<p>Would you people please stop worrying over all the little details and stop fighting over whether or not Crimsonuser is being reasonable in not telling you what his project is (personally I agree with him, but I’m not getting into that argument)? There are only 6 days until we hear back about whether or not we move on to regionals or not. I wish you all luck (unless you are in my region, jk). Hopefully, we will all do well and we will be talking to each other at regionals in a few short weeks.</p>
<p>Only 5 more days left :O</p>
<p>I was wondering if a little deviation from the rules would affect judging. For example, there’s a name of a university in my paper. CB said there would be no disqualification but since this is not a part of the judging criteria, it shouldn’t affect the judging? (Other than any personal bias of the judge against that U…which is unlikely)</p>
<p>^ How well you edited your paper is part of the judging criteria.</p>
<p>For grammar/spelling mistakes, yes. But mentioning a U isn’t really that.</p>
<p>Clarity of expression: Is the project understandable? Is the material presented logically and coherently? Are the key points, problems, and solutions stated clearly and precisely? Does the student use tables and figures appropriately? Was the Research Report carefully proofread for spelling and grammar?</p>
<p>So, really, it’s not a part of the judging process. (I don’t think. lol)</p>
<p>And they let one or two spelling/grammar mistakes pass.</p>
<p>CLEARLY, you didn’t follow the rules of the guidelines, which they emphasize to never mention any names, gender, or affiliated organizations. I looked over my paper multiple times, just checking I followed this rule, the most important one. It’s the first thing they tell you:</p>
<p>"To ensure fairness, Research Reports are initially evaluated without reference to any personal information about the students.</p>
<p>Absolutely no student names or reference to gender (“he” or “she”), high schools, school officials, advisors, mentors, affiliated research organizations, or acknowledgements of the entrants are to appear anywhere in the Research Report. These references may only appear on the Supplemental Form and Confirmation Page."</p>
<p>“Research Reports that do not adhere to these guidelines may be disqualified from the Competition.”</p>
<p>So, hopefully they don’t disqualify you for this. It’s not really part of the judging process, but more of a rule thing.</p>
<p>^I already talked with CB and they guaranteed that there would be no disqualification lol</p>
<p>So I’m thinking there’d be no problem at all since it isn’t a part of the judging process</p>
<p>I accidentally added two consecutive hypothesis sections… Haha. I doubt this would hurt me that much though.
Would continuing a project that was previously entered and got an award boost chances of getting any-finalist?</p>
<p>might lower your chances instead…not too sure about that though.</p>
<p>You already entered the project before? How far did you get? If you entered the project this time, how much improvement did you make on it. It rather has to be quite significant to win again.</p>
<p>^My sentiments exactly.</p>
<p>Oh yeah. Update on my problem: Siemens rep told me I wouldn’t be disqualified, the name of the University would not affect judging in any way and one grammatical mistake wouldn’t affect judging in any way either =)</p>
<p>^ lol Im kind of nervous/excited. I don’t know whether to check the list for regional finalists first or the semifinalists. =0</p>
<p>Not sure whether I should be confident right now or not lol</p>
<p>I’m hoping for reg. finalist at least LOL
Maybe I’m being too optimistic but I like being optimistic =)</p>
<p>What region are you?</p>
<p>The list is supposed to come out this Friday! Good luck to everyone</p>
<p>what kinds of research projects DO they reject?</p>
<p>and how many entries are they expecting this year? i want to calculate my probability of getting picked. lol. I feel that it is unlikely that I’d win…</p>
<p>I heard there were going to be 4000 applicants this year–can someone verify if this is true? If so that leaves us about 7.5% chance of winning semis.</p>
<p>West Coast =P</p>
<p>^LOOOOOOOOOL where did you get that number from??</p>
<p>I just realized that my research report was written in “I” terms while my abstract was written in “we” terms (i.e. “we hypothesized”)… I wonder if this is going to affect my chances…</p>
<p>^^ Someone else in CC said it. It was in a Siemens thread but I’m not sure which one. I might be wrong though.</p>
<p>It’s never over 2000…historically observed. Also, the I, we discrepancy in your report will not affect your chances. For example, the report may be written in we format but certain parts like the part where you explain your hypothesis etc are written in I format.</p>
<p>^ Wait, do you mean that the part where I explain my hypothesis is required to be written in “I” format? Because I did exactly the opposite; I wrote, “we hypothesized…” on my abstract. :/</p>
<p>If I did that, do you think they’ll take off points on the “Creativity/Originality” aspect of the project?</p>