In 6th grade, I went to my second math competition, called Math-a-Palooza, at Bob Jones High School. I remember feeling very confident. The environment was expected, I found my friends and we went around exploring the school. They had several stalls for sponsors such as Mathnasium. They also had candy, snacks, and rooms with a different purpose like Lego and Kahoot.
During the test, I found the problems very difficult because I had not practiced those before. I ended up doing really bad, answering 11 out of 25 questions correctly. It felt terrible to see my score. I also did not think i was going to win a prize.
During awards, it turns out I got gold and I was very surprised and happy.