Yesterday, our mentors had a whole day of arbitration to make sure that all the results are correct and fair. We asked some of them how they experienced their day:
 | Mentor Mohammed from Bangladesh The Bangladesh mentor did not have much to do today: there were only one or two points to arbitrate. Accordingly, the Bangladesh team decided not to participate in the arbitration today, and yesterday they accepted the jury's assessments. Now they are waiting for the closing ceremony and the final results. |
 | Mentor Alix from France Today's arbitration was quite successful: we got some extra points. The jury was very strong, professional and objective. I arbitrated all the tasks for the French delegation. They agreed with some of our proposed points, but not with all of them. The best thing was that a few times the jury gave us more points than I had asked for or expected at the beginning, and of course I agreed with that. |
 | Sri Lanka Mentors Chinthaka and Ireshika We got a few more points from the panel for almost all but one of our students - so we are generally pleased. Our students' work was graded really well this year and we did not have to arbitrate as often. In previous competitions we had to deal with the judges more, but this year they judged particularly well and we did not have to argue as much. The judging was very objective. |
 | Mentors Marek and Aleksandra from Poland As we only know some numbers and results so far, it is hard to predict the final result and we do not really know what to expect. The results depend a lot on how all the students performed, because if the tasks are more difficult than in previous years, the medals will be awarded with less points. If the tasks are really complex and long, then even very able participants can do very badly, as years of experience have shown. So of course we are under stress at the moment. The arbitration this year was quite normal: in some tasks we got extra points, in others not. Today we had quite normal experiences :) |
 | Yomen Atassi - Chief Mentor from Syria So heppand that I overheard the discussion between the Syrian chief mentor Yomen Atassi and the task creators: The problem that the Syrian mentor raised and that they solved during the arbitration was that the jury did not give points to the students from Syria because they had written their numbers in right-to-left writing. I was intrigued and asked how the arbitration went for the Syrian team: The jury was very strict and correct, so they often convinced me. But before I signed the results, I was able to get some extra points, but not all the ones we had asked for. I got more points for three out of four of our students - for the majority. So I think it went well OK and I am happy and satisfied that the judging and adjudication is well organised this year: - Well done, jury! |