Physics Olympiad! (1 Viewer)

[vulgarfraction]

Oh please, learn to read. To Pass the NQE (this is to make camp) you need to know alot. Obviously a HD is not a pass. Obviously if the test was highly based on prelim content or whatever, alot more people would gain higher marks, but like you've said; they don't.

Don't twist my words when you can't express yourself clearly and then tell me to learn to read. Obviously, a pass in a classical sense is over 50%. The significance of which I mentioned isn't that great, at which point you decided to change your mind about what you meant originally.

Have you done the NQE? It's not based on content. 80% of last year's was problem solving, ie. skill. Content won't get you anywhere.

I go to a school where on average half a dozen people make the teams across five sciences and I've been in training classes held be ex-Olympians. I think I know what I'm talking about. But hearsay aside, what experience do you have? Stop relying on people who've achieved a lot more than you have.

 

[undalay]

Don't twist my words when you can't express yourself clearly and then tell me to learn to read. Obviously, a pass in a classical sense is over 50%. The significance of which I mentioned isn't that great, at which point you decided to change your mind about what you meant originally.

Have you done the NQE? It's not based on content. 80% of last year's was problem solving, ie. skill. Content won't get you anywhere.

I go to a school where on average half a dozen people make the teams across five sciences and I've been in training classes held be ex-Olympians. I think I know what I'm talking about. But hearsay aside, what experience do you have? Stop relying on people who've achieved a lot more than you have.

Your arguement has is riddled with fallacy. Why the hell would anyone care about getting 50+% in a qualifying test? Obviously pass is to get the next stage.

Next you say its about skill not content. If its about 'skill' why would you attend training classes. Are you saying these training classes taught you nothing that you already didn't know ?

All i know is that, through your experience - you've failed. You didn't make it to the next round. I don't want to follow your non-achieving footsteps and fail.

Final piece of evidence just for you:

Sydney University holds Olympiad training classes, it is stated and advertised that even if you are not competing in the olympiads it is great revision for the HSC although it encompasses topics outside of the HSC syllabus as well.

On a side note, just out of interest, what school do you go to ?

 

[AMorris]

If you can't work out which school she goes to when all it takes is one click then obviously you're not going to have much chance when it comes to the Physics Olympiad.

Anyway - she's achieved far more than you ever have (and most likely more than you will) so you really shouldn't be talking with such an inflated ego. Do tell us of how you went last year in the NQE (just out of interest).

Questions in the Internation Science Olympiads revolve around the ability to reason and solve problems though obviously a grounding of knowledge is required in the first place.

 

[undalay]

If you can't work out which school she goes to when all it takes is one click then obviously you're not going to have much chance when it comes to the Physics Olympiad.

You miss the point entirely. I know she goes JR, but others don't i just wanted her to state it so i could properly launch off my next argument. However you've ruined it, cool.

Also if paid attention you would know that i am not doing the physics Olympiad. I turned this thread into a general Olympiad thread ages ago.

Anyway - she's achieved far more than you ever have (and most likely more than you will) so you really shouldn't be talking with such an inflated ego. Do tell us of how you went last year in the NQE (just out of interest).

Wow, fallacy much? You don't know who i am at all. So your basing the assumption that she's better than me merely because i do not go to James Ruse. Well the fact is, i can't be bothered to travel like 90 minutes each day to get there. I much rather spend that extra 90 minutes living my life or studying. I could easily have gone there if i wished too.
I didn't do the NQE last year, ask me again at the end of this year, and if i fai; then you have the right to bag me out.

Questions in the Internation Science Olympiads revolve around the ability to reason and solve problems though obviously a grounding of knowledge is required in the first place.

Totally true. In the ISO the grounding of knowledge is mainly 1st year uni content, with some 2nd year content.

 

[undalay]

I concede; A stone monkey is right in most parts.

I apologize to vulgarfraction.
I argue for the sake of it. I mean, it is fun. Nothing serious. (I'm still right )

Also James Ruse is a good school: from its academic ruggedness, to its great educational opportunities. However as a stated before; it is in the middle of nowhere and if you live more then 40 minutes one way, it really isn't worth it imo...

I've met alot of JR people, and the majority are quite nice.

The school i come from even though selective and ranked highly fluctuating from 5th-15th, is incredibly poor in terms of both content and opportunities and it drives me insane, where for example in chemistry im still doing fucking metals where as NSG is doing energy. and my craving for knowledge drives me to study it in my own time.
Although the people here are great.

 

[Zephyrio]

Can everyone just calm down?

Vulgarfraction, Undalay, you both are brilliant!

I was told that you needed to have prelim, HSC and a bit beyond that in terms of content. So really, to reason in the exam you need to have ground knowledge - after all, you cannot solve, say, a quadratic equation without knowing how to divide properly - that kind of stuff.

I'm doing the chem olympiad. There are fifteen from my grade - and only THREE of them are boys. One of them being me. Sigh. Hahaha.

Can someone tell me how much I need to know? And whether I should really bother with trying to prepare? =.=

 

[AMorris]

Way to destroy the lovely argument we had going Stone Monkey, yet ironically in your chastising of me for being "snarky", "wanton" and "offensive", you seem to have committed the same sins.

Now to answer your two questions of me (I will take the bait)

- I attend Sydney Boys High School as you would already have ascertained from my profile and yes it has played a great part in shaping my person moreso in academics than in personality but it has influenced both. Let me just add (it seems you have misinterpreted the conversation) that I only brought up schools because undalay asked about them "[to vulgarfraction] On a side note, just out of interest, what school do you go to ?"

- On the question of how I did in the NQE. I don't do physics olympiad and never have so I didn't participate. If I had done it I probably wouldn't have done that well, but I have never claimed to be good at physics. However I know many who have done physics olympiad and understand the olympiad system quite well.

And your dismissal of schools in relation to the fostering of academic ability, while admirable in its naive idealism is unfortunately not realistic. The top schools attract the top students admittedly, but as a result of this they also have a very academic atmosphere (the value of this in the larger scheme of things is debateable) and also attract the best teachers thus further fostering the academic development of its students. To gauge it by Olympiad participation for example, James Ruse regularly has more than 6 students in the 5 major science olympiads which is about one-third of Australia's total contingent and far more than would be expected from a school which sources its kids only from Sydney (and obviously doesnt actually take the top 150 students each year from the selective schools exam)

[And apologies to Zephyrio for continuing this superfluous argument]

 

[undalay]

Actually, James Ruse is rather close to the geographical centre of Sydney =)

and Uluru is closer to the geographical centre of Australia then sydney .

I'm doing the chem olympiad. There are fifteen from my grade - and only THREE of them are boys. One of them being me. Sigh. Hahaha.

Can someone tell me how much I need to know? And whether I should really bother with trying to prepare? =.= Yesterday 11:49 PM

You should start preparing . Go visit the website, look at the past papers.

 

[simonloo]

Actually, AMorris pwns everyone here because he came 10th in the state for 2unit Maths in year 11.

Gross generalisation
JR>FS
Therefore,
Vulgarfraction > Undalay

 

[undalay]

It's faster getting there from Sydney than it is from Sydney to Perth.

We're talking travel times here, mate.

EDIT: Lol, Ashfield. I see...

The capital is in canberra, a place between melbourne and sydney, because they were the two dominant cities. (Nobody gives a shit about perth LOlz)
As far as i know there is a greater population density towards the east. (Kings cross highest density? read it on wiki or something)
Furthermore you need to catch bus as well to get to JR.

Gross generalisation
JR>FS
Therefore,
Vulgarfraction > Undalay

simonloo > me

 

[vulgarfraction]

On the school which you alluded to's having of six students in the five major science Olympiads, not a great deal of schools have the prospect to enter in the five major science Olympiads, for, I daresay, few schools actually offer Olympiads beyond the Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics ones; very few that I know of proffer the Informatics one. And, to be honest, James Ruse is a better school, as we all concede.

Yeah, that's actually because the fifth olympiad is informatics. Few people know what it is, let alone do it. There's virtually no training until you're in the top dozen-ish. To be fair, there isn't really that much training for maths either.

undalay- I can get to my school in 40 minutes...

drama in general- Meh, I'm not going to be petty, and if you're going to that's your problem. I think I've made my point.

 

[undalay]

May I also have the privilege of asking, and receiving a response, as to why you do not school at New South Wales' finest selective high school, but rather - as it is commonly regarded - NSW's most prestigious and oldest high school?

Oldest high school = FS not SBHS

edit: there is no training at fort st for any olympiads.
I get to school in 15. Difference of 25 each way. Adds up to about 50 minutes a day, basically an extra period.

 

[Kujah]

A Stone Monkey, are you in anyway related to Lucid?

 

[AMorris]

I never knew I had such a reputation. I am honoured (sincerely - I don't want to come off as too much of an arrogant prick). And I accept your apology.

I would have to agree with simonloo's suggestion that Ruse is a better school than Fort Street in most respects. Academically I would suggest High lies somewhere between the two and I don't see us coming anywhere near Ruse in many years academically. Of course that doesn't necessarily mean that vulgarfraction is better than undalay. And from my understanding, SBHS is the oldest high school in the sense that it has been solely for secondary education for the longest whereas (from what I can grasp from wikipedia) Fort Street was combined primary + secondary until 1911.

However, I do not go to High solely for academics. The main reason I chose High in the first place was because it is closest to where I live (which you may be able to ascertain from my avatar) and it means its only a 25 minute bus trip. Even so, if I were equidistant between the two schools I would probably choose High because it offers far more opportunities especially through sport (rugby and swimming for me) and also debating.

And on that note, which school do you attend A Stone Monkey?

[and its spelled feat for the achievement, fete for the party ]

 

[Faytle]

A Stone Monkey, are you in anyway related to Lucid?

Hahahah holy crap, I was wondering the exact same thing.

 

[undalay]

Even so, if I were equidistant between the two schools I would probably choose High because it offers far more opportunities especially through sport (rugby and swimming for me) and also debating.

I'm envious. GPS such a tremendous opportunity. FS rejected the proposal for GPS a few years back. Supposedly didn't want to tarnish its reputation of being 'public' - no idea how that works, just what i heard from the SRC.

edit:

Er -- like -- nup.

Er -- like -- nup

Fort street established 1849. SBHS Established 1883. However AMorris is probably correct about Fort street being a combined primary and high school in the beginning.

There's training at my school. So, undalay, how do you deal with not having a teacher/Olympiad trainer?

I'm quite independent, learn everything i can by myself , if theres something i don't understand, i just ask a HSCer.

 

[AMorris]

Undalay, I don't want to sound elitist anything (lets face high isn't all that good at sport either compared to the GPS) but I don't think the GPS would be looking for another school to join, let alone a public school. Most of the schools already look down on High because we're public and the make-up of the competition hasn't changed in 100 years.

And i think this conversation has gone completely off topic (Physics Olympiad) by now.

And we don't have training for any olympiads at High either (but then again, apart from maths we haven't got anyone selected in the team for years)

 

[undalay]

Undalay, I don't want to sound elitist anything (lets face high isn't all that good at sport either compared to the GPS) but I don't think the GPS would be looking for another school to join, let alone a public school. Most of the schools already look down on High because we're public and the make-up of the competition hasn't changed in 100 years.

Hmmm, from my reception of what the SRC told me:
FS was offered a GPS spot; we rejected as we wanted to maintain our public status. This is what i have gathered. I could be completely wrong, and it could be the other way around.

 

[simonloo]

High represent.

@Undalay: We stole 2 people (Initials GL and JZ) from your school: Were they valuable to FS in any way?

 

[vulgarfraction]

High represent.

@Undalay: We stole 2 people (Initials GL and JZ) from your school: Were they valuable to FS in any way?

GL was in my class in primary school. =)

I think we stole a few too. I just don't really know their initials...