Search found 335 matches
- Wed Jul 15, 2015 9:58 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT conversion stats discussion
- Replies: 53
- Views: 22713
Re: 2015 HSNCT conversion stats discussion
I think that you're putting "too hard" and "didn't play well" too much in the same boat. MFT had a tossup on Egyptian burial that practically everyone negged with "mummification"; doesn't mean it's too hard, but does mean that that was not a good answer choice. Similar...
- Wed Jul 15, 2015 5:42 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT conversion stats discussion
- Replies: 53
- Views: 22713
Re: 2015 HSNCT conversion stats discussion
Any question set is going to have some variability in difficulty from question to question -- it's not necessarily a failure on your part if half the rooms at a tournament power a particular individual question, as opposed to exactly 25% or whatever the target metric is; after all, that target metr...
- Wed Jul 15, 2015 3:14 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT conversion stats discussion
- Replies: 53
- Views: 22713
Re: 2015 HSNCT conversion stats discussion
Whoops, it looks like I really screwed up here. This was actually the most negged tossup in the entire HSNCT- it was negged in a whopping 71% of rooms where it was heard. I'm not sure how this is a screw-up in terms of writing because all of those clues apply unambiguously to New Guinea. I think pe...
- Tue Jul 14, 2015 3:55 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT conversion stats discussion
- Replies: 53
- Views: 22713
Re: 2015 HSNCT discussion
As mentioned before, I wrote a lot of stuff for this set (over 100 questions, plus an addition 40-50 that I edited). Now, having looked through the conversion stats from my questions, a few results particularly stick out to me: Baffin Island (written and edited by me): In 1976 a {stuntman} {base-jum...
- Tue Jul 14, 2015 9:10 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Studying for HS lit in MS
- Replies: 10
- Views: 6136
Re: Studying for HS lit in MS
Even in high school, there is still only a reasonably limited number of authors and works that could conceivably come up, at least in the regular season. As a result, reading over past packets (and taking notes) is probably the most straightforward way to introduce yourself to the high school "...
- Mon Jul 13, 2015 11:40 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT conversion stats discussion
- Replies: 53
- Views: 22713
2015 HSNCT conversion stats discussion
So conversion stats for HSNCT finally came out last week. Here are some selected conversion stats for tossups previously discussed in this thread (organized by powers/regular gets/negs): Glenn Greenwald - 14/14/51 in 79 rooms Boston Tea Party - 32/52/7 in 86 rooms Algeria - 48/33/4 in 81 rooms Battl...
- Mon Jul 13, 2015 8:49 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: CALI Available for 2015-2016 Mirrors [Regular Difficulty]
- Replies: 14
- Views: 19063
Re: CALI Available for 2015-2016 Mirrors [Regular Difficulty
We are now at 80% writing completion.
- Thu Jun 25, 2015 11:31 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: CALI Available for 2015-2016 Mirrors [Regular Difficulty]
- Replies: 14
- Views: 19063
Re: CALI Available for 2015-2016 Mirrors [Regular Difficulty
MORE UPDATES: This set is now 70% written (with a significant portion of that also having been edited).
So yeah, this is happening.
So yeah, this is happening.
- Fri Jun 19, 2015 1:48 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: CALI Available for 2015-2016 Mirrors [Regular Difficulty]
- Replies: 14
- Views: 19063
Re: CALI Available for 2015-2016 Mirrors [Regular Difficulty
More Updates! The history and geography in this set are now 100% written, as well as more than half edited. As a side note, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify one of the set's writing principles: Expect answer lines to be repeated. While we will try our best to make sure that no speci...
- Sat Jun 13, 2015 9:21 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: CALI Available for 2015-2016 Mirrors [Regular Difficulty]
- Replies: 14
- Views: 19063
Re: CALI Available for 2015-2016 Mirrors [Regular Difficulty
UPDATE: I'm happy to announce that, as of today, CALI is at 50% writing completion! And out of those questions, 40% have already been edited. HYPE HYPE HYPE :D
- Tue Jun 09, 2015 9:05 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Southern California (CA) 2015 - 2016 Discussion
- Replies: 14
- Views: 6842
Re: Southern California (CA) 2015 - 2016 Discussion
Good stuff! I mostly agree with your analysis, James-- Rancho Bernardo and La Jolla definitely strike me as the top regional contenders next year, with perhaps Westview thrown into the mix as well depending on how quickly Rahul Keyal improves. As a side note, both Matt Forster and Jacob Glass from A...
- Tue Jun 09, 2015 8:56 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 PACE NSC: Question set discussion
- Replies: 65
- Views: 38260
Re: 2015 PACE NSC: Question set discussion
My goal as head editor of this set was to produce a tournament very similar to past three incarnations of NSC, curbing the difficulty of some lead-ins and third parts here and there. My secondary goal, later in the set production process, was to reduce the burden on the writers and editors to think...
- Thu Jun 04, 2015 11:14 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT discussion
- Replies: 102
- Views: 77047
Re: 2015 HSNCT discussion
I just remembered something else-- this is the third year in a row that HSNCT has tossed up Measure for Measure . Every time, the conversion stats are pretty cruddy: 17% conversion in 2013 prelims and 47% in 2014 playoffs. So why do we keep tossing it up?! (This is more a rhetorical question than an...
- Thu Jun 04, 2015 5:32 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT discussion
- Replies: 102
- Views: 77047
Re: 2015 HSNCT discussion
In last year's HSNCT, there was a bonus (which I edited) whose hard part was to say the phrase "Chinese dream." The prompt happened to mention, in addition to some more relevant information, that Xi Jinping's appropriation of this phrase was apparently inspired by a Thomas Friedman editor...
- Wed Jun 03, 2015 4:04 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT discussion
- Replies: 102
- Views: 77047
Re: 2015 HSNCT discussion
Some dude in my room thought this bonus was a lot of fun. I liked it too. (FYI, I would've accepted this into the geography distro too if you had classified it as such, instead of fine arts.)orenji wrote: Round 8: One World Trade Center / Tokyo Skytree / Burj Khalifa
- Wed Jun 03, 2015 9:45 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT discussion
- Replies: 102
- Views: 77047
Re: 2015 HSNCT discussion
After the fall of Baghdad, the Mamluks imported Abbasid relatives to Cairo, where the dynasty survived to 1517. Welp, I guess I totally forgot about that. I doubt this clue would've necessarily confused any teams, since the 1258 sacking of Baghdad is a pretty well-known thing, but yeah. My bad. Als...
- Wed Jun 03, 2015 12:11 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT discussion
- Replies: 102
- Views: 77047
Re: 2015 HSNCT discussion
I don't know about all of the science-y stuff, but I generally agree with this.Santa Claus wrote: Abduction from the Seraglio - Alright so this one wasn't science but I feel like briefly saying that this was too hard. It was lame and really shouldn't have been tossed up.
- Tue Jun 02, 2015 9:59 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT discussion
- Replies: 102
- Views: 77047
Re: 2015 HSNCT discussion
FYI, here are the discussed tossups so far (I apologize to NAQT in advance if I'm not supposed to post this stuff): In this body of water, {sailboats} known as {skipjacks} still operate in what were once America's most productive {oyster} grounds. Most of America's {blue crabs} are {harvested} from ...
- Tue Jun 02, 2015 9:54 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT discussion
- Replies: 102
- Views: 77047
Re: 2015 HSNCT discussion
Oh yeah, I agree. I was initially expecting power to end on Force Acts, although I guess power marking was out of my control.Halved Xenon Stinging wrote:The KKK tossup seemed very easy. Force Acts is quite stock but still in power.
- Tue Jun 02, 2015 9:51 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT discussion
- Replies: 102
- Views: 77047
Re: 2015 HSNCT discussion
Hey folks, thanks for the feedback you've given me so far! I appreciate it a lot. Addressing a few points: It's true that pretty much all of my tossups in this tournament probably ended up with 90%+ end conversion rates. I did throw a couple of "sort of hard but not really" answer lines in...
- Tue Jun 02, 2015 6:07 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Harvard summer practices
- Replies: 10
- Views: 4807
Re: Harvard summer practices
I can probably make it to these, actually.
- Mon Jun 01, 2015 10:53 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 HSNCT discussion
- Replies: 102
- Views: 77047
Re: 2015 HSNCT discussion
Same as last year, I wrote a ton of questions for this year's HSNCT. In fact, I probably ended up writing/editing up to 60% of the history and 80% of the geography tossups in this set (I don't like writing bonuses as much). When writing/editing the geography in this set, as a general rule, I tended ...
- Sun May 17, 2015 9:31 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: NHBB / USGO Sets Posted
- Replies: 2
- Views: 2207
Re: NHBB / USGO Sets Posted
I assume that "USGO National Qualifying Quiz Tournament Set" is referring to the actual quiz bowl packets, but I can't seem to find these. Could we get a direct link?
- Sun May 17, 2015 7:00 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Geography Monstrosity 7 (May 29, Chicago)
- Replies: 28
- Views: 12628
Re: Geography Monstrosity 7 (May 29, Chicago)
Ok it looks like I'll be dragging the following SoCal people with me onto a team:
Kevin Li
Vincent Doehr
Yuqiao Zhao
And also maybe:
Jason Cheng
Ankit Agarwal
Kevin Jiang
Kevin Li
Vincent Doehr
Yuqiao Zhao
And also maybe:
Jason Cheng
Ankit Agarwal
Kevin Jiang
- Sun May 17, 2015 4:22 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Geography Monstrosity 7 (May 29, Chicago)
- Replies: 28
- Views: 12628
Re: Geography Monstrosity 7 (May 29, Chicago)
Obviously, I will play this. I will probably also try to wrangle some other SoCal people to play this with me, like last year.
I'll be submitting a packet for this event as well, because my stockpile of hard geo tossups grows by the day.
I'll be submitting a packet for this event as well, because my stockpile of hard geo tossups grows by the day.
- Fri May 08, 2015 8:49 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015-16 Schedule, Discussion
- Replies: 79
- Views: 46561
Re: 2015-16 Schedule, Discussion
Will Alston and I are collaborating on an open set slated for October/November. The target difficulty will be Regionals+, with a distribution and question length limit somewhat similar to NAQT. Shan Kothari has joined the project to work on the Biology + Other Science, but we are still searching fo...
- Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:51 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 NHBB Nats: General Discussion
- Replies: 14
- Views: 3000
Re: General Discussion
I don't have much to add that other people haven't already said, but I wanted to throw in some general words of encouragement. I liked the set used in the Bee and Bowl quite a bit. In fact, I thought the packets were just as good as (and maybe even a slight improvement over) the NHBB packets in prev...
- Tue Apr 28, 2015 11:02 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: 2015 NHBB Nats: Specific Question Discussion
- Replies: 28
- Views: 4197
Re: Specific Question Discussion
Bowl Rd. 10 - 10. In 1993, this building was the target of a car bomb set by members of Cosa Nostra. This building was first made public by Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Lorraine. A corridor links this building to the Pitti Palace. This building was originally constructed as an administrative center ...
- Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:19 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 ICT: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback
- Replies: 23
- Views: 7341
Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback
I also liked the Huntington tossup although I'm not sure the lead-in was uniquely identifying- if I'm remembering correctly it just talked about this guy emphasizing the importance of institutions to development which a lot of people say (although I may very well be forgetting a key part of the lea...
- Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:28 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Question-specific discussion: 2015 Division II ICT
- Replies: 12
- Views: 4625
Re: Question-specific discussion: 2015 Division II ICT
Now that I think about it, Hilbert's Problem strikes me as another answer line that wouldn't be converted very well in DII. After all, the tossup on Hilbert's in last year's HSNCT only had a 22% conversion rate.
- Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:23 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 ICT: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback
- Replies: 23
- Views: 7341
Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback
Hey Chris, I really appreciate the comments. A few words on some of your points: Sea Islands was an interesting idea, but there are multiple names for various groupings of them and I was also confused at first. It might have been better to have a TU on Georgia and just clue it off the islands (and y...
- Tue Mar 31, 2015 8:07 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 ICT: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback
- Replies: 23
- Views: 7341
Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback
I wrote 30 questions for this year's ICT, mostly in history and geography. This was the first time I've ever written anything this difficult, so I'm very interested in hearing people's thoughts on my questions. Tossups Japan (early history) Sea Islands French nuclear program Fridtjof Nansen Savannah...
- Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:48 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 ICT: general discussion
- Replies: 15
- Views: 6480
Re: 2015 ICT: general discussion
I wrote this question, and yay. I was super unsure about submitting it to NAQT initially, so I'm glad it was well received by at least one person.Jem Casey wrote:"Ivan IV [with England clues]"
- Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:46 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 ICT: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback
- Replies: 23
- Views: 7341
Re: Writer(/editor)-specific feedback
I, too, would enjoy/appreciate feedback. DI: Panama (history) Netherlands (CE) DII: Branch Davidians Janissaries Blood and Iron/Bismarck/Caprivi House of Valois John of England Wessex Burgundy Syriza/Greece/Golden Dawn Lecompton Constitution helots Basque (linguistics) Corn Laws My only thought her...
- Mon Mar 30, 2015 4:38 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 ICT: general discussion
- Replies: 15
- Views: 6480
Re: 2015 ICT: general discussion
pushing most of the non-Econ Social Science, Geography, and Current Events far further towards "new"/"interesting" principles than past NAQT fare. I wrote about 20 questions in each of these categories. I won't list it all out here, but some questions that I hope most to have wo...
- Mon Mar 30, 2015 2:13 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Question-specific discussion: 2015 Division II ICT
- Replies: 12
- Views: 4625
Re: Question-specific discussion: 2015 Division II ICT
Overall I liked the set. The only comment that comes to mind immediately was that John Andre is a really really hard answer line for a DII tossup.
- Thu Mar 12, 2015 1:52 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Ghosts of Quiz Bowl's Past that You (sorta) Miss....
- Replies: 28
- Views: 18273
Re: Ghosts of Quiz Bowl's Past that You (sorta) Miss....
In SoCal, every tournament still has food in the morning. Sweet, sweet Costco blueberry muffins...
Somebody needs to make this a national thing again, ASAP.
Somebody needs to make this a national thing again, ASAP.
- Sun Feb 08, 2015 8:44 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: Question-specific discussion: 2015 Division II SCT
- Replies: 18
- Views: 6259
Re: Question-specific discussion: 2015 Division II SCT
Yeah, this bonus was really pretty dumb.Hidehiro Anto wrote:The palindrome bonus was not fun for my opponents.
- Sun Jan 25, 2015 5:26 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 Regionals: Specific question requests and discussion
- Replies: 49
- Views: 22302
Re: 2015 Regionals: Specific question requests and discussio
Re: 1890: 1890 has a lot of significance, as hopefully the question made clear!: 5. In January of this calendar year, Democrats who stayed silent in the House chamber were first counted as present against their will to thwart the "disappearing quorum" tactic. The Supreme Court upheld the ...
- Sun Jan 25, 2015 3:46 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 Regionals: Specific question requests and discussion
- Replies: 49
- Views: 22302
Re: 2015 Regionals: Specific question requests and discussio
May I see the tossup on 1890? I really didn't enjoy this particular question, since it was on a year that didn't seem to have any particular significance (as opposed to a presidential election year or something like that). To me, it seemed to reward memorizing random years from Wikipedia rather than...
- Thu Jan 22, 2015 11:22 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Question-specific discussion (HFT 2014)
- Replies: 53
- Views: 8639
Re: Question-specific discussion (HFT 2014)
Thanks, again, for providing extended feedback. I'll post the requested questions once I'm back at my computer (or maybe Raynor can). Corry, I actually disagree with you on several of your difficulty assessments, and while this is anecdotal, a lot of the specific difficult answerlines you provided ...
- Thu Jan 22, 2015 12:42 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Question-specific discussion (HFT 2014)
- Replies: 53
- Views: 8639
Re: Question-specific discussion (HFT 2014)
I'd be interested in hearing more opinions on whether the problem of super-difficult hard parts was mostly contained to the science—that is, whether it was a systematic problem in any other single category, or in the set as a whole. Sure thing! I can't say whether the problem was systematic, since ...
- Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:57 am
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Question-specific discussion (HFT 2014)
- Replies: 53
- Views: 8639
Re: Question-specific discussion (HFT 2014)
Like... many other people, I also echo concerns that a lot of 3rd parts in this tournament seemed randomly too hard. I realize that the point of HFT is to have "harder to 30" bonuses than a regular-difficulty high school set, but the jump in some cases was quite unusual. I'll probably have...
- Wed Dec 31, 2014 8:17 pm
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 NAQT SCT: February 7
- Replies: 40
- Views: 23440
Re: 2015 NAQT SCT: February 7
Echoing Will, I'm reasonably sure that Amherst will be able to send one team to the SCT regardless of where it's held, but my ability to wrangle together enough players for a second team is largely contingent on whether a closer SCT site can be found.
- Sat Dec 27, 2014 1:38 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: 2015 NAQT SCT: February 7
- Replies: 40
- Views: 23440
Re: 2015 NAQT SCT: February 7
So I'm assuming at this point that there won't be a second Northeast site, right?
- Sun Dec 14, 2014 7:43 pm
- Forum: High school area archives
- Topic: Northern NJ History Bee and Bowl - Nov. 15
- Replies: 7
- Views: 4155
Re: Northern NJ History Bee and Bowl - Nov. 15
I just wanna say, the new History Bowl website looks pretty kickass. I like it a lot.
- Mon Dec 01, 2014 7:05 pm
- Forum: New High School Teams
- Topic: Fundraising
- Replies: 8
- Views: 6957
Re: Fundraising
I am a NAQT writer and so is my teammate Devin Shang. Neato! Attending both HSNCT and NHBB will probably cost a little around $1000 per person total, so each you of guys needs to write around 300 tossups for this to work. At 4 tossups an hour, that's 75 hours of work. There are about 25 weeks left ...
- Mon Dec 01, 2014 6:06 pm
- Forum: New High School Teams
- Topic: Fundraising
- Replies: 8
- Views: 6957
Re: Fundraising
Based on my experiences fundraising for the Arcadia team (which tends to send 2-3 teams every year to multiple nationals), running tournaments is really the most effective way to get money in general. We've also done stuff like selling fruit snacks in school, but honestly doing that kind of fundrais...
- Wed Nov 19, 2014 4:55 pm
- Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
- Topic: Quinterest: Hassle-free Database Search
- Replies: 131
- Views: 121254
Re: Quinterest: Hassle-free Database Search
I noticed today that Quinterest doesn't convert accented characters into normal characters, i.e. searching "Noël Coward" will get you different results from "Noel Coward". Can this be fixed?
- Fri Nov 14, 2014 1:05 am
- Forum: College area archives
- Topic: DATE CHANGED - SoCal DEES Mirror (Open) - Jan. 11 @ UCLA
- Replies: 18
- Views: 11902
Re: SoCal DEES Mirror (Open) - Dec. 6th @ UCLA
If this actually happens on January 10, Amherst will send a team (me and Boyang Jiao). Seriously. Neither of us can attend the MIT mirror of DEES this month, but we're both going to be back in California until past mid-January for winter break. This sounds fun. On a similar note for me, if it's on ...