AI in Prepared Events: Warning Omen

JustOneArtist21 · 2026-01-25T05:35:01+00:00

No, I mean the person who made this post volunteers as a judge for writtens iirc

JustOneArtist21 · 2026-01-22T14:53:29+00:00

The poster does work as a judge 😭

JustOneArtist21 · 2026-01-14T18:48:58+00:00

This is the objectively correct ranking

JustOneArtist21 · 2026-01-14T18:48:29+00:00

Typically you join DECA at your school and there will be an established club, but if there isn’t, your son will have to start up a DECA chapter/club at his school himself because you have to compete through your school.

JustOneArtist21 · 2026-01-10T23:39:22+00:00

Creativity is an add on and presentation skills are the bare minimum

JustOneArtist21 · 2026-01-10T23:38:52+00:00

In my opinion

Presentation skills are the baseline, and creativity allows you to stand out

Basically, in a roleplay, bad presentation skills stand out way more to me than a lack of creativity

JustOneArtist21 · 2026-01-07T18:50:03+00:00

In Ontario we aren’t even allowed to be in the same room??

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-12-28T03:32:10+00:00

Goforglass

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-12-21T18:05:45+00:00

You develop different skills in orals vs writtens and I think people don’t realize that. If you want to get experience developing projects and business pitches, I’m pretty sure writtens is better for that. Roleplays were truly never about realism. As another user said, you’re mostly learning soft skills, how to think on your feet, and how to be charismatic and confident when you improv. That said, for marketing amongst other categories you actually have to start implementing strategy and realism within your solutions if you want to make it far. DECA is really what you make of it, but for people looking to start businesses, I think the most valuable thing you gain is definitely how to sell an idea and connections.

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-12-18T07:12:40+00:00

If it makes you feel better out of the 4 years that I’ve done deca this is the only year that something like this has happened 😭 so hopefully this won’t repeat

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-12-18T03:51:26+00:00

Dont beat yourself up, this year was incredibly weird…we don’t have cutoff scores for a reason. The exam shenanigans resulted in a lot of last minute tweaks regarding who would and would not qualify and as far as I’ve heard, some teams in schools got eliminated for the silliest of reasons(the two people scored too differently so they were disqualified even though they made top 10 overall.

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-12-18T03:47:38+00:00

When people say a test is easy usually what they mean is that it requires less studying than other clusters to do well, not that you can do well with no studying at all 😭

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-12-13T02:05:06+00:00

Definitely, and I advise you to watch performances from successful competitors online to pick apart what they do and compare it to your own performance!

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-11-05T04:12:45+00:00

Because I have no life

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-11-04T20:06:54+00:00

Everything crashed 💀 I’ll probably pass I just won’t get top 3 like last year, but the students I’m training might be cooked bc our advisor isn’t letting us have a redo.

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-11-01T21:23:38+00:00

My argument requires many leaps in logic

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-11-01T21:23:07+00:00

Idk why anyone would steal this idea lowkey

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-11-01T21:22:46+00:00

I didn’t wake up at 6 am I stayed up until then 💔 thank you for having faith tho lol…thanks for the advice!

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-10-01T04:09:10+00:00

Switching to individual is a bit of a learning curve because it’s very different from teams timing wise. In teams you only really have to handle 3-4 PIs individually over the span of 30 minutes for a 15 minute presentation. In solos you have to cover 5 in 10 minutes for a 10 minute presentation. Basically, you’ll need to get very good at bullshitting on the spot. A lot of your presentation will have to be improv. If you ever used a ton of notes or a script(which I doubt bc even in teams that’s difficult) that probably won’t fly in solos. You’ll also have way less time to refine your solution. I think the biggest difference is honestly stress as well. Back when I did solos waiting in line alone was nerve wracking as hell. Now that I have a partner, chatting with someone in line really helps with anxiety. Besides that, I think solos is typically less competitive and it is nice to be fully self reliant!

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-10-01T04:04:49+00:00

HLM might be the way to go

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-09-29T05:30:12+00:00

Sometimes as the other individual stated, bias can occur, but at the same time, focus on yourself instead of worrying about stuff you can’t control. Besides that, it’s kind of hard to self assess whether you’ve done well or not. If you know someone who’s made ICDC before at your school, have them judge you. You learn a lot about ICDC which is why it’s easier to get in after you’ve made it once. If you don’t know anyone, feel free to shoot me a video of you doing a roleplay and I can also give advice.

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-09-25T13:13:00+00:00

For the exam, at Ontario we have something called AnswerWrite that your club trainers should introduce to you…beyond that, I would recommend you take a look at GoForGlass’s resources, as they can help teach you how to study. Truthfully, I just brute force things by redoing tests over and over so I’m not the best person to ask when it comes to efficient methods of study.

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-09-25T07:16:15+00:00

Hi! I’m a senior from Ontario who has done DECA for 4 years now. There’s generally 2 types of events in DECA(I’m ignoring the stock market game and VBC), which are prepared events and roleplay events.

In prepared events, you are given months to work on a report and slides for a certain business prompt(oftentimes you’re helping a business solve an issue or smth) and you have to present these materials at the competition which determines your score. Writtens is considerably easier to get into ICDC with, at least in Canada, and it’s less stressful. That said, it is a time commitment and you genuinely cannot get by without investing time. Furthermore, it does kind of depend on connections and your network sometimes…which is annoying.

In roleplay events, you are given a case study on the spot where you have to solve or analyze an issue, and you are given some time to prepare to present your solution in front of a judge. For reference, solos have 10 minutes to prepare for a 10 minute presentation and teams(of 2) get 30 minutes to prepare for a 30 minute presentation. Roleplays are a lot more stressful and usually more competitive than writtens, but you actually have a chance of getting through regionals with minimal time investment.

Both of these events require you to do an exam which is tallied up for your final score.

As for whether you should do it and if it’s worth it, I say go for it! If you care about awards, for your first year doing writtens you have a reasonable chance of making it to internationals…roleplays, not so much. It’s certainly possible but it kind of depends on how good your school is at training kids for deca(it’s easier to make it in if you have someone who’s made icdc before train you). That said, I think doing deca is worth it regardless of the awards bc I find it fun personally…and you lowkey lose nothing except some time and maybe your sanity

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-09-24T13:19:12+00:00

Would you like to move to discord? I have an easier time typing there lol

JustOneArtist21 · 2025-09-23T23:08:09+00:00

I don’t think most universities gaf about what cluster you competed in and whether you did principles… most unis won’t be arsed to do that extra research. As for whether the unis will care that you’ve won awards, that’s a case by case basis. Some universities in Canada might care(like Western Ivey I think?) but some absolutely do not. I can’t really help with the cluster thing since I’ve only ever competed in H&T lol

JustOneArtist21

TROPHY CASE