Last year, we were allowed to have one driver and still compete in competitions. As a result of covid, none of my friends could be on my team and my school didn’t have VEX IQ for that year. I was competing in the middle school VEX IQ competition (and still am) and I had my little brother (9 years old) sign up so my team actually qualified as a team instead of just one person. I knew that he wasn’t interested in VEX, so I did everything for my team. This year, I would still like to compete in VEX IQ. However, I’m in 9th grade. I am eligible to compete in the competition because I skipped a grade, but none of my friends can be my teammates because they’re too old. My high school doesn’t offer any VEX. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure this year there have to be 2 drivers. Anybody know what I can do?
You still can register with your brother, that makes 2 students to form a team. But during competition, your choice is limited. If you are the only driver, you have to stop driving at 35 seconds. Can you try to recruit some kid in the community and offer him some free training?
You should consider moving on to VRC. Its never fun to leave behind something youve worked so hard on for years, but VRC is a really great competition too.
Thank you. I suppose I could try to recruit some kids, I just don’t know anybody not in my grade. This is going to be difficult, because Covid still isn’t over. I want to participate competitively, so stopping driving at 35 seconds is not ideal.
I would, but I don’t have the money to buy all of the equipment and my high school doesn’t have VRC.
Can you still do IQ in ninth grade?
I believe so, as long as you’re under the age limit.
Okay, thanks that helps
Rise Above was everyone on my team’s graduation season, but then when the game manual came out, we checked the rule, and we all can go one more year! (And I can go two!) Whether we will is… a different story, as we’ll all be in high school.
Yup, I’m in the same situation. My high school doesn’t have VRC. I was surprised to see that I can be in 10th grade and still compete in this.
Because grade 7/8/9 are middle school in Asian, that’s why grade 9 is always included as middle school. Then different countries/regions have different cut off date for student enrollment age, e.g. Ontario is Jan 1st. RECf has to adapt to that, so the cut off date is set to be the month end of VEX Worlds, that’s where the May 1st comes from.
The other reason for going with a birth date rather than “middle school” was to remove the confusing wording which made it difficult for community and homeschool teams, not affiliated with any particular school, thus unable to define “middle school” as a particular grade level.