Studying for the NSC

[a Joe]

Hey guys,
so my team barely scratched our way into the NSC over the weekend. We were beat pretty badly more than once and I find that very ominous since those are the caliber of teams we'll be playing in June. So I need some advice: aside from playing tons of games, what are the best ways to study for a tournament like the NSC? I assume it would be slightly different due to the level of play.
Any help would be very much appreciated! Thanks!

[Banana Stand]

At this rate, you'll be the best individual player in the country within a year.

[RexSueciae]

Learn stuff. Read about things and commit them to memory. Write down answerlines that come up in practice and in tournaments so that you can look them up later.

If you've got a decent amount of time on hand, make a list of things that you think are probably going to come up. Learn everything on the list. Get your teammates to do the same. That's pretty much it.

[Adventure Temple Trail]

I'm glad to see your interest in attending NSC and preparing for it. In addition to Vasa's suggestions, I would seriously recommend looking through previous forums threads on this topic -- many years' worth of advice on improving for or studying high school quizbowl (both in general and in more specific target areas) have built up on this board. Reading through as much of that advice as you can will (a) help you figure out which of many methods will work best for you (b) allow you to ask more specific questions about how to overcome particular stumbling blocks. This will in turn will get you better advice for you/your program than the usual suggestions that have previously been proffered here many times over -- many of the people who have been around a while might not repeat-post the same suggestions each time a new person comes here.

A particularly good starting points for a high school player/team looking to get competitive, of relatively recent vintage, is So You Want To Study Quizbowl (written by past NSC champion and PACE member Max Schindler), but searching through for older threads using keywords like "improve," "study," and the like will turn up a lot more from further back.

[Joshua Rutsky]

Perhaps it would be worth a Sticky on this topic?

[a Joe]

Thanks for the quick replies, everyone! (I'm a computer tech, and on those kinds of forums it could take weeks for a question to be resolved.)

At this rate, you'll be the best individual player in the country within a year.

Thanks for the confidence boost! I'm working on that
Anyways, yeah. I have a lot to learn and a long way to go. Even as a history specialist, I get beat to the buzz quite often by better teams (my speed is really fast, so it's more of a knowledge problem.) In essence, I plan to spend the next seven months studying as much as I can, especially in history and science.
I like the idea of writing everything down that I don't know and I'm definitely going to use that. I have loads of time on my hands (though that might change due to AP physics), so I can make the lists, too. Also, I'm currently a junior and our fourth scorer, a soph, is consistently outscoring our senior captain. So we definitely have a bright future for this year and the next year, and it'll all be well worth it.

Meanwhile, our coach requires us to visit once a year for the NAC (and that's what we practice with since he writes our local conference's questions, too), so I'm on my own for now.

Thanks for all the advice! (And please keep it coming!)

[naan/steak-holding toll]

I suppose my experience may be a bit odd, but it could be of some help considering that you're a history specialist. I'm mainly a history specialist in quizbowl, with some niche knowledge concentrated in religion, mythology, geography, and world current events, and I've been trying different tactics for developing broader-based knowledge. This has mainly been inspired by my growing extracurricular interest in subjects other than history, but it's in no small part motivated by a desire to keep competitive as well.

My main quizbowl-specific study strategy, which I've applied primarily to history in the past and now apply to most non-science subjects, is to write down and underline answers that I either don't know, or write down a clue or description that I think is important but don't know and underline the answer it applies to; I do this during tournaments, in practices, and while reading packets. I then go look up the underlined answer on Wikipedia (and on more sites if I want more specific knowledge) and try to learn what it's about, so I can expand my cognitive map beyond a basic association. If it's something I generally think I need to nail down (either something that's basic that I can't answer, or some more difficult clues in categories in which I have more depth) then I'll usually make a Mnemosyne flashcard or a few-sentence long written note about it.

This strategy works a lot better if you've developed a reasonable familiarity with the sorts of answers that come up canonically, and what you actually need to know to consistently pick up more than 10 points per bonus on general topics, and more than 20 points per bonus on topics you really care about (for example, history in both your and my case).

[Harpie's Feather Duster]

I'll go ahead and endorse Will's method as stated above. Contextualizing information is important because not only does it prevent you from turning into a quizbowl-playing robot, but it very naturally leads to learning of new, related information that may come up in the future.

[naan/steak-holding toll]

I'd further add that developing contextual understanding not only gives you the non-quizbowl skill of actually being able to talk about what you have learned, but it greatly increases your ability to narrow answers down during tossups and occasionally "figure out" a question (though this happens more on bad or ill-conceived questions than good ones).