To investigate the effect of outside help in executing a successful science fair project, surveys were distributed to 356 participants in the 1987 Mississippi Region V Science Fair. Of this number, 147 students were in grades 7 and 8, 136 in grades 9 and 10, and 73 in grades 11 and 12. Students listed the number of hours they spent using outside facilities such as the public or school library, high school lab or shop, parents' or friends' business or shop, medical school facilities, university facilities, or other outside resources. Students also chose between five levels of spending in estimating the direct costs of their projects. Analyses of the 18 variables showed that use of college or university resources and direct cost of the science fair project were most highly correlated with science fair placement. An analysis showed that several variables were responsible for predicting 15% of the variance. The variables were: (1) direct cost of the project; (2) use of university resources; (3) use of high school lab or other research facility; (4) use of public library; (5) use of parents' or friends' shop; (6) use of parents' or friends' business; and (7) consultation with a school science teacher. The latter three variables were negatively correlated with winning science fair projects. (Author/TW)