{"id":677,"date":"2011-05-10T20:34:44","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T01:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/blog\/?p=677"},"modified":"2011-05-10T20:36:25","modified_gmt":"2011-05-11T01:36:25","slug":"cs-contest-season-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/blog\/cs-contest-season-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 CS Contest Season Ends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What are Computer Science Contests?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Computer Science contests are huge in Texas.\u00a0 Basically, you have a contest every two weeks if you live in Houston or the surrounding area.\u00a0 In the fall, the contest season starts in early October with the 7 Lakes Kick-off Classic which starts the whole contest circuit.\u00a0 The season wraps up each year in May with the UIL State Academic Meet Computer Science Contest.\u00a0 This state contest is the culmination of all of the local contests.<\/p>\n<p>Each contest typically has a programming component and a written test component.\u00a0 The programming component consists of a packet of problems that each team must attempt to solve.\u00a0 A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/0708_uil_prac_packet.pdf\">standard packet<\/a> will have 12 problems.\u00a0 A more expanded packet may have 18.\u00a0 Each local contest has the option to create their own packet and set the number of problems.\u00a0 The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uiltexas.org\/academics\/computer-science\">UIL Computer Science Contest<\/a>, a statewide contest in Texas, has 12 problems so that is the number most local contests go with.\u00a0 The written component consists of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/0708_uil_practest.pdf\">40 question multiple-choice test<\/a>.\u00a0 Test questions focus on logic, algorithms, data-structures, and language features.\u00a0 All tests used in Texas use Java as the testing language.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why take teams to contests?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Contests force students into a real team environment with the added pressure of finite time.\u00a0 Most programming contests only last two hours and only allow teams to use one computer.\u00a0 Teams must learn how to share a single computer and work together in a timed environment to solve problems.\u00a0 Students learn valuable teamwork and problem-solving skills in these settings each and every time they compete.<\/p>\n<p>Another benefit is that many large software companies use similar problems for interviewing purposes as those often seen in contest packets.\u00a0 A common programming problem often involves determining if an exit from a maze exists.\u00a0\u00a0 A former student of mine was asked to explain solving this exact problem when interviewing for a Google position.<\/p>\n<p>Winning is contagious!\u00a0 Get a few students to go compete and actually win and your enrollment will spike upwards.\u00a0 All students want to be a part of a winner.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How do I get involved?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you are in Texas, check my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/cs_cont_list.htm\">contest dates page<\/a>.\u00a0 Several Texas contests are already posted.\u00a0 If you are in another state, find out who hosts contests or host your own.\u00a0\u00a0 Check out my site for information on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/contestmaterial.htm\">hosting your own contest<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Looking forward to next year<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The contest season here in Texas just wrapped up.\u00a0 It was a ton of fun and I look forward to what next year holds.\u00a0 Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are Computer Science Contests? Computer Science contests are huge in Texas.\u00a0 Basically, you have a contest every two weeks if you live in Houston or the surrounding area.\u00a0 In the fall, the contest season starts in early October with the 7 Lakes Kick-off Classic which starts the whole contest circuit.\u00a0 The season wraps up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15,31,14],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apluscompsci.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}