Kat brags for a bit
So, in Texas, the University Interscholastic League (UIL) is a pretty big thing in schools. UIL handles all manner of competition from sports (like football or baseball), to band (such as marching band or choir), to theatre (in the form of One Act Play, though iirc, they also had musicals), to debate, but my favourite thing they did was the academic competitions, where a bunch of schools would meet up to compete in various tasks. 1/
Kat brags for a bit
I loved UIL Academic stuff when I was in elementary and middle school. Whether it was spelling; maps, graphs, and charts (which I pretty consistently dominated, mind you); or number sense, I loved getting the day off to get together, hang out with friends, and try my best in these competitions. But, when I got to high school, they'd stopped doing them up there for "lack of interest" 2/
Kat brags for a bit
However, Junior year, a new principal would decide to bring it back, much to my excitement. I got in on all manner of events. Calculator apps, number sense, computer apps, compsci, spelling. I was ready. Unfortunately, most I failed at. There was fuckery with number sense that meant my submission wasn't graded; spelling I bombed; and I didn't do well enough with the calculator. But the other two, I did well in. (Kinda.) 3/
Kat brags for a bit
Now, I'm not gonna dwell on junior year too much. That's not what I'm here to brag about. But I came 2nd in comp apps and 1st in comp sci (not hard when my competition thought "2 + 3 ^ 4 + 1" evaluated to 84 in Java. Most had a negative score). At regionals, I came 2nd in comp apps again, and I came in second once more at state. Unfortunately, I came 9th in compsci at regionals and didn't qualify for state. 4/
Kat brags for a bit
But senior year, I had a goal. See, compsci had two portions: handwritten and practical. I did handwritten, a 40 question test on Java and some basic CS maths (bases, boolean algebra, postfix/prefix notation, etc.). The practical was the actual coding, but you needed a team, something I lacked junior year. But, senior year, I was gonna get a team and we were going to state. 5/
Kat brags for a bit
Unfortunately, I was the only one who knew CS at the school. But, I had a friend who'd wanted to do it junior year before finding out we would be doing the coding, and I was able to convince my sister to join in for the heck of it. At an invitational practice meet, that friend, who we'll call A, couldn't make it, so another, J, filled in and did reasonably well for having no training, so I brought him in as well. I had a team, now to get them the knowledge 6/
Kat brags for a bit
Oh, tits. In 6 (which this should be a reply to), it should be that A wanted to do it before finding out we *wouldn't* be doing the coding. My bad.
