Math has always been my favorite subject throughout my life. This naturally led me to gain quite the proficiency in the subject and allowed me to almost always score really high in the subject. With such a track record I always got a special invitation to represent my house (dignity) in Math Trivia that used to take place every year. An event I looked forward to even more than the actual SAs of the subject. Sure, I may not have procured victories as often as I would like but I still valued and cherished every moment of it.
Hence, when I got the opportunity to host this special event myself I couldn’t hold back and signed up immediately. You’d think that the event is as simple as making a few head scratching questions but it is more difficult than it actually looks. Not only did we spend an entire hour contemplating on the way the rounds will work and interact with each other, we spent our heart and soul into questions to ensure that the mistake that the previous hosts made wasn’t repeated.
– spending an entire hour just discussing the round structure
LO1 – [Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth]
While we were in the process of constructing questions for our juniors we realized just how in the dark we were regarding their Math qualities. As the entire team was made up of math addicts, we always struggled in balancing the difficulty of the questions. This way my love of math became my strength and weakness at the same time. Furthermore, many times I would think of really good questions just for them to get rejected which frustrated me quite a bit but I was able to grow due to this and learn to put forward my points with more accuracy. On the note of accuracy, due to my years of first hand experience in math trivias I was able to point out many mistakes that our predecessors had made and we were as well. One area of growth that I noticed could be scheduling meetings with my team members; our subjects hardly matched up and with the amount of demand by DP made it difficult to efficiently communicate at home.
LO3 – [Initiate and plan a CAS experience]
We as a group planned the entire CAS experience by ourselves. From brainstorming to planning to execution. While we were guided by our teachers, the majority of the work was done by us. We brainstormed regarding the possible rounds and their specific rules and different situations that could occur at the event that we would need to take care of.
“In the dance of unpredictability, even the most thought-out choreography can be swept into the rhythm of the unexpected.”
— ChatGPT, OpenAI
On the day of the event, while the event didn’t go as planned due to the participants failing to answer even the most basic of questions such as 12.1 – 2.1, we still considered the event as a major success as many of the audience & staff members praised us for the brilliant questions that we had prepared for them.
LO4 – [Show perseverance and commitment in CAS experience]
Many times during the CAS experience, I would feel like the deadline of 1 week was too less and that I wouldn’t be able to complete the question set in time. However, I kept at and kept pushing through and not only did we complete the questions with top quality but also completed it before the deadline. Sometimes, the commitment wasn’t needed to be shown due to time constraints but also the times when nobody would be doing anything. Such a commitment in completing the task and unshakeable tenacity from my side was the reason that allowed me to push through and deliver results.
LO5 – [Demonstrate skills and benefits of working collaboratively]
Working in teams could be said to have had more benefits than I could possibly think of. One benefit is that suggestions are always pouring in from all directions at all times and all with different perspectives. This allows us to sometimes double check the questions, make quick revisions in rules or questions to scale the difficulty and much more. One of the benefits that I liked the most about working in teams was that when you would feel slow or not be able to make interesting questions, you’d be sure that questions are being constantly made. You’d be sure that whatever the case is, you always have a safety net that you can rely on.
One skill that I demonstrated and improved was my ability to put my points forward. Many times I would write questions that my teammates may or may not approve and simply delete the questions. Hence, in these situations I displayed my ability to not only include the questions by explaining the importance of the question but also reach a consensus among the group without showing inappropriate behavior.
Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qFuqskZiRbX8fjhAA
