<p>So I'm applying for lots of scholarships (woot!), and I want to apply for one from the National Society of Professional Engineers and MathCounts. I qualify to apply, but one of the questions is about how your participation in MathCounts influenced your decision to pursue and education in engineering, and I honestly don't remember much about MathCounts. Is it okay to exaggerate/make stuff up about the particular experience? I mean I'm not going to just pull something out of nowhere, but maybe say how it made me see math in a new light, like actually applicable to real-life, even though I probably realized that later..</p>
<p>I would say that you can bet that the other people applying for this scholarship are going to have great stories about how MathCounts influenced them. I think you should take some time to try to remember more about it and how you felt about it at the time,etc… you can probably pull a story out of it (of course a truthful one if you reflect on it for awhile). It probably did help you along the way. Maybe it was the start of your realization that math could be enjoyable. Hope this helps! Good luck with the scholarships.</p>