improving quickly at higher difficulties (NAQT)

[Metacarpal]

I've been playing quizbowl for about two years and from what I have seen, mACF regs packets (the ones which come up on qbreader) are very similar to those which come up in NAQT - that is, MSNCT playoffs and IS packets. However, HSNCT packets are quite different from PACE, so I've seen - they have far shorter questions and have different focuses, though of course many clues do come up that are common between the two.

I was wondering whether it would be worth it to simply listen to HSNCT recordings in a playlist or rather buy and card/read HSNCT packets on the NAQT website.

I have also noticed that HS IPNCT packets are quite a bit different from dot-2 packets on qbreader. Could anyone tell me a good study method for IPNCT?

Thank you so much!

[Good Goblin Housekeeping]

There isn't really a specific method that is different with regards to studying for harder difficulties beyond base what you study on "harder" content. In general listening to previous HSNCT podcasts is definitely a good way to guide what you want to know - there's usually a decent step up in difficulty where some of the medium or hard parts in an IS set can even be tossed up at nationals, so it's mostly about studying in greater depth. If you're looking for mACF type material that may be helpful for this difficulty, 1 dot collegiate tournaments may be helpful for this (ACF Fall for example, maybe if you want a challenge look into winter) - getting used to this difficulty also will make you do better at regular season events.

NAQT otherwise skews more towards anglophone stuff and US history so if you want to specifically prep for it, it would make sense to spend more time on that sort of material along w/ current events/geography type things

IPNCT is based on division II ICT, which is a decent tick of difficulty above that of HSNCT. I would not recommend specifically trying to figure out a special way to study for IPNCT as opposed to just studying the kinds of things that would otherwise help you do well at nats.

[Metacarpal]

the reason I am asking for an IPNCT study method is because I'm interested in carding lastlines and such. Thanks for the advice for that though.

Earlier I made a playlist of EVERY HSNCT recording in NAQT history. I'll probably listen to this a few times and try to get the information into my head.

I'm much more of a bonus player than a tossup player (at least that's what I've seen, I tend to do worse than I expect on bonuses but better than I expect on tossups). So I would say I have lastlines covered overall. I will definitely also be studying ACF winter as I actually really liked the packets I have played so far in qbreader.

Thank you so much!