The Great Middle School Pyramidality Experiment III

[Dan-Don]

Well, 22 days after our middle school tourney, results are starting to trickle in from the survey we sent to the coaches who attended the Saint Viator 6th/7th Grade Tournament. It's pretty much exactly what Jeff Price sent to some of the teams at his tournament:

(Brief explanation of what pyramidal questioning is)
1.) How difficult was it for your kids to answer these pyramidal questions?
1 .............. 2 ............. 3 ............. 4 ............. 5
too easy ............. just right ............. too hard

2.) How clearly were the questions written?
1 ............. 2 ............. 3 ............. 4 ............. 5
too vague ............. hit-and-miss ............. almost always clear

3.) Please give your general impression of pyramid-style toss-ups:
1 ............. 2 ............. 3 ............. 4 ............. 5
hope to never ............. no strong ............. Great! Hope to see more!
see them again feeling

4.) The question writer was not given the exact IESA distribution to follow. You may have noticed a dearth of grammar, for example. HOw much of a problem did you perceive that to be?
1 ............. 2 ............. 3 ............. 4 ............. 5
I have a big ............. ............. ............. It was no problem
problem with
that

5.) (Brief explanation of mACF bonus format; mentioned it was what NU used for the Jr Wildcat) Would you be interested in seeing this bonus style at next year's tournament?
1 ............. 2 ............. 3 ............. 4 ............. 5
Do that & ............. Don't care ............. We're very interested
we won't come

Anyways, the results:

Coach A:
1. 3
2. 4
3. 5
4. 3
5. 4

Coach B:
1. 3 (Comment: "We had a better experience because they were able to answer more tossups."
2. 5 (Comment: "We don't recall any questions that we didn't understand")
3. 5 (Comment: "Liked them a lot")
4. 4 (Comment: "We didn't miss them, but our kids excel at grammar and spelling so it would have been a benefit to us."
5. 2 (Comment: "We prefer the way it is now, but form your description and not having experience with this we don't really get it. We would like to be able to practice the new format with our kids first before a tournament so we'd need more information.")