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And the winner is...

SPPf's 6th Annual Pokemon Exam
Winner: Niihyl. Congratulations!

We started off with a massive 72 users! These 72 users were then narrowed down to 32, then to 15, then to 10 and then to 5. The following 5 users took part in the final examination:

Ellie
Lishus13
@lex
Toge Tamer
Niihyl

-Here are the ROUND 4 EXAM RESULTS: http://www.scribd.com/doc/58864044/Round-4-Results

-Here is a copy of the ROUND 4 EXAM: http://www.scribd.com/doc/58863492/Round-4-Final-Exam

The grading process:
-A preliminary marking of all exam answers was done
-Markscheme was adjusted based on preliminary marking
-Re-marking was carried out to get final scores
-Scores from previous rounds were converted to 1 pt (so a total of 4 pts)
-Time bonuses were not awarded. If I did award a bonus, Niihyl would have gotten this bonus (+1) and thus would have won anyway. Niihyl completed the final exam in under 15 minutes, whereas everyone else took over 25 minutes.

The Top 5 Rankings!
1st. Niihyl - congrats! You have a knack for solving puzzles in a timely fashion.
2nd. @lex - you barely missed it. You've maintained an excellent performance two years in a row.
3rd. Ellie - you started off relatively low but then moved your way up. I guess you ultimately stumbled in the final exam.
4th. Lishus13 - you were heading to win again, but you also stumbled in the final round. The final exam was relatively easy but there was ample room to make silly mistakes.
5th. Toge Tamer - to me you sort of came out of nowhere and did well. You always completed every exam first and I guess your hard work and dedication paid off! Had you not made a few errors in the final exam, you would have won this.

To everyone who participated, thank you very much for participating in this competition!


Discuss the results and what you thought about the competition. Here are my thoughts:

-This is the first year we've had a 100% return in the number of users who actually took the exam. 72 users signed up and 72 users took the preliminary round exam! Good job guys :)
-Some exams were not as effective at separating the best candidates from the less able candidates. The margin of elimination (0.5 pt) in the preliminary round was too small, I think. I'm going to have to work on this on the next exam (provided that I end up doing one).
-The most difficult round was Round 1. Candidates were pressed for time and had to answer difficult questions using very little information. I purposely set a difficult test in order to allow persons who really wanted to take part in this competition to have a chance at making it to Round 2. Round 1 was also the round with the worst performance.
-The easiest round was the preliminary round. The round with the best performance was the final round. This was expected.
-Because the final round had the best performance, the grades the users obtained were very close. The winner of the entire competition was thus aptly determined by performance in earlier rounds.
-There was a high chance of having a repeat winner (either Ellie or Lishus13) but this was barely prevented from happening.
-The most consistent user was Dramatic Melody. I thought that this user would have cruised through to the final 5, but this was a competition where every effort and every point mattered in who moved on or got eliminated.
-This was the first year where the exams were timed. Time added an extra challenge and so, to me, it was fair to award bonus points for best times. Faster times positively correlate with your ability to answer questions using your own knowledge or using the best resources. I strongly believe that if these exams were not so strict with time the final results would have been different.
 
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Nyter

Island Challenger
Wow.. Great job Niihyl..

and to the other 4 as well.
Ellie, you were kicking a$s!
Great job!
 

Zhanton

le quant-à-soi
Oh wow, that's NAILBITINGLY close! Congratulations Niihyl and to the other four finalists, and thanks Black Marauder for hosting yet another successful Exam!

*dims lights*

I shall be back.
 
Congratulations Niihyl that I wasn't there cause if I knew I would have crushed anyone in my way.

My request: Whenever you conduct the exam next time, please make sure you send me a PM.
 

@lex

Myth Collector
Hah, I didn't expect to win, so I'm more than happy to be a close second ^_^ That marks an advancement of two places since last time, so next time around, I'll naturally come in as number... 0. Yay!

As for question 9, surely Volbeat also qualifies? I know I missed Roselia, but hey, Volbeat.

Thanks to Black Marauder for awesome tests, though! Regardless of my result, taking these feels super. Next time, make the time limits less harsh ^^ Also, how do you even make these tests? Some questions are so arbitrary it feels like one'd need hours just to consider the aspects involved!

With that said, it would be interesting to see how you'd score on the tests, hadn't you made them...
 
Congratulations Niihyl! And congratulations to the other four as well. With the first and fifth placers having a 1.3-point margin in between them, it sure was close!

This was a really awesome exam all in all - I really did enjoy the Prelims + 3 Rounds I participated in. Here's to a successful exam next year! =)
 

Seem

Hollen i ven.
Congratulations Niihyl! That was a close second for lex too, very well done all of you!
 

menonabhi123

< Latest LeafGreen SR.
congratulations niihyl!! and congrats to the 4 finalists as well for making it till the very end....
this year's exam was real fun, thanks to black marauder who set really interesting tests..cheers to you bro!
can't wait for the next exam, il look to improve my top 10 position then :p
 
Hah, I didn't expect to win, so I'm more than happy to be a close second ^_^ That marks an advancement of two places since last time, so next time around, I'll naturally come in as number... 0. Yay!

As for question 9, surely Volbeat also qualifies? I know I missed Roselia, but hey, Volbeat.

Thanks to Black Marauder for awesome tests, though! Regardless of my result, taking these feels super. Next time, make the time limits less harsh ^^ Also, how do you even make these tests? Some questions are so arbitrary it feels like one'd need hours just to consider the aspects involved!

With that said, it would be interesting to see how you'd score on the tests, hadn't you made them...

Volbeat has a "tail" and this gives him a form like this:
2.png


Creating the questions is harder than taking the exams lol. Sometimes I wonder what it's like to be presented with these seemingly random questions and having a time limit to complete them.
 

@lex

Myth Collector
Volbeat has a "tail" and this gives him a form like this:
2.png


Creating the questions is harder than taking the exams lol. Sometimes I wonder what it's like to be presented with these seemingly random questions and having a time limit to complete them.

Oh my, totally missed that <.< Great job, though, I'm looking forward to next year ;)

Also, congrats to everyone who scored higher than me! :D Everyone else, a pat on the back~
 

Aegon

Well-Known Member
Congratulations to Niihyl. Those questions look very interesting, but not as difficult as some as the Preliminary Questions. :p Well, at least I've learned one thing from this; Use Bulbapedia, not Serebii's Pokéarth. I definitely need to improve for next year. ;]
 
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