irish eu science *******d?

waheyyy

ok, i posted this in the jc board but i'd say theres more traffic here so.... anyone heard of this before? i got a letter today inviting me to take a test in dcu for the science olympics or something? if anyone has done it before i'd be grateful if ye could give me some info on it? what'll be on the tests like? is it the jc syllabus or what?

ZorbaTehZ

I did this twice but only at senior level so I'm not sure if it's the same? Did you have to select one of the science subjects to compete in ie. Physics/Biology/Chemistry?.
Congratulations on getting selected btw - it means you scored in the top 150 in the country.

waheyyy

yeah i have to choose one of the 3. i'm in the senior one i'm sure. which subject did you do? what's the actual exam like?

cookiemonst3r

well i did the physics one. the test is not really stuff from the lc syllabus. its very broad and requires you to think a lot...like you couldnt study for one of these tests.i suppose knowing everythin on the lc syllabus would help

Aoibheann

I did EUSO a couple of years back.. For the irish section (exam held in DCU in Jan) I entered the biology one (if you do decide to choose the biology exam, DNA and various cell structures came up in a major way.. I'll see what else I can recall), thought I did alright, hung about that afternoon for results, hey what do ya know, I end up with a silver medal. Finishing in the top two meant that I was on the Irish team for the EUSO itself. We were divided into two teams, each one with three members, one physics, one chem, one bio on each.. Unfortunately it took place in Galway that year, instead of somewhere in an entirely different country, but hey, Galway's actually a lot of fun! We spent a week there, of which only 2 days consisted of the competition tasks (analysing water in a variety of ways, something to do with mussels opening and closing, i forget now what else!).. and only a few hours of those 2 days.. we went on loads of trips, to the cinema and loads of places, shopping.. 'twas great! Final night there was a presentation ceremony at the meal, giving out the medals etc, our team got a silver, so we were really pleased. Anyway, I'm rambling now, but I'm just trying to give an insight into what it's like if you get into the European part of the competition! You make loads of friends from all over, so it's seriously cool! If you do go for it, try your best because it seriously can be a great experience!

ZorbaTehZ

waheyyy wrote:

yeah i have to choose one of the 3. i'm in the senior one i'm sure. which subject did you do? what's the actual exam like?

I did the physics one so I can only give you info about that.
The exam was quite hard, and the standard was very high.
I'm assuming you're in 5th year, and in that case you should just try and do as best as you can - you'll be going up against 6th years, so you are already at a disadvantage. I think it's a case of people scoring above a certain threshold getting the reinvite to the year afters, so definitely make a good effort at it.

waheyyy

i'm actually only in 4th year! it says on the sheet that 6th years are ineligible, and only 5th years born in 1991 can enter. so all 16 year olds really. i'm thinking of doing the physics one, because even though i'm doing the 3 of the sciences this year my best subject is maths. will being good at maths help me in physics do ye think? do ye think i should go and cram the jc course again? or would it helped if i looked ahead to the lc physics book?

PurpleFistMixer

I believe the IPhO (Irish Physics Olymp.) is open to sixth years (at least I'm hoping, I want a chance to go to Vietnam next year...). You might be doing the EUSO which is for 4th years.

I did the IPhO last year (and the Physics EUSO the year before).. pretty tough stuff. In 5th year I only had one physics class a week so we hadn't much of the course done by the test came around, so basically any questions that weren't on mechanics, lenses or particle physics were impossible. Hoping it'll be a shade easier this year!

Don't bother with the JC course, I can barely remember it but I severely doubt it'd help. Being good with maths would help, and make sure you understand stuff like things being proportional to other things.

ZorbaTehZ

waheyyy wrote:

i'm actually only in 4th year! it says on the sheet that 6th years are ineligible, and only 5th years born in 1991 can enter. so all 16 year olds really.

Well I did mine in February of this year when I was in sixth year - but thats not to say that they didnt change it. Regarding the Physics *******d test, maths isn't that extremely important - having a very good grasp/understanding of the concepts is though, and (consequently) also being good at applying concepts to real-life problems - at least in the exam I did, it was. Any maths involved is rather basic anyways (LC Physics maths, mostly just plugging values into some formula)

waheyyy

yeah i think the one ye'r thinking of is the physics *******d, whereas i'm on about the euso for people just finished the jc. i can't decide between chemistry or physics. if maths isn't going to help me that much anyway like. urgh. i'm thinking less people might choose chemistry maybe???? i hate choices

ZorbaTehZ

waheyyy wrote:

yeah i think the one ye'r thinking of is the physics *******d, whereas i'm on about the euso for people just finished the jc

Ahh ok, I see the confusion. In that case nothing I said is relavent lol.

JC 2K3

In all my years in school I only vaguely heard of stuff like Olympíad and the likes, and despite consistantly gettting As in maths and science, was never infomed of any events like these.

Perhaps I didn't get a high enough percentage in my JC maths or science exam(despite getting As in both), but still, I reckon I'd have been able for something like this. Sorta regret never taking part in anything like it.

PurpleFistMixer

I believe you can go without being invited. Science teachers are supposed to be able to volunteer their top 1/2 students to go and compete.
I think they have intervarsity competitions like this anyway, for college-goers. They have a maths one at least afaik.

waheyyy

well i picked chemistry in the end. don't know why. just had a feeling about it. i got the less stress more success chemistry for lc. damn it's hard. tell me, am i just wasting my time learning any of it?

ZorbaTehZ

waheyyy wrote:

well i picked chemistry in the end. don't know why. just had a feeling about it. i got the less stress more success chemistry for lc. damn it's hard. tell me, am i just wasting my time learning any of it?

Talk to the relevant teacher in your school about extra homework, notes etc. if they're nice, they'll oblige.