to approach the days leading to the AP exam with a sense of confidence and relaxedness. However, attending or not attending championships is something that is completely up to you and your team. What works for one team, may not work for another.

-Brando

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

As a mentor I attended a regional the weekend before I took the FE exam (IIRC) and I found it very nice to focus on something else for a bit. It should just be an incentive to get your studying done early, because no one crams for exams anyway :D

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

For the past three years, the date of Battlecry@WPI has been around the time of AP exams (either the weekend before or between AP exam weeks, I believe). It's a great event and my team loved attending it when these events did not conflict, but we decided it was not feasible for our team to attend on the years it did conflict. Maybe it's not quite the same as the Championship, but don't feel that you need to go to the Championship if it's going to put undue stress on your students and/or your mentors. Their academic habits and successes are important to their futures.

While the AP exams are a big deal, the thing that worries me even more is that the mentors also have their college final exams. (I'm also shocked that they're the first week of May- ours are always the third or fourth week of May.) Between robotics and math team competitions, I missed a lot of school in high school during the spring, but it was no big deal. I was a motivated student and I stayed on top of the work fairly easily. College is a different story- I work even harder, but missing even one day of classes can be detrimental to understanding the material in that class, and professors are not as easy going about making work up. (Example: Last fall I missed one day of a lab class while representing MIT at the SWE National Conference, and my professor refused to let me make up the work because I "was not taking school seriously by putting my extracurriculars first". (Side note: I disagree with her about this; I think in the long run my interactions that day with women practicing engineering will be more valuable than the four hours I would have spent in that lab class.)) Maybe not everyone is like me; maybe your mentors are superheros at succeeding in their college courses and have no problem missing classes, or maybe their professors are more lenient in allowing make-up work or rescheduling exams. Still, I think missing two or three days of classes the week before your final exams is nothing to laugh at. The Championship is great, and I really wish I could have been there for the past two years, but I know I made the right decision for me by going to class and watching the webcast on Friday afternoon and Saturday after class. You have to make the right decision for your whole team, with the input of your whole team. Maybe you can do it this year, maybe you can't.

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

For the college students - Sometimes (and I stress "sometimes") the professors will be willing to give you an exam on a different day given large enough notice. Since you know the dates of Championships already, speak with them the first day of class to see what your options are.

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

I heartily agree with this. If you talk to your professors early, you have a much better chance of getting things to come out the way you want them to. This is good advice for high school kids too. Everyone appreciates advance notice. Lisa is correct as well that some professors will not care that you asked early, and you may have to bend to their will.

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

IB students, heads up: IB exams also start that Monday (May 2nd).

As my psych teacher said this year at our IB review session: If you don't know it by now it doesn't matter anyways.

Yes, rest and studying are important, but if you didn't know it the weekend before the test anyways...

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

Speaking from my own experience:

I have been in the IB Diploma program for the last two years. At the end of the second year in the program, students are required to test in their six subjects – each subject has a minimum of two “papers” or exams, and can have as many as three papers. These exams take place throughout the entire month of May (I seated 15 papers totaling 24.5 hours of testing/writing).

This last year, my team attended two regionals and CMP. During the entire build and competition seasons I found myself thoroughly involved with FIRST (I was my team’s captain), as well as thoroughly involved studying. Managing my time was a struggle; but in the end I was able to manage it (unfortunately, the combination of the two caused me to lose a LOT of sleep).

I will be the first to admit that IB, FIRST and sleep do not go hand-in-hand as far as time management is concerned. Although I had two weeks in between CMP and my first exam, I was able to prepare myself sufficiently throughout the school year to take my exams and score well on all of my exams. It is a stretch for students to take on higher-level curricula (such as AP and IB) and be heavily involved with FIRST and manage to perform well on their exams. Ultimately, it is the students’ decision to find the time to prepare adequately for their exams – if this means that they can’t attend CMP, so be it. Ultimately, the final answer should come from the students’ parents/legal guardians as to whether they feel comfortable with their child(ren) going off to something such as CMP, or even a regional, knowing that the students also need to be prepared for their exams.

IMHO: although FIRST is a great program, it should not come before a student’s academic achievements; but rather, it should prove to foster their desire to learn and achieve more.

In the end, what your team decides to do is not for us to decide. If students are able to prepare properly for their exams and attend CMP, that’s great; if they can’t, it’s not the end of the world. I will admit, though, that it does not seem wise for any mentors with finals which clash with CMP to attend CMP.

-Rob.

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

Yeah, IB is the bigger concern on our team. Remember that if APs are the only/main tests that your school offers, that CollegeBoard offers late APs (as well as "Outstanding" aka late late APs) for conflicts. A discussion well ahead of time with CollegeBoard may help alleviate some of the conflicts with the championship.

As for IB, I really don't have any idea. With APs and IBs, 2nd year IB students are averaging 10 exams a year, and they're hitting the Outstanding APs even without FIRST events...

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

I've always been able to take exams early if I've needed to. Never later, but I must admit it was very nice to get the exams over and done with to enjoy whatever I was going to (usually an FSAE event).

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

I've always been able to reschedule exams if needed, given a school-sponsored activity. It's really easy if you have 2 or 3 people who need to take the same exam at a different time than everybody else--I've had that a few times for Aero Design. Sometimes it'll be early and sometimes late, depending on professor. It'll almost always be a different exam, though.

Non-school-sponsored activities, though, are not as easy to work around.

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

With IB there is no option to take the test on another date. Its a now-or-never deal.

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

Tips for taking an exam:

• If it's open-book, spend an hour to get organized: know where to find information.
• If it's closed-book, memorize for it starting an hour ahead of time.
• If it's math or science based, there isn't much you can do if you don't already understand the concepts already. Hence, memorizing the nuances is your best bet. Don't spend more than an hour on it.
• Focus when studying; do not get distracted. A great pair of noise canceling headphones may help. Bose headphones & Pandora are my personal secret to doing my best work in short amounts of time.
• Take the exam on an empty (but settled) stomach.
• Bring small amounts of sugar as brain food and healthy snacks for in between exams.
• If a student honestly expects to pass any of 7 consecutive AP exams in addition to being apart of a robotics team, why do we even question the ability to study? Let the overachievers achieve in their own way. Maybe they're destined for greatness, or maybe they're destined to suddenly realize their limitations.

Ergo, the team should attend the championships. The effects last longer and are further reaching than worrying about an exam. In the absence of extenuating circumstances, even a [bachelor's level*] college exam that takes more than a few hours to prepare for is an exam for a class the student should fail due to lack of understanding. FIRST should not count as an extenuating circumstance.

Re: To go to Championships...or not....
 

This is an important point. Many high achieving students, skating by without studying a day in their life, will hit a brick wall when the material is finally hard enough to catch up with them. This has happened to so many people I know in college. If you think a student is careening toward that brick wall in high school, I would recommend that someone "talk some sense into them" to avoid being a victim of their own perfectionism, rather than assuming that because they are intelligent enough to get away with it before that they don't need your help. This may be a key situation to seriously consider disallowing or strongly discouraging a student from attending the Championship.