Hi! Today I joined the USCF and am thinking about playing in some tournaments. I was looking at upcoming tournaments and noticed that in December the National   K-12 Championships would be held in Lake Buena Vista FL. After playing in a few tournaments to gain expeirience, I was wondering if I would be ready to participate in this tournament and gain a respectable score (4+). I am eleven years old ( going into 6th grade) and have an aproximately 1400 rating on 15-0 live chess. I go to a chess club so I have otb experience. Am I ready? Any comments are appreciated. Thanks! 

Yes and even if you arent there is no better way to tell than to go to a tournament but remember to have a good time

Thank you for your reply!

Sport, yes, definitely go for that tournament if your parents will let you.  It's a game in 90 minutes, so you may consider increasing your Live Chess times.  The lowest I've really seen at the tournament level is G/25, so something to think about.  When I was a kid, time management was a huge factor in those types of games.  I knew all the moves, but managing the clock and taking my move notations where killer.  You are smart to go for a couple smaller tournaments before trying out a national one.  I see your correspondence rating is kinda low after 250 games.  If you have time, I'd practice some more of those games.  They're a good place to try out new strategies.  Also, with those, only play people with a higher rating than you.  It'll force you to learn quickly!

Having expectations of how you want to play going into a tournament is healthy.  But if you do not do as well as you expect, yet still handle it with a good attitude, that's a sign of maturity and will get you farther along in the long run.

Thank you for the advice! I will try to try to concertratate more on correspondence games (I timeout ALOT ) and increase my live chess times as you said.