How Often Do You Place?

I just went back and looked over all my results. I've done 11 contests off-and-on since 2016, and advanced in 9 of them. The only times I didn't make it to at least the second round (or third in Flash Fiction, in which everyone did the first two rounds until recently) were in the 100 word microfiction contests.

If it matters, I'm a high school English teacher, so I've had a lot of education when it comes to writing & literature. I'm not a published writer by any means (unless you count my high school fanfiction.net account, which I wouldn't).

Out of 8 challenges, I advanced to round two in 5 of them, with HMs for 2 of the remaining 3. So in that sense, there's only been 1 of 8 which went absolutely nowhere in terms of placement. 

That said, I'm yet to crack the final round for ANY of the challenges 😬 And, what's more, have never yet attained even a HM for my round two entries 😂 I don't know if it's because it's a smaller, higher quality pool I'm up against? Or stricter marking. Or just bad luck. But it'll be a good day when I finally see my name on that round two leaderboard 🏆