June 21, 2022: TSTST Day 1

Classes

The first class was extremal number theory, taught by ZD. Once again, it was very big-brained, as ZD’s classes always are.

MR taught Black a Non-Euclidean Geometry class. Apparently, the Blackers were having difficulties with the problems, so feeling bad for them, Michael Ren gave them a, like, Russian elementary school problem, i.e. a matchstick problem (2+5=9), to let them feel better about themselves.

This backfired, as they had great difficulty trying to solve that matchstick problem.

When I visited the blue classroom, I found them working on that matchstick problem. After a few minutes, I could not figure it out, so I escaped to Green, where I found LR writing the same matchstick problem on the board :(((((, so I returned to Red.

The second class was AS’s Geometry class. This was actually fun geometry, though, so it was good! It was more like riddles or SR’s great ideas than geometry (neither of which, of course, I’ve actually taken yet at this point in time :P). An example of a question is (this is question 2): “The Earth is flat and trees grow straight up from the ground to a height h<100. There is a forest in which the ground distance between any two trees is less than the difference of their heights. Prove that the forest can be surrounded by a ground fence of length 200.” And this can be done by drawing the fence between the tallest tree, passing all the trees between, down to the smallest tree, and then back to the tallest tree, as this will result in a fence that contains everything but is clearly at least as long as the shortest fence (i.e. the convex hull).

Then we had lunch.

TSTST Day 1

Then we took TSTST 1 :(.

We were all assigned seats, sort of: we all have TSTST IDs so that the graders don’t know who they’re grading, and at each seat, there’s a black folder with our ID number on the front containing our scratch paper and test. My seat is in the very front row.

Whenever we want to go to the bathroom, we have to raise our hand, get brought to the front, log the time and our name on a piece of paper, and then get escorted thither by a TA. Similarly, if we want scratch paper, we have to raise our hands and the TA will bring some scratch paper. They also have some snacks (mainly just Nutri-Grain breakfast bars) at the front that we can eat, though it seems like mostly, it’s the graders eating those snacks rather than the students.

As HJ extrapolated when LR explained the system to us:

LR: “…you have a paper card; if you hold it up they bring five sheets of paper to you. you have a bathroom card, and you hold up and–”
HJ: “–they bring the bathroom to you”

We also had to hand in our phones at the front.

I was quite proud of myself, as I managed to solve the first problem when I expected to solve none of them. Then, after the test, as everyone was discussing the test, I discovered that I fakesolved the problem :(.

I was bored during the test, so I wrote an essay about pettiness. I started by trying to write my personal statement, so it started out talking about dance, but then it slowly morphed and then I started talking about pettiness and jealousy, and then the TSTST?

I wrote it on my scratch paper, so I just have this huge swathe of words and then two triangle diagrams, lol. We’re not supposed to give the graders any identifying features to figure out who we are, so I didn’t submit that scratch. Truth be told, I wouldn’t have submitted it either way: it was too personal to just let some grader read it. I’m not sure how that logic holds, though, as I typed the thing up that night and then posted it on my blog, but that somehow feels just better than submitting it to a grader even though way more people might see it?

I had not quite finished writing that essay about pettiness, so after I wandered out of the testing room, I went to Resnik, sat down in some random corner, and finished writing the essay. It was on one sheet of paper, the front and the back, but as I worked on it in Resnik, I realized that I was running out of space on my paper. As such, my handwriting becomes very cramped until I eventually decide to write the rest of it on the front. Sideways.

Post Test

During dinner, I sat with Turtle and explained my totally productive use of time during the TSTST. Then, he lets slip that he wrote TSTST 1.

On one hand, I sort of didn’t care because fakesolving problem 1 isn’t that different from not solving anything, which was what I expected. But a lot of other people, I knew, were absolutely furious with that problem.

Also during dinner, I decided to ask the staff what their names are. I always say, “Hello!” “Thank you!” “Have a good day!” etc., but I felt bad that they’ve been so helpful yet I still don’t know any of their names, so I went and asked. The girl at the front had a really pretty name but I can’t remember it (I have since discovered it again). I also got a chef’s name.

 Anyway, after dinner, I went to test review. When they were revealing the problem writers, Turtle wrote down (for problem 1) Y, then T, then quickly filled in “Yours Truly” and scampered out like his tail was on fire :P. 

(“Thanks for listening to the solution to this beautiful problem” — @Turtle 

greeted with intense booing)

Once we got back from test review, the graders cloistered themselves in the piano room and locked us all out in order to grade the TSTSTs. The other kids started preparing water balloons in order to attack Turtle once he comes out of the piano room (“Mr. Turtle, Mr. Turtle, come out of your shell” – @everyone) :P.

At this point, I see MCM walk past, so I wander over and ask him what he thinks about what’s going on. And then he’s like, “What’s going on?” And I think at some point, FY said something about kissing something or other, and then MCM is like, “Wait, are you guys doing some sort of hazing?!”

No, no we’re not, Tilted Students are simply planning to Thoroughly Splash Turtle.

But I didn’t really want the other kids to get in trouble, so I’m just all, “Nah, it’s nothing bad.”

Story Time

Anyway, Po’s story time today was about dealing with disappointment. It was only, like, thirty minutes in that I realized, Oh Wait, he’s talking about TSTST 1 :P.

Storytime was finally in the backyard once again. I have a sort of habit when I sit down of pulling the grass up. I also have the habit of getting many mosquito bites when I sit down. As such, I’ve taken to not sitting down in the backyard. DD also has a habit of pulling the grass up.

The talk was sort of about how we’re all great at math and it’s fine if we perhaps did not do our best on the TSTST. He pointed out that every one of us is probably better than he was back in the day, if only because people didn’t know as much stuff and tricks and stuff back then. He also talked about how he can have the guts to ask a bunch of people for help with his various projects and not be crushed when they refuse. Essentially, he explained that he knows that much of his reaching out won’t succeed but he knows that if just one does, he would be very happy. It’s like, optimism through pessimism!

And another thing that makes it easier (I think I brought this up) is that you don’t know them and they don’t know you, so it’s not actually personal. 

RM (I think) brought up a friend of his who keeps asking girls out and keeps getting rejected and still keeps asking people out. Now that takes guts.