Throughout this year, we’ve frequented many science events – albeit some of them being online. Recently, we visited LGS 55 main for Sci-matics, and based on our experience, we decided to put up a guide for anyone else who may be interested in attending any event at all – or just for the next batch of juniors (Peer helpline thing be like.)

1. A portable speaker is a big must:

The speaker truly deserves the best delegate award; not only is it something that comes in handy when killing time during category breaks, but it’s also surprising how many random people approach you to play their desired songs thus making it an opportunity for social interactions. This is a pretty big one for us, considering our team is primarily – highly – introverted. You’ll learn a lot about other people’s taste for music; we realized how popular AP Dhillon was – it was mind-boggling.

2. Help other teams from LACAS:

Although our school hardly sends two teams per event, it is extremely necessary that the teams cooperate to their fullest; floor-crossing is often highly necessary.

Scavenger hunts are the sorts of rounds where you really NEED to cooperate (this is for you competitive A1s).

A victory for any of our teams (*sigh*) is a victory for all of us. 

3. Realize that when people say “JT” they mean LGS JT. (Identity crisis.)

It’s actually really traumatizing when we’re treated like “the lesser of the JTs”. Every announcement and every attendance register has given us these tormenting thoughts. 

Jokes aside, LACAS is truly an underdog; at a recent science event, we were the only ones in coloured clothes while others proudly represented their institutions.

If schools were color pencils, LACAS would’ve been the white color pencil – the pencil nobody cares about – and the one which is usually on its own in the pencil box. It’s safe to say that no one truly knows its worth (maybe not even us).

4. Observe their campus carefully: 

It is essential to write and submit a TLC report on every school campus you visit.

Whenever you visit a school campus, here are some things to take note on: 

    1) The canteen

    2) The common room 

    3) The music room.

Although we didn’t find anything particularly great about points 2) and 3), the canteen is something we NEED to talk about. Upon going to LGS 55, we saw a coffee/chai machine for the first time on a school campus. If that isn’t good enough, they had ICE CREAM at their canteen. Sure, the ice cream part is a bit overkill, but good coffee/chai should be a human right. Along with having a mini fridge stacked with yogurt and a handful of sim cards, that canteen had it all.

5. Decide on which food stall to raid and get 10% off:

If you’ve been to a physical event of any kind, there are always food stalls. A few you could spot on any event are: The corn guy (we swear it’s the same dude every time), chachu fries(even though they sell shawarmas sometimes), the guy who sells shakes and mint margaritas and the ice rolls stall. However, based on our group’s experience, it’s best to decide on one food stall to raid and get that 10% discount for buying in bulk. Another tip on this: if you all agree to put the stall on your gram stories, they give you a 20% off. So next time you’re going to eat you can thank yourselves for reading this bit of the article.

6. Locate a restaurant that everyone agrees to eat at and an elaborate excuse to leave the campus:

Now, eating at the same stalls for three days gets really redundant, and unless your squad has people with the same taste, you might want to pick a spot to eat near the campus beforehand. To avoid waiting for an Uber, I would recommend someplace you can walk to. Before running off to the place to eat, you’d also run into the security team not letting you go, so you come up with an excuse to go out. Since we failed, we hope you don’t. (Something you could use is going to pray but you didn’t hear it from us.)

7. Bring transport over that doesn’t strand you:

So unless you plan to come to the venue yourself, it’s best to pester your society head for transport. Now if like in our case the venue you’re going to has too many branches, you’d need to A) have a smart person on the google navigation and B) Ask the drivers not to literally drift off after dumping you guys. Which most definitely didn’t happen to us and we didn’t have to stand like homeless (read school less) people.

8. Understand the topic of presentation and not leave it to sheer luck:

Somehow, miraculously you make it to the final round of the two compulsory categories, you lose the final round of one and have three hours to prepare for the next, which is a presentation round; what do you do? You don’t leave it on sheer luck and vibe to your own mini Bluetooth speaker concert. You should focus on the topic and prepare for cross questioning, don’t be like us; be better.

9. Make sure everyone brings their hotspots or zong cards:

Running in a cryptography scavenger hunt and finding out that you don’t have the internet to aid your search is a very brutal realization. Unless you want to feel depressed as delegates around you are running back and forth, finding clues. It’s best for everyone to bring their hotspots.

10. Take over the common room:

Now sitting on benches is cool and all, but taking over the restricted common room area is where it’s truly at. Some of them are comfy sofas and couches your team can lounge on, random books that you might find interesting to read, and a mirror to fix your hair at. Again, if it’s off limits then you might get kicked out but it’s worth it for the half hour of relaxation that might just be the difference between winning and losing. 

We hope this small guide may help you conquer future events, goodluck to you all and godspeed.

We hope this small guide may help you conquer future events, goodluck to you all and godspeed.