Masonics

Dormant threads from the high school sections are preserved here.
User avatar
Stained Diviner
Auron
Posts: 5085
Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2004 6:08 am
Location: Chicagoland
Contact:

Re: Masonics

Post by Stained Diviner »

Actually, the only change Donald and I have discussed for next year, which is based on the assumption that I'll get the contract again, is that he'll write the Econ instead of me. I'll add that I would be very happy to get more help from more people. You can contact me now if you're interested, though I probably won't be able to negotiate the details until I have a contract and a distribution, which likely will be about two months from now.
David Reinstein
Head Writer and Editor for Scobol Solo, Masonics, and IESA; TD for Scobol Solo and Reinstein Varsity; IHSSBCA Board Member; IHSSBCA Chair (2004-2014); PACE President (2016-2018)
User avatar
tintinnabulation
Wakka
Posts: 141
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 1:04 am

Re: Masonics

Post by tintinnabulation »

The questions were great (thanks so much!), but I think the distro could use a little work, too.

Donald's right--the language arts questions should definitely go. I get enough of those on Questions Galore and it's really disappointing when you get two lit bonuses in a row and they're both vocabulary. The fine arts questions were also rather slim. Could you ask to create a RMP category instead of bumping other categories off with the RMP questions? That might be a long shot, but I'm all for separate RMP and bigger fine arts categories.
Brittany Trang
Ohio State
Northwestern
User avatar
Irreligion in Bangladesh
Auron
Posts: 2123
Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2004 1:18 am
Location: Winnebago, IL

Re: Masonics

Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

With the 16/16 distribution, you've got a Big 4: Science, Lit, History, and Math, with FA and Misc. trailing far behind.

The ratios between Major categories (Bio/Chem/Physics in Science, Literature in Lit, U.S. and World History in History) and Minor categories (Earth/Astro/Health/Environmental in Science, Myth and LA in Lit, Religion, SS, Geography, CE in history) are very far out of line with what we expect in, say, mACF distributions - it's nearly a fifty-fifty split between big 3 sciences and small 4 sciences, it's WORSE than fifty-fifty between history and "social studies," and language arts questions are, simply put, an atrocity and need to be killed with fire. All that said, Mr. Reinstein did an admirable job of working to make the unusual minor categories (Health, Environmental Science, Government, Speech, Journalism, and Vocabulary) as close to standard quizbowl as possible, succeeding greatly in Health (it was essentially normal biology), Government (essentially normal US History), Speech (history), and Journalism (history or CE, don't remember). The environmental science was somewhat odd, and the vocabulary is impossible to fix, but kudos on a job well done turning the bad into a good result.

There should be an attempt to put more of the minor questions into major categories, because codifying good quizbowl is better than shoehorning it in (what happens if Reinstein doesn't get the contract?), but it's a minor issue behind the needed arts increases and vocab elimination.
Brad Fischer
Head Editor, IHSA State Series
IHSSBCA Chair

Winnebago HS ('06)
Northern Illinois University ('10)
Assistant Coach, IMSA (2010-12)
Coach, Keith Country Day School (2012-16)
User avatar
at your pleasure
Auron
Posts: 1723
Joined: Sun Aug 03, 2008 7:56 pm

Re: Masonics

Post by at your pleasure »

What exactly is the split between Geo/CE and SS in history? It feels like that'd mostly just replace lots of history with Geo/CE since so little SS is reasonably askable in high school.
Douglas Graebner, Walt Whitman HS 10, Uchicago 14
"... imagination acts upon man as really as does gravitation, and may kill him as certainly as a dose of prussic acid."-Sir James Frazer,The Golden Bough

http://avorticistking.wordpress.com/
User avatar
dtaylor4
Auron
Posts: 3733
Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2004 11:43 am

Re: Masonics

Post by dtaylor4 »

Gus Goes to Cybertown wrote:What exactly is the split between Geo/CE and SS in history? It feels like that'd mostly just replace lots of history with Geo/CE since so little SS is reasonably askable in high school.
Looking through the category tags, there was 5/4 Geography and 4/2 Current Events (this does not include the replacments, which do not count towards the main distribution).
User avatar
Stained Diviner
Auron
Posts: 5085
Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2004 6:08 am
Location: Chicagoland
Contact:

Re: Masonics

Post by Stained Diviner »

There was 5/6 Geography, 4/2 Current Events, 4/2 U.S. Government, 2/0 Psychology, 2/2 Religion, and 3/2 Econ.
The Language Arts was 3/0 Grammar & Usage, 2/2 Speech, and 2/4 Vocabulary.
The minor science was 5/6 Astro, 2/2 Environmental, 3/0 Earth, and 4/4 Health.
David Reinstein
Head Writer and Editor for Scobol Solo, Masonics, and IESA; TD for Scobol Solo and Reinstein Varsity; IHSSBCA Board Member; IHSSBCA Chair (2004-2014); PACE President (2016-2018)
User avatar
dtaylor4
Auron
Posts: 3733
Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2004 11:43 am

Re: Masonics

Post by dtaylor4 »

Leucippe and Clitophon wrote:There was 5/6 Geography, 4/2 Current Events, 4/2 U.S. Government, 2/0 Psychology, 2/2 Religion, and 3/2 Econ.
The Language Arts was 3/0 Grammar & Usage, 2/2 Speech, and 2/4 Vocabulary.
The minor science was 5/6 Astro, 2/2 Environmental, 3/0 Earth, and 4/4 Health.
Is there any indication that the Masons would agree to ditch everything in LA? The Lit could be bumped to 32/32, meaning an even split in each of Am Lit, Brit Lit, World Lit, and Mythology.
User avatar
Stained Diviner
Auron
Posts: 5085
Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2004 6:08 am
Location: Chicagoland
Contact:

Re: Masonics

Post by Stained Diviner »

I have no idea, and I don't think I would push for an even split anyways. 8/8 World Lit at each of Sectionals and State is a lot of World Lit, and if you throw in the Extra Questions that hopefully next year will be Tiebreakers it's even more of a stretch. The fact that World Lit includes Continental Lit in this case makes it a possibility, though I would prefer skewing the lit distribution slightly towards US, where the answer space is larger.
David Reinstein
Head Writer and Editor for Scobol Solo, Masonics, and IESA; TD for Scobol Solo and Reinstein Varsity; IHSSBCA Board Member; IHSSBCA Chair (2004-2014); PACE President (2016-2018)
User avatar
Irreligion in Bangladesh
Auron
Posts: 2123
Joined: Thu Jul 08, 2004 1:18 am
Location: Winnebago, IL

Re: Masonics

Post by Irreligion in Bangladesh »

What's the Lit split between US and World now?
Brad Fischer
Head Editor, IHSA State Series
IHSSBCA Chair

Winnebago HS ('06)
Northern Illinois University ('10)
Assistant Coach, IMSA (2010-12)
Coach, Keith Country Day School (2012-16)
User avatar
Stained Diviner
Auron
Posts: 5085
Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2004 6:08 am
Location: Chicagoland
Contact:

Re: Masonics

Post by Stained Diviner »

This year was 9/10 US, 5/4 British, and 6/6 World. There was also 3/6 Extra US and no extras in the others. Actually, I don't feel strongly about this--making them equal would be acceptable.
David Reinstein
Head Writer and Editor for Scobol Solo, Masonics, and IESA; TD for Scobol Solo and Reinstein Varsity; IHSSBCA Board Member; IHSSBCA Chair (2004-2014); PACE President (2016-2018)
User avatar
dtaylor4
Auron
Posts: 3733
Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2004 11:43 am

Re: Masonics

Post by dtaylor4 »

With Continental as most of World, I am confident I can fill 8/8 for each set.

If Myth isn't broken out, I'd probably cut into that, as there is overlap there, and it's easier for me to tweak the clues and change the category.
User avatar
Dominator
Tidus
Posts: 636
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2010 9:16 pm

Re: Masonics

Post by Dominator »

Leucippe and Clitophon wrote:
Dominator wrote:A Doll's House and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Your words are so kind that I'll try to forgive you for selecting out two questions from Donald to praise ;)
How about this? Instead of deciding the State Championship on Science: Rube Goldberg, it was decided on Science: Rubisco.
Dr. Noah Prince

Normal Community High School (2002)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2004, 2007, 2008)

Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy - Scholastic Bowl coach (2009-2014), assistant coach (2014-2015), well wisher (2015-2016)
guy in San Diego (2016-present)
President of Qblitz (2018-present)

Image
Locked