Participation as a pupil

Dear team Iziii & Luiziii

In 2023 you participated in the European Statistical Contest (ESC). In the national phase of the competition, among other things, you wrote an article about gender equality in the labor market, and won. Now you are preparing for the Matura exams, but also in 2022 you already had a lot to do with school and free time.

1)     How did you experience the 2022 statistics competition as schoolgirls?

The national round was relatively easy and not that time-consuming. The international round, on the other hand, took a lot of our free time and was stressful in addition to our daily schoolwork. Most of all, we enjoyed the award ceremony at the end because there was still a small snack.

2)     Why did you want to participate? Was it the prize that attracted you, or the challenge?

On the one hand the prize money was of course very tempting and on the other hand our math teacher Nina Thüringer motivated us to take up the challenge.

3)     Your teacher was in the organizing committee herself. Was it easy for you to find your tutor? How did you go about it?

Yes, because she was our math teacher and she was always available to us in class.

4)     In the national phase, you had two parts with different tasks to master. How did you approach the tasks? Did you split the tasks or did you work together? Which part was the easiest for you?

The first part (the statistic tasks) we divided among ourselves but the rest (newspaper article and video of the international phase) we solved together. We found the first part also the easiest and the fastest done.

5)     You have won 400 francs prize money. What did you do with it?

As far as we can remember, we spent the money on vacations or the Matura trip.

6)    With your victory you have qualified for the international part of the statistics competition. For this you made a 2-minute video about CO₂ emissions in Liechtenstein. How long did you spend on this task?

We had to invest about one Easter holiday week to write a script, record the video and then edit it and fill out the Making Of paper. However, we also didn't know our way around editing programs.

7)     How did that go with the planning and with the time commitment? Were you able to balance that well with school?

The national phase turned out well because we didn't have that many exams at that time. However, at the end of the international phase, everything ran together a bit, which led to stress.

8)     What advice would you give to teams from this year? Where should they pay special attention? What should not be slept on?

We would advise everyone to venture to participate in the national phase, as you can get a good prize with little effort. If you get to the international phase, we think you should consider whether it is really worth the effort.

9)     Anything else you would like to share?

We would also like to say that we were always given very helpful information and the national phase was a great experience.

Thank you very much for your answers!

OK ESC 2024