The Quizbowl Resource Center

heterodyne

jeremylu wrote:get a coach.

This isn't exactly something that every team can do, for various reasons.

heterodyne

Since open tournaments lately have had a bunch of confusion and time wasted from people making posts asking for teammates, people filling out partial teams on google docs, people putting fake naems in said docs, etc. It's all a huge mess, so I will not be doing any of that. Wasn't the whole point n...

heterodyne

Crazyflight wrote: As for the other usage, I just say ballin and baller/balla[h] when describing it.

This does have the unfortunate side effect of making you sound like a total tool.

heterodyne

Just wanted to drop in here to say that this was by far the best set that my teammates and I played all year. There was interesting and varied answerline selection, and while I did get the same impression about the lit and the preponderance of country tossups, that was incorrect, likely due to the w...

heterodyne

I think this goes here, since it's a factual thing not a style or other thing. I'm not sure about this, since I don't actually do science, but according to my teammate who does, the first two clues of the shell TU point to skin as well or better than they do to shell. From a superficial search, SCUD...

heterodyne

Cheynem wrote:Why did Michael Coates only play "half a round"?

From what I understand, he had been staffing and finished his duties in time to sub in for the last half of the final between Panda Express and Chicago.

heterodyne

It depends on what you're doing in protobowl. If you're in a private room it should be ok, as it's not too different from reading packets. However, public rooms like the lobby generally aren't good for studying because players will be buzzing in on clues they've memorized. Also, many packets that a...

heterodyne

That's a nice simplification. In reality, getting better at quizbowl involves developing a mindset for how to process and sort new information you're being exposed to. Playing one-liners destroys your ability to do that, and even if you learn a fact that you didn't know before about an academic sub...

heterodyne

Auburn will be the clear favorite to win, with teams like Latin, Fremd, Bloomington, and Springfield duking it out for second place. As of right now, Fremd will not be attending ATROPHY. Apologies. I am, however, confident that the entirely unrelated Palatine School for Norse Children will do quite...

heterodyne

As the last month before HSNCT and NSC starts I thought it would be nice to have some discussion about the two April tournaments. I'll start with DONTQUIT since it's happening first. Field (11): Auburn A, Auburn B, East Mail Company, Fenton, Fremd, Hinsdale Central, IMSA A, IMSA B, Metea Valley, St...

heterodyne

13/3/1920: The Kapp Putsch briefly succeeds in feenising the todds of the Weimar Republic. A general strike then occurred and Kapp's government was WONED IN TEH FASE!!!*!@$(

heterodyne

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/db/tournament ... etail/#t13

Is something in error here? It seems odd that a team can have 21 tossups when there were 20 TUH.

heterodyne

For anyone who hasn't seen, the All-State results were posted.
http://www.ihssbca.org/awards/2014aa_allstate.php
http://www.ihssbca.org/awards/2014a_allstate.php

heterodyne

After observing several NAQT tournaments this year and pouring over questions, I am 100% sure that it has become much easier to power tossups than it used to be. My observation is largely the same, Lee. There seems to have been a shift toward making questions about one clue easier to power. While b...

heterodyne

quizbowllee wrote:After observing several NAQT tournaments this year and pouring over questions, I am 100% sure that it has become much easier to power tossups than it used to be.

Care to elaborate as to what has led to this conclusion?

heterodyne

Could someone with a mysteriously good memory share the text of the treaty of Lodi tossup?

heterodyne

In addition to what Mr. Reinstein said, it should be noted that many schools give extra funding to activities sponsored by the IHSA. Without that money, Bloomington certainly would not be able to attend the number of tournaments that we do.

heterodyne

The Federalism bonus was definitely not high school difficulty. On the contrary, it, like many other questions (Treaty of Lodi, Nigerian colonial things) appears to be taken directly from AP flashcards. In this case, US Gov. Layer cake federalism is something that is straight from that curriculum. ...

heterodyne

JHuh33 wrote:In the next episode, I hope to hear about your observations of the teams in the Texas Invitational.

Already got it! The next episode should be released sometime tomorrow.

heterodyne

kievanrustic wrote:Furthermore, I stand in important matches. Its a more active position that sitting, which prevents one from falling asleep (I hope!) or getting mentally lost.

I like to tap my foot as a method of focus. Standing makes it harder to write things down.

heterodyne

Um... I don't know, try to get some sleep before tournaments. I know it's hard, what with 6 am wakeup times, but at least try with an early bedtime Friday night. Or if you're travelling a while, get there the night before. Then the following morning, get an actual breakfast. I know that's also hard...

heterodyne

Does anybody remember the bonus series on "something-something short stories by Clark"? Is that trash lit? The Bret Harte bonus? That's regular lit, and a completely acceptable bonus topic - just unbelievably, ridiculously hard. Outcasts of Poker Flat/character from Outcasts of Poker Flat...

heterodyne

-"Möbius strip": I'm pretty sure the latter half, or maybe more, of the question was just a rephrasing of the first sentence of the Wikipedia article. Which, to be fair, I've read, and gathered much of my knowledge of weird topological things from. This was true of plenty of the questions...

heterodyne

Yes, literature appeared to encompass any vaguely non-art humanities type thing. If we are discussing questions, I would like to post some rather odd answerline or question choices. If some of these are explainable and I just don't know enough, please enlighten me. The colonialism in Uganda bonus. W...

heterodyne

So I figured someone should make one of these. When are these questions clear for discussion?

heterodyne

in on these shenanigans wrote:For reference: Members Poll results were compiled in the week between NAQT State and Masonic State. There will be a year-end poll for the May issue, compiled after some of the April events have happened but before nationals.

Does this mean that they were submitted after NAQT State or before it?

heterodyne

As we're about to go into the state series season (really, we're already in it) what are people's thoughts and predictions for various things? I think that either IMSA or Stevenson will win Masonic. Masonic has a high focus on bonus conversion and they blew the rest of the field out of the water at ...

heterodyne

Christ, I Know wrote:(though it's probably a coincidence since the #3 team heard less than 20 tossups in each game in the first 3 rounds).

Our lack of TUH in the first three rounds should not be taken as evidence for incompetence of readers. We were moving rather slowly.

heterodyne

Results:
1st IMSA A
2nd Stevenson A
3rd Bloomington A
4th Auburn A
5th Springfield A
6th Wheaton North A

I may have the last two flipped. All apologies if I do. Great play all around!

heterodyne

What I'm planning to do is to poll several disinterested knowledgable parties and aggregate that with the coach's poll in Scholastic Visions. I wasn't planning to release seeds - do people want to see them? M It's probably going to be fairly apparent from the bracketing, but I was just wondering if...

heterodyne

Is there any method you plan to use for seeding, and will seeds be released?

heterodyne

Possible topics that we have considered include things like studying, running a circuit, and several others. A discussion of studying techniques is likely to make up our next podcast. We have some other ideas in the works as well, but we don't want to spoil everything yet!

heterodyne

Some thoughts from the Springfield tournament: Dunlap was the dark horse of the tournament, obtaining second after some solid play and a surprise win over Springfield. But their 16.67PPB (4th) for the day isn't that impressive. Jackson played well, claiming the top individual spot at 122PPG, but wh...

heterodyne

Also, are reading the actual works more effective? I can comfortably power most of the novels I have read, but is it worth the time to read it? Ooh, something I actually know something about! Depending on your reading speed, it may be a good time investment. If you read something, you will probably...

heterodyne

It should be noted that you can't make your teammates get into something if they aren't into it. Sure, it's great to encourage them and give them tips on what to study, but ultimately the only person you can fully control is yourself. If you want you can host informal practices using Google Hangouts...

heterodyne

Jackson simply does not have the support he needs to beat the top teams. The question is, seeing how far they are behind other teams, will he and his teammates step it up? I don't know if you can say he isn't able to beat top teams, given that he just beat IMSA and DCC. Consistency is an issue, but...

heterodyne

Auburn B's top player is actually one Steven Vo, with Usman playing on Auburn C for several tournaments. Other that that I agree with the analysis put forth, with the exception of leaving out IMSA B. When they have Salij, they do very, very well, making top bracket at NTV and coming within a tossup ...

heterodyne

adamsil wrote:It sounds to me that if I put a descriptor along the lines of, "Title or common description acceptable..." before the start of this bonus prompt, things would go more swimmingly?

Yeah, I think that would work.

heterodyne

I think the problem is that The Book is used as a title in 1984. Just saying The Book would have been accepted, and "from 1984" is just extra information. It's not testing if you knew that there was a book in 1984, it is testing if you know that the book in 1984 is simply called The Book t...

heterodyne

On that bonus, the part we missed was "the book" but that was because I said "Oligarchical collectivism" instead of the full title. I didn't know that I could have just said "book from 1984" because I assumed it must have a name. Would accepting partial answers in thes...

heterodyne

Johnathan Huh said: Auburn may have the best B-team in Illinois. I'm curious, but didn't Carbondale B win their IHSSBCA Kickoffs (and beat Carbondale A in the process)? Also, IMSA B is the only B team in Illinois on Fred Morlan's rankings. Johnathan, what leads you to make the statement that Auburn...

heterodyne

In case anyone didn't see, stats for the Champaign Centennial sectional are up. Thoughts? Sterling stats are also up, and top four is posted for the other sectionals.

heterodyne

What was up with that Mack the Knife question? It was a definite outlier in terms of conversions, and I couldn't pull it myself.

heterodyne

We had a great experience. Everything ran smoothly and on time, and we at least left feeling that we had played a full day of quiz bowl. Big thumbs up to the TDs and staff.

heterodyne

What specific format and questions are these tournaments using? I'm no expert, but it may be a good idea to continue practicing on good questions if the only nearby tournaments are not. This is because hearing one pyramidal question gives you several clues, while non-pyramidal gives one or two real ...

heterodyne

This year is our team's first year in participating at independent tournaments. I have a total of 9 students, distributed as thus: 3 leading, very good players, 3 good supporting players, and 3 newbies. I'm aiming to do two teams at the tournaments, but I would like to ask how I should distribute t...

heterodyne

I do some online practice, with Niki in fact, and I am sure that she would agree that if you can, screenshare is the way to go. It prevents people from cheating by googling answers and stuff. We use google hangouts, and it is really smooth, but has the drawback of a ten person limit.

heterodyne

http://www.qbwiki.com/wiki/How_to_Get_Good_at_This_Game This is one useful resource. It won't really help you for this weekend, however. Basically, you probably won't be able to cram enough to make a difference, so review what you know and keep it cool. IS sets are about regular difficulty. Ask your...

heterodyne

Given that the first national rankings have just come out, what are people thinking? It's early in the season, of course, but where does IL seem like it falls in the national scene this year? (If this post seems open ended, that's because it is. Dead threads make me sad and I needed something to ins...

heterodyne

I feel similarly about rock music in quizbowl. There are plenty of really obscure classical composers that come up in highschool quizbowl, yet no rock music questions get more obscure than Led Zepplin, or the Beatles Besides, why should your favorite genre of music be favored over mine? I agree wit...

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