Search found 120 matches

by jewtemplar
Tue Jul 24, 2007 3:06 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: A very serious request
Replies: 44
Views: 26287

DumbJaques wrote:Sorry Sam this thread is only for people who can find their asses with both hands AND a map.
Come again?
by jewtemplar
Mon Jul 23, 2007 4:48 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: A very serious request
Replies: 44
Views: 26287

Reviewing my gmail indicates that Bryce Avery was responsible for the 2005 National Science Bowl questions, which featured a disarmingly large proportion of questions repeated verbatim from previous National Science Bowl competitions. To be honest, Jefferson owes him its 2005 NSB championship, becau...
by jewtemplar
Thu Jul 05, 2007 5:05 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Panasonic Results
Replies: 149
Views: 54429

Have you tried asking your parents to go? I don't know if FL has rules that prohibit it, but I've seen parents go instead of sponsors plenty of times...the key seems to be having a responsible adult, not whether that adult is paid by the school. In fact, my coach in high school only went to the Sat...
by jewtemplar
Sat Apr 21, 2007 2:17 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: technology tournament
Replies: 47
Views: 19337

Pardon?
by jewtemplar
Fri Mar 03, 2006 5:15 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT invitations
Replies: 28
Views: 15824

Div II.
by jewtemplar
Fri Mar 03, 2006 1:29 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT invitations
Replies: 28
Views: 15824

A little late, but it looks like I am playing at NAQT nationals, although I've been to no other tournaments all year.
by jewtemplar
Fri Jan 13, 2006 1:09 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Regionals 2006 Announcement and Call for Hosts
Replies: 11
Views: 11439

Links don't seem to be working...
by jewtemplar
Fri Aug 19, 2005 12:22 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Computational math...Illinois and elsewhere
Replies: 35
Views: 24617

Not necessarily. Most people who can do computational science i.e. physics/chemistry can do comp math pretty quickly. People who do mental computations regularly are certainly quicker, but in my experience you do less and less mental/manual arithmetic as you progress in your knowledge of math and s...
by jewtemplar
Fri Aug 19, 2005 12:39 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Computational math...Illinois and elsewhere
Replies: 35
Views: 24617

Along the point Mr. Lee was making, Quiz Bowl is actually quite different from academia. Parroting one- or two-word answers will get you nowhere in academia, though it will get you everywhere in Quiz Bowl. If somebody is an expert in a subject in an academic sense, then they have added to the body ...
by jewtemplar
Thu Aug 18, 2005 9:05 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Computational math...Illinois and elsewhere
Replies: 35
Views: 24617

TJ's house written tournaments have 1/1 or fewer computation tossups/bonuses per round, and even this is more a matter of tradition, of fulfilling teams' expectations, etc. Of all subjects in quiz bowl, computational math is the one that exhibits the least correlation of legitimate subject knowledge...
by jewtemplar
Wed Aug 10, 2005 5:41 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Do you like Grammar?
Replies: 30
Views: 17292

Unfortunately, the answer is the subjunctive.
by jewtemplar
Thu Jun 30, 2005 1:46 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Right answers that are counted wrong...
Replies: 24
Views: 13559

I believe NAQT has a specific rule allowing such answers with additional correct information.
by jewtemplar
Sat Jun 25, 2005 12:21 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Panasonic
Replies: 96
Views: 53379

The thing about Panasonic is that it really doesn't want to be quiz bowl. The questions are modeled on typical high school exams, not quiz bowl of any type. While they want to run a haphazardly buzz-based high school knowledge competition, they have the best question writers out there. If they want ...
by jewtemplar
Thu Jun 23, 2005 7:46 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Panasonic
Replies: 96
Views: 53379

On a related note, kind of: Is Panasonic even quiz bowl? Panasonic qualifies as weird quiz bowl, I'd say, but it's only because of the buzzer. It would be wonderful if some of the money panasonic donates to have teams stay at an overpriced hotel and go play around in overpriced, overrated theme par...
by jewtemplar
Wed Jun 22, 2005 11:27 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Panasonic
Replies: 96
Views: 53379

In NAQT, PACE, and most "mACF" tournaments, leading articles may be omitted, but must be correct if included. I made the protest on the assumption that Panasonic followed similar procedures.

And of course, the money and Disney world are by far the greatest draws.
by jewtemplar
Wed Jun 22, 2005 9:29 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Panasonic
Replies: 96
Views: 53379

I believe they asked for Saroyan's. Although I have no right to complain, it was a shame to have won on so many technicalities. The questions that round were simply too easy to distinguish teams on the basis of knowledge. Oddly enough, there were more buzzer races in the 15 pt round than in both oth...
by jewtemplar
Fri Jun 17, 2005 11:43 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAC Chicago
Replies: 71
Views: 42330

So long as there exist people determined to profit from a game with one format, and other people determined to work hard facilitating a circuit in another radically different format, both formats will continue to exist. Chip can't draw a large enough field unless he has a sufficiently "exciting...
by jewtemplar
Mon Jun 13, 2005 7:51 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: PACE NSC 2005 results
Replies: 33
Views: 19743

I'll echo everybody's praise of the PACE staff. Though I wasn't there for prelims, I found it perhaps the most smoothly run national tournament I've ever participated in. The questions (though perhaps a little bit easier than last year) were top notch, and made for some great games. I'm glad PACE NS...
by jewtemplar
Fri Jun 10, 2005 12:41 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Decency Requirement in Quizbowl Questions
Replies: 22
Views: 11941

It kind of depends how puritanical a school system you are dealing with. I certainly don't think quiz bowl questions need to be a reflection of whatever societal norms are in effect, but if it means a loss of participation or funding it's just foolish to include potentially inflammatory content. I d...
by jewtemplar
Wed Jun 08, 2005 8:18 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The format/rebound debate
Replies: 15
Views: 8607

If NAQT is a timed format, then the timing should be taken seriously. Is it unfair if a point guard handles the ball more slowly in the final seconds of a basketball game if his team is leading? Intentionally sabotaging one's scoring capability to avoid the chance of a reversal is a common tactic in...
by jewtemplar
Wed Jun 08, 2005 12:07 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAQT HSNCT field discussion
Replies: 154
Views: 87521

It seems to me that when it comes to tossups, TJ A has mercureal players and solid ones. The mercureal ones have a tendency to compete with their own team and buzz far sooner than they actually know the answer, but when they're confident this results in powers. On the rare occasions they're unconfi...
by jewtemplar
Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:49 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAQT HSNCT field discussion
Replies: 154
Views: 87521

Re: Staff Team

By the way, about the final match: TJ at one point was down by more than 200 points (they actually had -5). Does anyone think that they were simply "goofing around" since Lakeside had to win two matches to beat them? I can assure you we were not goofing. We actually have quite an affinity...
by jewtemplar
Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:01 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Thomas Jefferson wins third straight HSNCT
Replies: 65
Views: 36492

...It is frustrating to me as an observer of this type of competition... I completely understand your preferences regarding pacing and bouncebacks, but to others they may be just the points that make NAQT stand out above PACE. Personally, I enjoy the academic content of PACE questions, but greatly ...
by jewtemplar
Tue Jun 07, 2005 12:21 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Thomas Jefferson wins third straight HSNCT
Replies: 65
Views: 36492

I think the blowouts have a lot to do with rhythm. It's a lot easier to keep powering and keep 30ing when you've gotten several in a row, and probably much more difficult to get back in the game if you are substantially behind early on. The most important predictors of our scores this weekend were o...
by jewtemplar
Mon Jun 06, 2005 5:43 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAQT HSNCT field discussion
Replies: 154
Views: 87521

We rotated names, which may have resulted in the rather neat clustering of individual results. For the playoffs, Jacob Oppenheim was Rabbi, I (Sam Lederer) was Maverick, Will Sullivan was Iceman, and Dan Wright was Goose.
by jewtemplar
Mon Jun 06, 2005 5:40 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Why go to Nationals?
Replies: 7
Views: 4963

What I'm trying to say is, it really depends who you want to impress -- if anyone. Sorry for the late response to this one. You probably know that I don't much care about impressing anybody, or else I would devote time to much more high profile competitions. My claim is that the teams really there ...
by jewtemplar
Thu Jun 02, 2005 10:57 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Why go to Nationals?
Replies: 7
Views: 4963

It is clear that a national quiz bowl champion cannot be well defined if there are so many tournaments, but I know I for one don't care about whatever prestige the hard and fast title of national champion might bring. I care about competing in, and hopefully winning, the tournaments I judge to have ...
by jewtemplar
Tue May 24, 2005 6:53 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAQT HSNCT field discussion
Replies: 154
Views: 87521

Having competed against Mission San Jose's science bowl team (which is roughly equivalent to its qb team, I think) I definitely think they at least have the skills to make it very deep into the naqt playoffs. Though I don't know so much about their non-science knowledge base, I think they might be d...
by jewtemplar
Mon May 23, 2005 10:53 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: VA/MD/DC Summer Singles
Replies: 14
Views: 8389

Check out the naqt set that has bounced from gds, to blair, to nothing as of yet. They may let it go cheaper.
by jewtemplar
Sun Apr 24, 2005 5:16 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Florida CAC Results
Replies: 12
Views: 6875

Website says Panasonic is still on for the $2500, $1500 and $500 awards for winning teams and the $2500 all-america awards.
And let's not forget the rings.
That's a shame about the state tourney, though.
by jewtemplar
Sun Apr 24, 2005 12:13 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Florida CAC Results
Replies: 12
Views: 6875

You can't approach Panasonic as quiz bowl for the same reason you can't approach science bowl as quiz bowl: the rules and format make no sense, and the directors have no reason to change. If you approach it as a vaguely related sort of half-knowledge half-formalism game, then it can in fact be rewar...
by jewtemplar
Wed Apr 20, 2005 7:20 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: New York Times article
Replies: 13
Views: 7407

But there was a string of a few years where TJ didn't win a game on It's Academic . It was my impression that this was mostly due to focusing too much on knowledge and not enough on strategy. In more recent years, I think the faculty sponsor has been more involved, and I believe the team has had a ...
by jewtemplar
Mon Apr 18, 2005 8:47 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Bad Negs
Replies: 826
Views: 353537

steven-lamp wrote:Today at Practice (not committed by me):

Ted Bundy for Perse Shelley
"The Necessity of Serial Killing," anyone?

How did that work?
by jewtemplar
Sun Apr 17, 2005 11:51 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Highest scores
Replies: 73
Views: 44337

To somerandomguy: The format was NAQT timed. 24 tossups with powers can make a big difference verus 20 without. Our prelim ppg was 570. Other stats at http://www.student.virginia.edu/~quizbowl/naqtstates05stats_standings.html To PRStoetzer: Our starting A team has not last a match this year. However...
by jewtemplar
Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:39 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Panasonic
Replies: 96
Views: 53379

This year's Team Virginia consists of: Sam Lederer Dan Wright Will Sullivan Jacob Oppenheim Alexandra Levy Ajay Suresh All from TJ with the exception of Ajay, from Princess Anne. I'm excited about the competition and all, but what's really got me going is trying to guess the campy theme of the compe...
by jewtemplar
Wed Apr 06, 2005 10:30 pm
Forum: Best of the Best
Topic: ACF Nationals aftermath/discussion
Replies: 50
Views: 66566

Pardon my hubris for chiming in, but to take the example of philosophy, there is a very clear reason why philosophy biography and history are more well accepted than science biography and history. While qualitative descriptions of "real," "important" science can generally be clea...
by jewtemplar
Mon Apr 04, 2005 12:20 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: PACE Information
Replies: 75
Views: 48789

Dr. Chuck,
To what email should we send questions about bids? Do you still check etchuck at yahoo ?
by jewtemplar
Fri Mar 25, 2005 10:33 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAQT Question
Replies: 1
Views: 2305

9 minute halves.
by jewtemplar
Thu Mar 17, 2005 10:06 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Computational Math Crisis!
Replies: 46
Views: 50227

Moderator: What are the solutions to 2x squared plus 5x minus 3 equals zero? Player: [buzz] Minus five plus or minus the square root of the quantity 5 squared minus 4 times 2 times 3 end quantity, all over two times two. Moderator: Correct. But not only is this a "world of moderators who know ...
by jewtemplar
Thu Mar 17, 2005 9:45 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Computational Math Crisis!
Replies: 46
Views: 50227

The fact that mathematical computation is naturally ambiguous is a powerful argument for the removal of calculation questions from all distributions. While smug, condescending answers should be discouraged, I don't think an argument could be made for rejecting an answer based solely on that. And sty...
by jewtemplar
Thu Mar 17, 2005 8:45 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Computational Math Crisis!
Replies: 46
Views: 50227

Obviously, virtually impossible is hard to define. The trig functions of an angle of any integer number of degrees can all be found using the appropriate formulas. In a world of moderators who know math, I think there is no reason for simplified answers to be required. Obviously, if writers require ...
by jewtemplar
Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:24 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Any thoughts on the DC area?
Replies: 69
Views: 41680

Chris Frankel wrote: Sorry to butt in, but who's going where? I feel compelled to ask since
Princeton was mentioned.
You get Jacob. I'm going to Harvard, Dan to UNC.
by jewtemplar
Tue Mar 08, 2005 12:28 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Any thoughts on the DC area?
Replies: 69
Views: 41680

Note to admin: blazer06 was referring to TJ's housewritten tournament.
Not that it really matters.
by jewtemplar
Sun Mar 06, 2005 6:23 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: gonzaga tournament?
Replies: 7
Views: 4620

I would not call the questions sub par. Not all of them were meant to be pyramidal, I think, and the answer selection was refreshingly non formulaic, with generally difficult questions. This answer selection, while novel, did produce a number of upsets. TJ B beat TJ A (both with non-standard rosters...
by jewtemplar
Sun Mar 06, 2005 5:17 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: a modest proposal...for playoff formats
Replies: 5
Views: 3824

The first format is roughly feasible, only with the stipulation that undefeated or highly ranked teams don't play the first round. Otherwise the structure goes to hell. The second format is, I think, excessive. It would take forever, and would result in tremendous numbers of overkill matches that do...
by jewtemplar
Wed Mar 02, 2005 11:57 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Is Gov doing a spring tournament?
Replies: 13
Views: 6795

If prices are in the $50 range, and as long as it doesn't conflict with dc area tournaments, you can probably expect ~7 TJ teams.
by jewtemplar
Sun Feb 27, 2005 10:57 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: National Ocean Sciences Bowl North Carolina Regional
Replies: 3
Views: 3017

VA's regional was on February 12. TJ beat Princess Anne in the final, winning an all expenses paid trip to distant Chevy Chase, MD.
by jewtemplar
Fri Feb 25, 2005 11:59 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Team PP20TUH vs. MPP20TUH
Replies: 13
Views: 7284

The only problem is the fact that low opponent scores are sometimes attributable to the tossup domination of the winning team, rather than the weakness of the losing team. I guess the formula is trying to make playoff tiebreakers between mid to upper level teams more fair, but you never know.
by jewtemplar
Mon Feb 21, 2005 1:16 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Duke Academic Festival 2005
Replies: 24
Views: 14466

They did indeed. Does anyone know why? Spotswood A was slotted into the same division as TJ A. Spostwood B was in the same division as TJB and Raleigh Charter A. They probably figured that TJ A was unbeatable and instead of going for a safer #2 slot in the division decided to take a chance and go f...
by jewtemplar
Mon Feb 14, 2005 8:35 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Cavalier Open results
Replies: 7
Views: 5001

Regarding NAQT states- be aware that you will draw substantially fewer northern va teams than usual, as April 23 is the date of Richard Montgomery's Rumble on the Pike.