Team Rankings

Beginning in 2014-2-2015, Florida Science Olympiad ranks only the top 20 places in each event at the state competition. Previously, all places were ranked. The Florida Science Olympiad Regional Directors feel that this change will reward consistency in placing within events.

This change occurred because of the following rationale:

  • We do not want to harshly penalize a team who may have had a student who simply “had a bad day”. In this scenario, a student who does poorly in an event could result in so many points added to the team ranking score, that it is impossible for the team to have more favorable rank no matter how well they do in all the other events.
  • The list of all the rankings does not indicate the quality of the work in the event. Instead, we will also publish the raw scores for all places and not just the ranking in an event.
  • The amount of time required to validate the team rankings in each event is excessive. Ranking only the top teams, while still scoring and reporting raw scores will allow us to speed up Score Counseling and start the Awards Ceremony on time.
  • Our analysis of previous state results showed that there was no change to the rankings of the top 5 teams between the two scoring methods. In most cases, there were slight changes for overall team rankings in 6th to 10th place.

Small Site Scoring Criteria

  • For those sites with less than 10 teams per division, all places will be ranked.
  • For those with more than 10 teams per division, but less than 20, 10 places will be ranked.
  • For those with more than 20 teams per division, half of the places will be ranked.

Scores Accessible in Scilympiad.com/feso by logging into your account. 

Scoring Method

Scoring Policy and Procedures
Sample Scoring for a tournament with 42 teams

1st Place  = 1 Point
2nd Place = 2 Points
3rd Place = 3 Points
4th Place = 4 Points
5th Place = 5 Points
6th Place = 6 Points
7th Place = 7 Points
8th Place = 8 Points
9th Place = 9 Points
10th Place = 10 Points…
19th Place = 19 Points
………….
20-42 Place = 20 Points
………….
No Show (NS) = 21points (ties allowed)
Disqualified for poor sportsmanship (DQ) = 22 points (ties allowed)
………….

While every effort is made to ensure accuracy prior to the start of the awards ceremony, the scoring can be complex and errors can result. For this reason, we have the 48 hour policy to ensure errors are fixed and a team that has actually earned the right to attend the state or national competition will be able to be invited.

The awards ceremony, as a policy, will generally not start until AT LEAST 2 hours after the end of the last event of the day. Please make plans for this.

General Policies

Florida Science Olympiad’s Policy on scoring is that scores are not final until 48 hours after the END of the awards ceremony.  Therefore, do not release to the media any information about standings and places, and do not make any plans based on the place received at the awards ceremony until after this period of time. If an error is found within the 48 hours before scores are final, the results will be adjusted which could result in a reordering of the team ranking and who is invited to the state. Do not assume that your team will progress to the state until the team coach has received an official invitation. Any errors that are discovered after the 48 hour time period will not be adjusted. We make every endeavor to post scores as rapidly as possible after the awards ceremony so that teams can examine scores and will have a chance to verify their accuracy. Keep in mind that posting of the scores to this website does not mean they are final until the 48 hour period has elapsed, or the regional or state director has notified teams.

Breaking ties:  All ties for all places will be broken.  Breaking ties for individual events will flow the prescribed procedures listed in the Coaches Manual.  In the event of a tie for overall 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places, the ties will be broken based on the most GOLD Medals.  The team with the most GOLDS will receive the more favorable place.  If there are still ties after counting the Gold Medals, the Silver Medals will be counted to determine which team received more.  If there is still a tie, the number of Bronze Medals will be counted.  At each point, the team with the greater number will be awarded the more favorable place.

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