How to prepare for competition

When our school began Science Olympiad in 2015, our team had never heard of test “trading”. In fact, we never even knew there were tests available with or without trading. In fact, we only really learned about the practice of test trading when I attended the Science Olympiad Summer Institute of 2018. It was there I met another coach who was generous enough to open his “library” of tests on his Google drive that he had traded with other schools in other states. He had quite a library and with that library, our students were then able to meet up with other students/schools from across the country and begin sharing or trading tests.

To be honest, at first I was a bit skeptical and actually wrote a piece on scioly.org stating my desire to do away with the practice altogether. But as I came to learn, all the top teams across the country had formed hundreds of relationships where they were actively sharing/trading tests, mainly from invitational competitions that they would never possibly be able to attend. For example, here in NY, many teams attend some of the top local invitationals that someone in say, Texas, would never be able to attend. So if students from a school here in NY meet up with students online from Texas - and the Texans have attended invitationals that our New Yorkers would never attend - they trade their tests.

I understand that if your school does not “trade” or “share” tests with other schools, you might feel it puts you at a disadvantage - and you would be right! It is the same disadvantage your Living Environment or Earth science students would have if their teachers were not preparing them at the end of the school year by using old Regents exams. New York currently posts online Regents exams dating back to the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. Now the question becomes, “Isn’t this cheating?” While it took me a while to come to terms with the idea of test trading, I now believe the answer is no. It is not cheating and it is not unethical. In fact, if you are not using old invitational tests to study from your team will be competing at a decided disadvantage. Is it cheating for medical students to study prior MCAT exams that are posted online? Or for law students to study LSATs that are posted online. And how about those NYS Regents test-takers downloading tests from the 60’s? So, here is the answer. Test trading is not cheating. Many invitational locations actually post their examinations! Trading tests is not illegal and if your team is not using these exams to prepare, you will be competing at a decided disadvantage. We simply cannot put the toothpaste back in the tube. [The only caveat here is if a particular SciOly invitational school (such as Harvard) requests that you do not share the tests, then do not share these tests.]

Is there another way to find/study/trade tests? There are three:

1. If you are on the scioly.org website (and your teams should be registered and on it every day!) you have seen there is a menu at the top that includes a “Test Exchange” section https://scioly.org/tests/. Test here go back a few years. While some of the information changes from year to year (A & P or some builds), many of these tests are virtually identical to the previous year (Crime Busters, Road Scholar, etc…) Have your team members register on scioly.org and start studying with these exams.
2. There is also a similar scioly.org WIKI section https://scioly.org/wiki/index.php/Test_Exchange_Archive Dig in and get started!
3. And finally, there is one more method of accumulating tests that is becoming very popular. It is called the “make your own team tests and share them with any other teams across the country” approach. Over the summer, scioly.org (such a great site for us!) ran a Summer SciOly Study Session (SSSS) where if you wrote a test, and it was accepted by them, they would give you access to ALL the tests that ALL other students submitted to the SSSS. This is available for teachers as well. I submitted an A&P test and have had access to all tests for the past month. The bigger benefit from this is that if your test is not “up to par” they will give you an extremely detailed response telling what needs to be done to make your test “invitational” ready! (A couple of our kids wrote tests they told them were considered “national” level. Start this as soon as possible!) And by writing their own tests, the students gain a better understanding of the material and will do better in competition. I also think I heard that scioly.org will be having another “test writing” forum in the fall. Watch for it!

I will speak more about test sharing/trading when we meet at this year’s coach’s meeting at the beginning of January, but until then, please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have about this critical “need to be in it to win it” approach to SciOly prep! And start researching old tests today!

Once again, my #1 goal this year is to see one of our great NYC teams head to the National competition (in North Carolina next year). To get there, we need to do what other cities and schools - who make it to Nationals every year - are doing. This is a big step moving forward!