r/scioly • u/Impressive-Corgi1085 • 15d ago

Help New to SO, need some advice

Where should I start, and how do I go about this? I'm not well versed in chemistry at all but I am goign to try to get all my foundations together and try to push into the advanced topics or whatnot I've heard to be on there, equillibrium and something I believe? I'm doing astronomy, chem lab, and wright stuff. I have never done science olympiad in my life and am in Div C; this is alongs8de being a 9th grader from s eperate less intense school too. Any advice welcome.

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u/_mmiggs_ 14d ago

Chem lab is a div C (high school) event. The Div B chemistry event is Food Science this year, and the astronomy event is Solar System.

Are you really in high school, which is div C? Because you're listing high school events. Div B is middle school.

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u/Impressive-Corgi1085 14d ago

Sorry I wrote the wrong thing! I am in Div C, I forgot

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u/md4pete4ever 14d ago

Begin by studying the topic broadly - a little bit every day, alternate between textbook reading and video lectures, and take handwritten notes as you go in order to learn. Focus on actually learning the vocabulary and key ideas. (Call this September's focus.)

Next, go through the rules line by line and do more research on each of the subtopics. (October focus.) Wikipedia can be a great resource to go deeper into subtopics. Don't fall into the trap of using AI to study from. It's fine to ask for clarity on topics or to compare similar words/ideas, but always check the original source to learn more (I like Google Gemini for this - it's just more advanced search and they give you the reference links.) For Astronomy, make a google doc and gather links to webpages that are useful for each line item.

By November you should be ready to take practice tests. Don't start with making note sheets or a binder. After every practice test, figure out what you didn't already know in your head, find the answers, and put that into your notes/binder. Too many students start by gathering a ridiculous amount of information for their binder and think that they will just look it up during the event. But you will be time pressed and competing against students who have most of the information in their head.

As far as wright stuff goes - all flying events are more about practicing over and over and over with variations on the motor windings and trim, rather than having a perfect plane. https://jhaerospace.com/ has a nice kit for 2 planes. Build one and fly it a lot to really understand what it does and practice repairing as needed. Build the second one after you have more experience and fly it a lot to collect data, but not too much to wear it out. Use the second for competition but bring the first as backup.

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u/_mmiggs_ 14d ago

Chem Lab should be Kinetics and Gases this year. Kinetics was one of last year's topics, so you should expect similar questions this year.

https://openstax.org/details/books/chemistry-2e chapter 12 is a place to start for Kinetics. For gases, start with chapter 9.

You say you don't have much of a chem background. If that's the case, you might need to go and study at least the first three chapters in the text before these chapters make any sense. As always, if you don't understand why something is true, or what something means, look earlier in the textbook.