Visayas State University (VSU) overwhelms Eastern Visayas State University’s (EVSU) tertiary Chem-Olympiad Quiz Bee with a final score of 55 points during the Chemistry Society’s celebration of the 2023 National Chemistry Week on Wednesday, February 15 at the Graduate School Hall.

The said competition was participated in by chemistry-aligned and engineering tertiary students from Eastern Visayas as well as Junior High School and Senior High School students from all over Leyte.

The contest itself was divided into three rounds namely: Easy, Average and Difficult which were all topped by VSU as they gained a perfect score in the Easy and Average round while scoring 15 points in the difficult level, the highest for this round.

“Actually wa jud mi maka prepare kay gahapon rami nakasabot pero maayo nalang na ang among mga lessons kay mao ang nanggawas ganina sa contest,” Marigold G. Lao, a 4th year Bachelor of Science Chemistry student and one of VSU’s winning trio, said in an interview.

(Actually, we weren’t able to prepare [properly] because we were only informed yesterday but thankfully our past lessons were similar to the context of the questions in earlier’s contest.)

Marigold Lao and Nathan Kelsey B. Omandan, both 4th year BS Chemistry students, and Vic Andre G. Resmio, 1st year BS Chemistry shared that they crammed all the information they could with the little time they had to review, eventually thanking the quizzes they had in their past classes because according to them, it truly helped in retaining the knowledge they used to come on top.

According to VSU’s coaches, Yssakhar A. Salas and Marv Ryan R. Tripole, they reminded their students that it is important to master the basics, trust their instincts, and avoid overthinking.

Salas also said that students and teachers in VSU prioritize their studies over anything else and always practice excellence to ensure that they are effective inside and outside the classroom.

Meanwhile, EVSU – Civil Engineering students placed 2nd with a total of 25 points, while EVSU – Chemical Engineering students score 18 points that landed them in the third place.

For the Junior High School category, the schools that placed first, second and third were Burauen Comprehensive National High School, Notra Dame of Abuyog, Inc. and Marasbaras National High School respectively.

The Senior High School category was dominated by Leyte National High School whose two teams placed first and second, while Abuyog National High School placed third.

Article by Alea Joyce Dubin