SIMUN

I really enjoyed the SIMUN experience. It gave me a better understanding about how things actually go in the United Nations. I think I did pretty well in the simulation. As Russia, I was required to speak pretty often and be involved in each scenario. At first, I was nervous for this, but after the first day, I got the hang of it. My favorite part of SIMUN was going into caucus. It was interesting to be able to informally communicate with other delegates whether they agreed with me or not. During every caucus, I heard some really good points, and adjusted my stance to fit in with the current happenings. Overall, SIMUN was a really fun three days.


The part of SIMUN that was not fun at all was the preparation. It was rather time consuming and not always the most interesting. I did, however learn a good amount of interesting useful information. The most helpful part of the graded preparation was the research on the four prep questions. Since they were directly related to the scenarios we were doing, they helped me the most when it came to the actual simulation. Sometimes, during that research, it was hard to find reliable resources to use. I never realized how many inaccurate websites there were. Most of the websites on the handouts we received were helpful in researching both the scenario background and my country’s recent history. I learned very much about Russia I never knew before, especially how they would respond in certain world crises, which is really the most important information to know going into the simulation. Reading over and memorizing Parliamentary Procedure was also a main part of my preparation, and one of the things I was most nervous about going in. The day right before SIMUN, when we did a mock crisis in class really helped with the procedure and what to say when.

For SIMUN next year, there are couple more things I would research. The main one would be to find all my countries allies and enemies and make sure I know who they are when we get to the simulation. This year, I knew Russia’s main allies and enemies, but not all of them. Knowing this would have helped me when it came to recruiting the smaller countries to join my side of the argument. I would have known how to better convince them and which ones to target in the first place. SIMUN was a very good experience, and after my first year of SIMUN, I am seriously considering attending MAMUN next year.