Search found 12 matches

by shmno
Wed Feb 01, 2023 10:09 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 ACF Regionals Discussion
Replies: 27
Views: 8129

Re: 2023 ACF Regionals Discussion

I can only really speak about the science, but some thoughts: Although PPBs were lower than they have been, I thought difficulty control across the set was fairly good. Tossups seemed relatively accessible, and easy/medium parts seemed consistent. I thought the hard parts seemed to fluctuate in diff...
by shmno
Tue Aug 10, 2021 9:58 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2021 ACF Nationals: Thank Yous and Discussion
Replies: 26
Views: 9699

Re: 2021 ACF Nationals: Thank Yous and Discussion

I greatly enjoyed the science from this set. I thought it was well-written and focused on topics important to scientists. Special shoutout to whoever wrote the intro to finite element analysis, because I now actually understand (kind of) what FEA is. I did notice a subdistributional quirk towards ne...
by shmno
Mon May 27, 2019 4:06 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: CANONEXPANSION @ HSNCT
Replies: 18
Views: 8115

Re: CANONEXPANSION @ HSNCT

This was a lot of fun, despite some logistical hiccups. I think the fact that the set was written with intentional difficulty variability (the 30/50/20 split) threw some people off when clues appeared "too early," but I enjoyed it. The set had a lot of interesting answerline selections and...
by shmno
Fri Oct 05, 2018 10:51 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: EFT 2018 - Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 51
Views: 14550

Re: EFT 2018 - Specific Question Discussion

The bonus part on Wernicke said that damage to Wernicke's area could cause expressive aphasia, when I think it meant to say receptive aphasia. The bonus part on "isomer" from the Mossbauer spec bonus seemed to describe isomer shift in the first portion, then define an isotope in the second...
by shmno
Mon Apr 23, 2018 10:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals discussion
Replies: 121
Views: 62689

Re: ACF Nationals discussion

The biology tossup answerlines seemed to skew heavily towards compounds/proteins/complexes, and towards molecular and cell biology in general. Granted, they were still on important answers that I haven't seen pop up a lot before, but it felt more unbalanced than the other science categories. I'd be...
by shmno
Mon Feb 05, 2018 2:39 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 Division I SCT: specific question discussion
Replies: 35
Views: 2308

Re: 2018 Division I SCT: specific question discussion

I wonder if literally any bio player got the tossup on "invasive species". Why would anyone think to give any answer besides mosquitoes to a clue about "gene drive using CRISPR to sterilize "these organisms""? This wasn't even prompted!!! Delaware did in fact buzz with...
by shmno
Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:42 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2018 ACF Regionals Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 36
Views: 14014

Re: Thanks and General Discussion

* Without commenting on difficulty, I thought the set was very well written. There weren't too many terrible typos, and the pronunciation guides were awesome and better to read than anything I've seen before. Seconding this - pronunciation guides made questions a lot easier to read, especially with...
by shmno
Sun Nov 12, 2017 5:05 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: WAO II Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 88
Views: 22143

Re: WAO II Specific Question Discussion

Some thoughts: I definitely remember struggling with the mitochondrial membrane TU, as neither I nor Auroni buzzed even after they described and name-dropped the malate-aspartate shuttle. This probably could be improved with a "location and type of action required" player note, or a specif...
by shmno
Tue Oct 31, 2017 3:09 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: PB 2017: Specific Questions Discussion
Replies: 43
Views: 10405

Re: PB 2017: Specific Questions Discussion

a. it seems unlikely to me that someone would have that intuition codified and linked to complex analysis in their head, but not be familiar with the statement of Rouche's theorem. That's me - I've taken two complex analysis courses, but both were at the introductory level (one was a part of a gene...
by shmno
Mon Oct 30, 2017 8:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: PB 2017: Specific Questions Discussion
Replies: 43
Views: 10405

Re: PB 2017: Specific Questions Discussion

Could I see the tossups on "complex analysis" and the music one on "2"? I recall buzzing early on the former because it sounded like going around a boundary gave you information about poles, and I think the latter had a giveaway of something like "this is the number of instr...
by shmno
Mon Oct 30, 2017 7:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: PB 2017: General Discussion
Replies: 12
Views: 4050

Re: PB 2017: General Discussion

I thought the science was overall good, although some of the tossups and easy bonus parts seemed a bit hard (e.g. Ising model easy part, the aforementioned cryo EM and Hamilton tossups, metallicity, Lorentz-invariance). Thought some of the non-science bonuses had varying easy part difficulty as well...
by shmno
Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Question-specific discussion: 2015 Division II ICT
Replies: 12
Views: 4638

Re: Question-specific discussion: 2015 Division II ICT

Could I see the "electrophile" toss-up? I remember answering "acylium ion" early on and expecting to be prompted for either "cation" or "electrophile."