How Do I Increase my Chances of Winning Best in Fair

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aaryanh
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Joined: Sat Jul 20, 2019 12:43 pm
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How Do I Increase my Chances of Winning Best in Fair

Post by aaryanh »

Hi,

For the past three months, I've been working hard on my project, and things seem to going pretty well.
I've always wondered what the most important factors would be when it comes to the CWSF or ISEF. in CWSF,
Each age category has a certain number of bronze, silver, and gold medalists. To be specific, there's 40 bronzes, 20 silver, and 10 golds from each age group.

Now, it's pretty apparent as to how you can win a silver or gold medal, but my question is, how do judges come to a consensus on platinum awards, which is the best from each gold medalist from each age category. I've seen that presentation can be a huge factor, but I've always wondered what judges are thinking when trying to select a grand winner (like every contestant, this year, I want to get the grand prize). If there are specific factors that come into play,and how can I leverage them to my advantage - according to the CWSF judging form, scientific thought would weigh really heavily.Thanks for reading!
MadelineB
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Re: How Do I Increase my Chances of Winning Best in Fair

Post by MadelineB »

Hello Aaryanh and welcome to Science Buddies,

The Science Buddies project guide has a section with several articles discussing preparing for competitions. Most of these are suggestions for how to improve your presentation, your display board, and even prepare for the interview.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... mpetitions

You should also study the judging criteria for CWSF and ISEF. That will give you an idea of the aspects of your project as well as how much emphasis(weight) will place on each individual component.

Search the internet for examples of winning projects (although you're not likely to be able to watch the interviews!). However, this will give you examples of how the winning projects arranged their display boards and how they presented and emphasized specific aspects.

You should also pay attention to which category to select when submitting your project, since each category will have its own emphasis.

Be sure to try to get feedback from the judges at your local science fair and don't be afraid to incorporate their suggestions.

Let us know if some of these suggestions help - and be sure to enjoy participating in the fairs. That way, you are successful even if you don't win a prize.
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