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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
If the kid didn't make the top 12 and get to compete at all, why are you so sure that the kid would have done well at chapter?  Kids often do much better when they're mocking the test at home than they do for the real test.
  [/quote]

Based off practices.  There was a big dropoff between this kid and the replacement, who was actually the 2nd replacement after another kid dropped out.  The team scores were very close.

Even worse, this coach had a makeup round for the school test for people who missed it the first time.  Students didn't know they made the team until the week of the contest.[/quote]

So, after the school round, your kid wasn't even in the top 14 scores for the school (not in the top 4 for the team, the next 8 for individuals, or the first or second replacement)?  What was the school round cutoff to make the top 12 from the school?  Or do you mean that your kid did compete as an individual, but wasn't on the 4 person team?

I'm sorry that I'm not giving you the validation that you seem to expect.  I would agree that if the coach did not clearly communicate that the school round would be used for selecting the team, then the coach is in the wrong.  If the top 12 cutoff on the school round was like 38+, and the coach didn't add an alternate, higher ceiling test, the coach was in the wrong.  If you just assumed that the school round was "something silly" and optional, and that your kid could blow it off but still be given a spot on the team over the kids with higher scores, then you were in the wrong.  Even the Longfellow kid who won state for the last two years and placed 15th at nationals last year probably had to earn his spot on the team again this year.  You can't just skip the audition/tryout but expect to be given the role/spot over the kids who showed up.   Regardless of whether the fault is mostly on you and your kid or whether it's mostly on the coach, expecting Mathcounts to expand their numbers because you think your kid deserved a spot is pretty special snowflake.  [/quote]

You are making too many assumptions about who is posting and who I am.  I am also making assumptions, like your kid competed at Madison's Trust.
I was just pointing out that a coach is not locked into using the school round.  I don't know what the cutoff was, but I doubt it was not very high.  Like I said a big dropoff.       [/quote]
Again, I'm not trying to be antagonistic or make assumptions.  The fact that have been laid out are absurd.  The facts as presented are:
-Kid blew off the tryout for picking the team because they have other conflicting activities.
-Other kids didn't blow off the tryout and scored higher.
-The coach used the scores to pick the team, and the kid wasn't picked.
-You doubt the cutoff was not very high, meaning the cutoff was high, yet there was still a big dropoff.
-You're somehow weirdly invested in the idea that this kid who isn't yours deserved to compete, despite scoring lower than the other kids.
-Mathcounts is somehow at fault and needs to expand beyond 12 kids per school so this specific kid could have competed, despite the logistical issues with housing even more kids for the contest and grading even more tests.

I'm not understanding the issue with not letting the kid compete.  He blew off the tryout and didn't score well.  It all sounds appropriate.[/quote]

I'm not faulting MathCounts or suggesting changes, although they took 15 before, and maybe should do that with their budget issues and only giving 10% to the states.
I meant to say I think the cutoff was low.
The issue is the school did not win because of how the coach picked the team.  Brought this up in response to how someone else complained about doing badly on a school round.
[/quote]

I don't think they've ever taken 15 kids.  It used to be 4, back in like the 70s and 80s.  At one point in the not too distant past, it was 10 kids per school.  Now, they are up to 12 kids per school + homeschooled kids or kids who don't have a school program can also compete.

It sounds like the coach used a pretty standard method of picking the team, which is going purely by scores on the school round.  One could argue that the school did not win because a kid decided to blow off the school round and earned a low score, thus costing him a place on the team.  If the coach had decided to place the kid with the low score on the team anyway, then the kid with a higher score who was bumped would be here complaining.

Honestly, the school round problems are super easy, and it's not even vaguely possible that a kid who is a top tier talent would bomb the school round.  The biggest issue with using only the school round is that the ceiling is very low and won't pick the best kids if the school has a lot of kids who would earn very high scores.  That doesn't appear to be the case at the school in question.[/quote]

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