Caught in difficulty limbo

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tksaleija
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Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by tksaleija »

So I'm trying to gauge what question types I'm best suited for and have been trying just a couple and I've run into an issue. PACE questions are pretty lengthy and much harder for me to string together several correct answers in a row, but SCOP Novice questions are, while decent quality, incredibly easy, with some being immediate giveaways 4 words into the power. I was wondering if there was an intermediary question set(s) that will provide more challenge and give me a sense of how/what to practice to move up to PACE without breezing through out getting stumped by every question.
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock »

If you have some money to purchase IS sets from NAQT for practice, those would be best. Or for a free option, the VHSL sets should also be good. And you are correct that you are looking at two ends of the difficulty spectrum with SCOP and PACE,
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by Stained Diviner »

You're in luck! Pretty much high school set is between those two sets in terms of difficulty. Here are a lot of free sets.
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by ryanrosenberg »

In particular, the WHAQ and LIST sets are of approximately normal high school difficulty. Here is a list of the difficulty of high school sets from this year (a higher number means the set is more difficult).
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

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Granny Soberer wrote:In particular, the WHAQ and LIST sets are of approximately normal high school difficulty. Here is a list of the difficulty of high school sets from this year (a higher number means the set is more difficult).
I like this a lot because it's great for comparison, but based on the information given on the site, wouldn't LIST and WHAQ be of lower difficulty (.04 and -.38) or are the HSNCT questions (4.67) just a much higher difficulty?
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock »

tksaleija wrote:
Granny Soberer wrote:In particular, the WHAQ and LIST sets are of approximately normal high school difficulty. Here is a list of the difficulty of high school sets from this year (a higher number means the set is more difficult).
I like this a lot because it's great for comparison, but based on the information given on the site, wouldn't LIST and WHAQ be of lower difficulty (.04 and -.38) or are the HSNCT questions (4.67) just a much higher difficulty?
HSNCT is high school nationals, so yes, they are a degree of difficulty higher. LIST, WHAQ, and other sets close to zero are the best approximations of "regular difficulty" that you'd play throughout the year.
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by tksaleija »

gettysburg11 wrote:
tksaleija wrote:
Granny Soberer wrote:In particular, the WHAQ and LIST sets are of approximately normal high school difficulty. Here is a list of the difficulty of high school sets from this year (a higher number means the set is more difficult).
I like this a lot because it's great for comparison, but based on the information given on the site, wouldn't LIST and WHAQ be of lower difficulty (.04 and -.38) or are the HSNCT questions (4.67) just a much higher difficulty?
HSNCT is high school nationals, so yes, they are a degree of difficulty higher. LIST, WHAQ, and other sets close to zero are the best approximations of "regular difficulty" that you'd play throughout the year.
Alright, thank you for the clarification :)
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by Stained Diviner »

On that scale, NAQT IS sets are 0.
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by iambadatnames »

Prison bowl is also not as hard as nats-level material but is reasonably well written and readily available.
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by tksaleija »

Any idea where I can find more LIST packets? There's only one (1) on the packets database.

EDIT: WHAQ packets too. I don't think I saw any in the hsqb database.
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock »

tksaleija wrote:Any idea where I can find more LIST packets? There's only one (1) on the packets database.

EDIT: WHAQ packets too. I don't think I saw any in the hsqb database.
LIST 2017: http://www.quizbowlpackets.com/1978/
LIST 2014: http://www.quizbowlpackets.com/592/
LIST 2013: http://www.quizbowlpackets.com/591/
LIST 2012: http://www.quizbowlpackets.com/58/
LIST 2011: http://www.quizbowlpackets.com/171/

WHAQ: http://www.quizbowlpackets.com/1850/

All of them are also on the http://www.quizbowlpackets.com link that David Reinstein posted earlier so you don't have to specifically save these links.
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by tksaleija »

gettysburg11 wrote:
tksaleija wrote:Any idea where I can find more LIST packets? There's only one (1) on the packets database.

EDIT: WHAQ packets too. I don't think I saw any in the hsqb database.
LIST 2017: http://www.quizbowlpackets.com/1978/
LIST 2014: http://www.quizbowlpackets.com/592/
LIST 2013: http://www.quizbowlpackets.com/591/
LIST 2012: http://www.quizbowlpackets.com/58/
LIST 2011: http://www.quizbowlpackets.com/171/

WHAQ: http://www.quizbowlpackets.com/1850/

All of them are also on the http://www.quizbowlpackets.com link that David Reinstein posted earlier so you don't have to specifically save these links.
Thanks, I guess I'm just way too blind and/or lazy to have caught those. Yikes. I'll definitely use these though :)
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by Antrobus63 »

You're very ambitious, but cut yourself a break. PACE is pretty tough, even for the best players.
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by Shomik Ghose »

As an extension to this post, what college packets would be the best to practice for teams trying to get good at PACE/HSNCT level? The answerlines in ACF Regs and MUT seem a bit too obscure (especially towards the end) while ACF Fall seems a bit easier than HS nationals...
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Re: Caught in difficulty limbo

Post by High Dependency Unit »

Shomik Ghose wrote:As an extension to this post, what college packets would be the best to practice for teams trying to get good at PACE/HSNCT level? The answerlines in ACF Regs and MUT seem a bit too obscure (especially towards the end) while ACF Fall seems a bit easier than HS nationals...
MUT and EMT are probably your best bet, then ACF Regs and other college regular sets.
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