French Earth Science Olympiad / IESO Preparation 2018

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night/whatever everybody!

My name is Lilian Schleret, and I participated to IESO 2016 in Mie (Japan) as student where I won a Bronze Medal, and then to IESO 2017 in Nice (France) as volunteer. But I guess you’re not reading this post for the second part. Oh, by the way, thanks for reading!

So, I suppose you are here because you’re looking for advices. But I don’t really have books or movies to recommend. In my opinion, if you intend to win a medal, you will have to work on the syllabus and to work on yourself. My preparation for IESO was really simple. I just did something like 2 hours of work every week, and more if I was really willing to learn. So, that’s my first advice. It’s quite useless to learn too much. If you force yourself to study, it is more likely to get you bored. (Yeah, but we all agree that looking at stones is the most interesting thing in the world, right ? ;) )

But I learned a lot of interesting elements with « luck ». I really did win a few points with a subduction related question because 3 days before, I asked my science teacher 'how is this possible, and other points for a TV-broadcast that I watched for 5 minutes just 2 weeks ago. So here’s another advice: be curious. It’s clearly obvious but never hesitate to ask something, even if you think it won’t be such a help. Then, right after my selection for IESO (after the national olympiads), I gradually took it seriously. But I knew that I was used to recognize rocks (for example). But I had problems with astronomy (calculations in particular) and clouds. So I focused on my weaknesses. Why? Just imagine that you can rate your knowledge on a precise subject. You are able to tell the name of every star in the sky except 5 of them, so you have 19 points on astronomy (the best being 20, that’s the french rating system). But you never saw a sedimentary rock for real, so you have like 3 points on this subject.

Lilian and Ishraque, IESO 2016 Participant

You can win 1 point on astronomy, or at least 10 points on sedimentology. What’s better ? Yeah, you guessed it. Focus on your weaknesses first, and after that you can improve your strengths if you want. I gave astronomy and sedimentology as exemples, but maybe your weakness is completely different. Maybe you are shy, maybe you don’t enjoy talking in English. It’s the same solution : face these problems and Trust In Yourself. I know it’s easier said than done, but try.

Finally, I recommend to communicate with others (with friends doing IESO too, or with older/younger students) in order to get a different view, to discover a new method. You have to be as objecive as possible, and this last advice should help you. Wait, I forgot the most important ! Have fun ! I hope these advices were helpful, if they weren’t, well. I am open to any question ! See you soon !