Frequently Asked Questions
This looks self-reported. What if someone cheats?
We really hope that our Longhorn graduate students are outstanding citizens who abide by the UT honor code. That said, you are responsible for reporting accurately and honestly about your progress. After all, the goal shouldn’t be to win a gift card, but to move forward in your program and get closer to graduation.
Why average words/day or average tomatoes/day?
We have decided to go with average/day because 1) life happens, and if you are like one of your co-directors, you “forgot” to get the flu shot; and 2) some students will be joining us later in the month as they hear about the contest.
How will per day totals work? What if I join on November 26?
The plan will be to total up all the words you wrote for the month and divide by the number of weekdays in November (20). Does this mean someone who joins on November 26 can win? Perhaps. But they would have to be a rockstar, in which case, can you really begrudge them? We will use the same idea for tomatoes per day – this was added for all our graduate and professional colleagues that are perhaps coding or designing, and word count isn’t the proper metric to measure their progress. Remember, there is also a drawing for three winners that participate 10 or more days in November, so that November 26-30 rockstar can’t sweep all categories.
I forgot, what is a “tomato”?
Check out our website about the pomodoro technique, and how to track tomatoes!
We really hope that our Longhorn graduate students are outstanding citizens who abide by the UT honor code. That said, you are responsible for reporting accurately and honestly about your progress. After all, the goal shouldn’t be to win a gift card, but to move forward in your program and get closer to graduation.
Why average words/day or average tomatoes/day?
We have decided to go with average/day because 1) life happens, and if you are like one of your co-directors, you “forgot” to get the flu shot; and 2) some students will be joining us later in the month as they hear about the contest.
How will per day totals work? What if I join on November 26?
The plan will be to total up all the words you wrote for the month and divide by the number of weekdays in November (20). Does this mean someone who joins on November 26 can win? Perhaps. But they would have to be a rockstar, in which case, can you really begrudge them? We will use the same idea for tomatoes per day – this was added for all our graduate and professional colleagues that are perhaps coding or designing, and word count isn’t the proper metric to measure their progress. Remember, there is also a drawing for three winners that participate 10 or more days in November, so that November 26-30 rockstar can’t sweep all categories.
I forgot, what is a “tomato”?
Check out our website about the pomodoro technique, and how to track tomatoes!
