Science Bee Journey

My palms profusely sweat as my hands unstably flipped through my Science Bee note cards for the final revision. To qualify for this regional finals competition, I had to score over the 50th percentile in the International Academics Competitions(IAC) science bee qualifier. I took this 50 question multiple choice test with no preparation but luckily passed. While I knew I needed to study hard for regionals, I had not realized the significance of difficulty between the qualifier and competition. 

This tournament consists of 3 rounds with 30 buzzer beater questions. There is no penalty for the first and second buzz during a question, however the third incorrect answer while the speaker is still reading the question results in a minus 1 point. Questions are called tossups, and after the question is read, competitors have 3 seconds to buzz in before the question becomes “dead”. 

When the first tossup commenced, my little preparation made me stick out like a sore thumb. Low confidence and unsureness led to a lot of hesitancy at the buzzer. Other experienced competitors took all my points, sparing me with a score of -1 and an ignominious title of last out of nearly 30 individuals. I left the competition with a torn morale and a silent car ride home.

While I was on the verge of removing myself from the next tournament, encouraging words from my father persuaded me to rethink my choice. He informed me about how the real loss is giving up, and while preparation is important, I should go into the next competitions with low expectations. With my father working late shifts and my mother watching my little sister, I was left to my own devices. 

While studying the information given from the IAC study guide about the topic “luminosity”, I noticed how the tossup asked in the competition went into greater depth. The superficial material by IAC was not enough, so I used alternate resources like Youtube and Wikipedia to help me fill in the knowledge gaps. I picked up study techniques such as the Protege Effect, which states that you haven’t mastered a subject until you can teach it to someone else. I taught most of the science bee terms on my STEM Tik Tok called “Stem8630”, which has racked up over 50,000 views. 

TO BE CONTINUED…