What would y'all think of an online number sense test league?
I think it could work, and this is how... During the summer, we could have a league in which we take a test once a week. The tests of course would come from a third party, and we could post our results each week on the leaderboard. The winner of course is the one with the best average etc...
I think it would be a good way to keep in shape over the summer, and I also think that it will allow us Freshmen-Juniors to compare scores.
The only thing that troubles me with the nature of the contest is honesty. We could eliminate much of it by actually having an online site on which we take the test. This however would require us to make such a site, which I admit, would be super-mega-awesome-cool. But, there is still the possibility that the competitors will be using calculators and paper, and I dont know how to get around that. Other than that, I'll leave the brainchild up to yall.
Best of Texas does this sort of thing with their comp sci/bio tests, but they have teachers proctor their mail-in tests (they dont offer NS tests yet).
Tell me what you think of it. If you think that the idea is stupid, please e-mail me a long whiney chastisement highlighting my stupidity. err..... whatever,
in my opinion, cheating is not a problem (at least for me), becuz the bottom line is, cheating is only hurting yourself, it will not do any good in official contests...anyways, great idea, but i'll be going back to china over the summer, so i don't know. btw, what is this "Best of Texas" thing? i've seen it pop up several times but never asked. i am interested in biology and that's the reason i asked, plz explain if you don't mind.
You know, I thought BOTS was the Texas-shootout tests as well, but Texas-shootout does not offer a comp-sci competition. I'm begining to think that BOT doesnt exist, but then where did I get this ribbon?!?!? I'm going crazy! Actually, I think I'll e-mail Texas-shootout about it. They do offer a NumSen test series though.
Best of Texas offers a 5 tests mail in series in at least BIO and CS. The Bio test is a 30 minute, 20 question test, with typical UIL scoring. The CS test is just like the UIL tests. We have gone 4 tests into the CS tests, and I am in 3rd in CS.
If youre a senior, its too late for you. Next year, ask your UIL coordinator about the BOT tests. The center for these tests are somewhere up north... Other than that, i know very little.
I bet that we could host the contest here, if Mr. Jones doesnt mind. Or maybe I could make a leaderboard somewhere else if he'd prefer. There's bound to be someone out there that would throw a few tests our way to support the league. After UIL and all this general craziness is over, I'll look into this.
I think it's a great idea. It'll give me something to do over the summer. You won't have to worry about any cheating from me.... even if i did cheat, which i wouldn't, i still probably wouldn't beat most of your scores.
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Don't take me seriously or i'll hunt you down and kill you.
Sweet! I had no idea that I would attract support so quickly!
To make this work (bear in mind that this is all still just an idea), we are going to have to advertise the contest a bit. We'll need about 15 competitors for the maiden flight of the contest. My goal for the contest is to keep serious NS competitors practicing over the summer, while keeping the contest free and fair. The only problem I'm facing here is obtaining free tests. Any ideas?
Also, what would y'all prefer? A test system tied to a website interface (this would be a bit more difficult to create, and I'd have to read up a little on web-design), or an e-mail series in which the competitor could print the test out and take it (Easier, but I could only take your word for your scores).
I know two freshmen that would take part, but they're novices, looking to gain experience. One took the test at district, and got a 34, but considering he was only told two weeks before that he was on the team, that's pretty good. So that brings it up to 7.
As for the hosting, you could get a geocities account; or you could use my existing one, and it's really easy to upload your tests to the server. I still think that people should print them out and take them, though, because it mirrors the real test. It might throw people off if they had to type it. At least I think I would be thrown off.
Still one problem: where do we get the tests?
Maybe we could ask 3 or 4 people, to get a little variety, to make the tests. That way, they wouldn't have to make them nearly as often. Mr. Jones might do it, but apart from that, I don't know who else. If Larry White could write them, but i doubt very much that he would do that. too bad
Bye,
Vinay
P.S. Why don't you post your idea on Texas Competitive Mathematics forum. I'm sure some people there would definitely like to do it.
So, do you guys like the idea of printout tests over the website idea? I ask because I'm thinking about making the contest almost official, where at the end we give out trophies to the top three competitors, and perhaps the contest will grow. Despite what y'all say about the cheating problem, I am still worried that people may take more than 10 minutes to do the contest. The only way I can think of to ensure a certain level of candor in the contest is to take away all the ways around the contest. So what do you think? What would y'all want out of the summer contest?
I would really rather have a paper contest to simulate the actual settings.
Yeah, I know some people might do things like taking more than 10 minutes, but I doubt that will happen. I mean, in a real number sense, you can't do that, so why would you do that here?
However, If you do award trophies, then people might be enticed to cheat. I think that the awards are a bad idea, what happened to just posting our names on a leaderboard?
I had planned something like this for a while, but on a slightly different idea.
1. Set up dates during the year that contest normally not held on (like before TMSCA #1, week after "C" release, week after "D" release, weeks between district and regionals, etc.)
2. Set up a download area where tests can be downloaded from 9 to 9:15
3. Set up a number that can receive fax numbers through e-mail (k7.net has some for free, but there are others.)
4. Reqire they fax the tests to you by 9:30 or something
5. Grade them yourself, or put the key up at 9:30 for grading and have them fax the graded tests to you by 9:45.
6. Post a result board where students can see their scores
Prizes are right out - they encourage cheating, which you can't completely eliminate.
It's a wonderful idea to get some interprising test writer to gain extra subscribers for a practice set of tests, or for those who'll want to write a program to generate ns tests.
