Search found 139 matches

by Northern Central Railway
Mon Oct 09, 2017 12:33 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)
Replies: 17
Views: 13450

Re: PHSAT XXV at Princeton (9/30/2017)

Okay, so lack of institutional knowledge transfer as you mentioned is definitely a problem with multiple college clubs, but that's only a good reason up to a point. To a large degree, running tournaments is just plain common sense. Wacky room assignments between different buildings that make no sens...
by Northern Central Railway
Tue Mar 01, 2016 12:08 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: East Brunswick May Invitational 2016 @EBHS (05/14/16)
Replies: 9
Views: 9158

Re: East Brunswick May Invitational 2016 @EBHS (05/14/16)

2. If your team decides to drop from the field within 5 days before the competition and there is no waitlist, the fee that was charged still holds. This leaves us very little time to have another team fill in the spot. High school (and college!) tournament hosts have tried this policy before and it...
by Northern Central Railway
Fri Jun 12, 2015 9:22 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2015 PACE NSC Seeding/General Seeding Discussion
Replies: 5
Views: 3719

Re: 2015 PACE NSC Seeding/General Seeding Discussion

Seeding accuracy Teams were seeded 1-96 and divided into groups as evenly as possible. The highest seeded team in their bracket would be on line 1, second highest seeded would be on line 2, etc. If a team was on line 1 and finished first in their group, that would be considered a "perfect line...
by Northern Central Railway
Sat May 02, 2015 12:18 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2015 NAQT New Jersey State Championships (4/18/2015)
Replies: 5
Views: 6583

Re: 2015 NAQT New Jersey State Championships (4/18/2015)

Great Bustard wrote:How did this event go logistically?
At least in my experience, it ran fairly well, especially considering 1) the odd field size, 2) some teams left at lunch, and 3)a team left in the afternoon without telling anyone.
by Northern Central Railway
Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:20 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2015 BHSAT: General Discussion
Replies: 22
Views: 1145

Re: 2015 BHSAT: General Discussion

This may just be a nitpick on my part, but I thought that some of the notes telling the moderator to take a short pause when coming across a semicolon were a bit superfluous - although I certainly do enjoy reading at a very fast pace, myself and all the other speedy readers I've heard tend to be goo...
by Northern Central Railway
Tue Feb 17, 2015 11:11 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2015 BHSAT: Specific Question Requests and Discussion
Replies: 52
Views: 2634

Re: 2015 BHSAT: Specific Question Requests and Discussion

The _Euler_ tossup seem easily fraudable to me, one of my players who knows very little about math other than that Euler did lots of things was able to confidently power that tossup. Is having _Euler_ and _e_ as tossups in the same tournament a good idea? Although the high school math canon is indee...
by Northern Central Railway
Wed Feb 11, 2015 11:14 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: HSQBRank 2014-15
Replies: 211
Views: 130871

Re: HSQBRank 2014-15

Deep Green A (#71) is a pseudonym used by [a school that appears elsewhere on the list --Mgmt.]

#178 Scarsdale A is in NY.

#200 Lehigh Valley Academy is indeed in PA.

Thanks for the rankings.

Please don't reveal the real identities of pseudonymous teams on the forums. --Mgmt.
by Northern Central Railway
Wed Jan 21, 2015 5:37 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Prison Bowl VIII @ Hunter College High School, NYC (3/28/15)
Replies: 18
Views: 13209

Re: Prison Bowl VIII @ Hunter College High School, NYC (3/28

Is the registration form for this going to be posted?
by Northern Central Railway
Sun Jan 04, 2015 1:33 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A
Replies: 8
Views: 6711

Re: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A

Congraulations to 'J.P. Wynne' for winning the second ever Mountain Lakes Invitational with a 425-300 win over 'Deep Green' A in the first place game. Other placement games were as follows: Lehigh Valley Academy defeated Emmaus 330-270 for 3rd. 'The Foxes' defeated Livingston B 445-250 for 5th. Mill...
by Northern Central Railway
Thu Jan 01, 2015 4:09 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: “New” tournament format: “paired prelim brackets”
Replies: 5
Views: 5317

Re: “New” tournament format: “paired prelim brackets”

This format seems interesting. One thing I wonder though is whether or not having a hybrid preliminary structure, i.e. some morning pools be typical round robins and others be paired brackets would be fair to teams. If you have a field size of 34, there would be the possibility of having 4 pools of ...
by Northern Central Railway
Sat Dec 27, 2014 12:04 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: GSAC XXII Question-specific Discussion
Replies: 16
Views: 838

Re: GSAC XXII Question-specific Discussion

Due to the circumstances of the mirror I was at, I read part of Round 10 twice. Both times, the Battle of Antietam tossup got first-lined after the mention of 'Sunken Road'. History is one area I don't know much about at at all, but is that a stock clue of some kind?
by Northern Central Railway
Mon Dec 22, 2014 2:04 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Vermicious Knids who drop at the last minute
Replies: 19
Views: 9154

Re: Vermicious Knids who drop at the last minute

I don't know how/why it became an acceptable solution for some teams, but schools signing up a sizable (3+) number of teams for a tournament that equals the upper bound of the number of people on the team within hours of it being announced and then just dropping some/all teams once people actually h...
by Northern Central Railway
Wed Dec 17, 2014 11:28 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A
Replies: 8
Views: 6711

Re: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A

There have been multiple drops within the last 24 hours, the field currently stands at 31 teams, meaning that any team(s) that register will be in the field.
by Northern Central Railway
Mon Dec 15, 2014 7:26 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A
Replies: 8
Views: 6711

Re: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A

Due to a sizable number of drops, the waitlist is now empty, so if you were previously looking at this tournament but dissuaded by the number of teams on the waitlist, there's now a nonzero chance you can make it into the field.
by Northern Central Railway
Sun Dec 14, 2014 9:59 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A
Replies: 8
Views: 6711

Re: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A

The field size for this tournament will be 36 teams, barring a sudden treasure trove of buzzers and moderators (as well as enough teams) being found. All registered teams should be receiving an e-mail yet this evening - if you do not get it, please let me know.
by Northern Central Railway
Mon Dec 08, 2014 12:26 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Columbia University BISB Mirror (12/06/2014)
Replies: 18
Views: 10413

Re: Columbia University BISB Mirror (12/06/2014)

This tournament ran extremely efficiently, job well done by Ben and the rest of the team at Columbia.
by Northern Central Railway
Sun Nov 30, 2014 6:51 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015
Replies: 72
Views: 43119

Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Crazyflight wrote:


Oh, okay. Will they play together at nationals?
Yes - Science Honors Program ends on May 9 and there aren't any school theater productions going on then.
by Northern Central Railway
Sun Nov 30, 2014 1:53 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015
Replies: 72
Views: 43119

Re: NY/NJ/Surrounding Area, 2014-2015

Mountain Lakes : Even with Ron, they haven't really been having stunning performances. I don't know if they'll be able to equate to what they were last year. Mountain Lakes has yet to have it's #1 and #2 players togther at a tournament this year, due to Columbia's Science Honors Program as well as ...
by Northern Central Railway
Fri Nov 07, 2014 10:17 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A
Replies: 8
Views: 6711

Re: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A

The field for this tournament has now hit the tentative field cap of 36. I am re-assessing the staffing and buzzer situation and will have a decision about field expansion within a week. Right now I am leaning toward expanding the field size to 42; I will be maintaining a wait list, but this field e...
by Northern Central Railway
Wed Oct 29, 2014 3:13 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A
Replies: 8
Views: 6711

Re: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A

Registration has been open for just over a week and the field is already just about halfway full with 17 teams from 3 states - although field expansion is possible, it is by no means definite, so please register soon if you would like to guarantee a spot in the field.
by Northern Central Railway
Tue Oct 21, 2014 2:08 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A
Replies: 8
Views: 6711

Mountain Lakes (NJ) Invitational, Jan. 3 2015 - IS 141A

Mountain Lakes High School will be hosting the second annual Mountain Lakes Invitational on January 3, 2015 . This tournament will use NAQT set 141A . Each round will be 20 tossups and bonuses, untimed. We will not be using math computation tossups or bonuses. In-person registration will take place ...
by Northern Central Railway
Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:29 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NY / NJ Area Date Claims, 2014-15
Replies: 69
Views: 42828

Re: NY / NJ Area Date Claims, 2014-15

The weekends are dwindling. Bergen Academies would really like to host a high school tournament in the spring. Should Bloomfield fall through again*, we'd like to use March 7 as our date. We're currently attempting to find a set we can use. *-Is there any evidence that their team, well, exists? It'...
by Northern Central Railway
Sat Oct 04, 2014 7:09 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NY / NJ Area Date Claims, 2014-15
Replies: 69
Views: 42828

Re: NY / NJ Area Date Claims, 2014-15

Mountain Lakes will be hosting the 2nd annual Mountain Lakes Invitational using NAQT set 141A on January 3. Full announcement to come, but there will be a soft field cap of 24 and hard cap of 48. Let's hope the weather cooperates better this time.
by Northern Central Railway
Mon Sep 22, 2014 2:36 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NY / NJ Area Date Claims, 2014-15
Replies: 69
Views: 42828

Re: NY / NJ Area Date Claims, 2014-15

I just received confirmation from Dave Madden himself that Northern NJ NHBB is January 17 and that the NHBB website is being changed to reflect this. Having figured that out, my initial question still stands, albeit somewhat altered - would January 3 (most schools probably not back in session yet) o...
by Northern Central Railway
Mon Sep 22, 2014 11:56 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NY / NJ Area Date Claims, 2014-15
Replies: 69
Views: 42828

Re: NY / NJ Area Date Claims, 2014-15

Hello fellow NY/NJ quizbowl people, I have a question for the the general populace: Given that the first Saturday of January is the 3rd and that many high schools won't be back in session from Winter break until the following Monday, would many (any?) teams be willing to go to a tournament held on t...
by Northern Central Railway
Mon Sep 15, 2014 2:01 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Physical mail examples
Replies: 7
Views: 4969

Re: Physical mail examples

Attached is the invite letter I used for the Mountain Lakes Invitational last year. Matt Weiner and Stephen Fontenot were helpful resources in terms of writing an effective invite letter. Everyone's mileage may vary, but to me it seemed like the effectiveness manifested itself in that teams who had ...
by Northern Central Railway
Sat Jun 28, 2014 2:53 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NY / NJ Area Date Claims, 2014-15
Replies: 69
Views: 42828

Re: NY / NJ Area Date Claims, 2014-15

Mountain Lakes intends on hosting sometime in the Fall, and potentially in January of 2015 depending on how large the team is and how much of a field we can realistically handle. Nothing is yet set in stone, but we'll definitely be hosting a tournament at some point next school year. Let's all hope ...
by Northern Central Railway
Thu May 29, 2014 1:24 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Geography Monstrosity 6 (May 30, Chicago)
Replies: 35
Views: 17183

Re: Geography Monstrosity 6 (May 30, Chicago)

Pending my team's flight arriving somewhere close to on time, I can read for this.
by Northern Central Railway
Thu May 29, 2014 1:19 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: HSNCT 2010 Difficulty - Is my team crazy?
Replies: 5
Views: 3359

Re: HSNCT 2010 Difficulty - Is my team crazy?

Jeff Hoppes in the 2013 HSNCT conversion stats thread wrote: Overall: 85.1% of tossups answered correctly, 23.8% powered.

(2012: 84.1% correct, 25.7% powered

2011: 82.3% correct, 20.6% powered

2010: 78.5% correct, 15.7% powered

2009: 73.3% correct, 14.9% powered)
You're not crazy.
by Northern Central Railway
Tue May 27, 2014 3:24 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2014 NAQT HSNCT: Congratulations LASA!
Replies: 68
Views: 40340

Re: 2014 NAQT HSNCT: May 31-June 1, Chicago (field reopens)

If the number of teams in the field drops below 256 (as of right now the field listing contains exactly 256 teams), will NAQT run a 256 team tournament with a few standby teams, or will there be 16+ standby teams that get into a field of 272?
by Northern Central Railway
Thu Apr 17, 2014 10:50 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: It's Academic discussion
Replies: 105
Views: 53578

Re: It's Academic discussion

Edit: completely misread. And my apologies for barging in. In Jersey, there's a similar problem with the "Team Jeopardy" circuit which is far more expensive, time consuming, and inefficient than quiz bowl. Somehow, many teams still prefer this to good quiz bowl. I believe Mr. Ibendahl, th...
by Northern Central Railway
Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:30 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Question-specific requests and discussion
Replies: 29
Views: 5268

Re: Question-specific requests and discussion

Regarding science, specifically both the Charter A and B team science players buzzed on the lichen tossup after the first 5 words and negged with fungi. For what it's worth, Ridgewood negged this tossup at the exact same point when I read this tossup in their game against Bergen A, and I can also t...
by Northern Central Railway
Sun Mar 23, 2014 9:45 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Question-specific requests and discussion
Replies: 29
Views: 5268

Re: Question-specific requests and discussion

Again, it would be really helpful to hear why you're requesting a question ! Artists often paint fruit baskets to demonstrate their prowess at replicating everyday objects. For 10 fruity points each, name some things about artists who depicted them: [10] This artist included fruit in many of his st...
by Northern Central Railway
Sun Mar 23, 2014 8:54 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Question-specific requests and discussion
Replies: 29
Views: 5268

Re: Question-specific requests and discussion

Could you post the bonus about paintings with bowls of fruit in them please?
by Northern Central Railway
Mon Mar 17, 2014 2:01 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Spring Invitational (IS-134) - 4/19/14
Replies: 1
Views: 1653

Re: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Spring Invitational (IS-134) - 4/19/

Field: (teams/buzzers/mods)

'Singapore' (2/1/0)
Ridgewood (2/2/0)
Pingry (2/0/0)
'Pirates' (1/0/0)
'West Egg' (1/0/1)
Hunter (2/2/0)

Total: (10/5/1)
by Northern Central Railway
Mon Mar 10, 2014 5:57 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes (NJ) Spring Invitational (IS-134) - 4/19/14
Replies: 1
Views: 1653

Mountain Lakes (NJ) Spring Invitational (IS-134) - 4/19/14

Hello everyone, I am pleased to announce that Mountain Lakes H.S. will be hosting the Mountain Lakes Spring Invitational on April 19, 2014. QUESTIONS : We will be using NAQT set IS-134. TEAMS : We are setting a tentative field cap of 28 teams, although there is certainly the possibility for expansio...
by Northern Central Railway
Sun Feb 02, 2014 2:48 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: General discussion
Replies: 19
Views: 3168

Re: General discussion

As for bad things, I'm not entirely sure what difficulty the tournament was aiming for (I heard both "regular" and "harder than regular"), but if it was indeed supposed to be harder than regular, the bonus difficulty was right on mark. If not, definitely too hard. Also proofread...
by Northern Central Railway
Sun Feb 02, 2014 2:27 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Specific question requests and discussion
Replies: 28
Views: 4298

Re: Specific question requests and discussion

Aside from grammar things, only two things jumped out at me yesterday. Bonus 16 in Round 3 (the choreography of Swan Lake bonus) seems like a cool idea but I would guess did not work so well in execution. Every team I talked to 0'd it, and it seems like the kind of bonus that would end in either a 0...
by Northern Central Railway
Sun Jan 26, 2014 11:36 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: QuAC V at Penn (1/25/2014)
Replies: 29
Views: 13858

Re: QuAC V at Penn (1/25/2014)

My three teams of widely varying talent levels all had a good time at this tournament and enjoyed the questions, and also remarked about how smoothly things went on the way home; this was a good tournament. Having said that, teams and coaches really need to pay attention to what question sets differ...
by Northern Central Railway
Sun Jan 19, 2014 4:13 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NJ State Championship Results
Replies: 3
Views: 2192

Re: NJ State Championship Results

I do think that I should have allowed a bit more time built into the schedule, and perhaps the 32 and 16 team playoffs (which added ~30-35 minutes to the day over a 16/8 variant) was a bit much. On the other hand, it was a way to get teams an additional match, get some newer teams excited about mak...
by Northern Central Railway
Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:38 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NY/NJ/CT Dates Claims, 2013-14
Replies: 94
Views: 39209

Re: NY/NJ/CT Dates Claims, 2013-14

EBAcademicTeam wrote:According to Bloomfield's advisor, they are not conducting their tournament this year.
It's still listed on the NAQT website, but I would not be surprised if there was a lack of communication from Bloomfield on this one.
by Northern Central Railway
Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:57 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: BHSAT XXIII at Yale (1 February 2014, New Haven, CT)
Replies: 19
Views: 9536

Re: BHSAT XXIII at Yale (1 February 2014, New Haven, CT)

Does/will this tournament have any level of PACE affiliation?
by Northern Central Railway
Wed Jan 08, 2014 6:35 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes Invitational - Mountain Lakes, NJ - 1/4/14
Replies: 24
Views: 12693

Re: Mountain Lakes Invitational - Mountain Lakes, NJ - 1/4/1

Stats are now posted and have been sent to NAQT, let me know of any changes that need to be made, a few scorekeepers weren't so good about noting substitutions.
by Northern Central Railway
Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:35 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NJ/NY 2013-2014
Replies: 94
Views: 42198

Re: NJ/NY 2013-2014

2. Doane Academy may be a new school to watch in the area. They went 4-1 in the morning, beating us (Deep Green A) and had the tournament's top scorer. In another bracket, it's likely they would have made playoffs. One of my goals for the Mountain Lakes Invitational was to get some schools that do ...
by Northern Central Railway
Sat Jan 04, 2014 7:08 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes Invitational - Mountain Lakes, NJ - 1/4/14
Replies: 24
Views: 12693

Re: Mountain Lakes Invitational - Mountain Lakes, NJ - 1/4/1

Scarsdale beat MAST 345-290 in the championship of the first ever Mountain Lakes Invitational. Other qualifiers for HSNCT include the 3rd through 6th place finishers, which in order are 'Deep Green' A, Horace Greeley, Livingston B, and Livingston A. Ridgewood (or rather, half of their A team) and 'G...
by Northern Central Railway
Fri Jan 03, 2014 1:05 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes Invitational - Mountain Lakes, NJ - 1/4/14
Replies: 24
Views: 12693

Re: Mountain Lakes Invitational - Mountain Lakes, NJ - 1/4/1

I just sent out a mass e-mail to all coaches, but this tournament is still on for tomorrow.
by Northern Central Railway
Thu Jan 02, 2014 11:46 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes Invitational - Mountain Lakes, NJ - 1/4/14
Replies: 24
Views: 12693

Re: Mountain Lakes Invitational - Mountain Lakes, NJ - 1/4/1

Another tournament update: I have talked to the Mountain Lakes superintendent (who incidentally was also the coach of the team for the 2011-12 school year), and as of right now the tournament is still on. District policy states that even if school is cancelled on Friday, events hosted by the distric...
by Northern Central Railway
Wed Jan 01, 2014 7:32 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes Invitational - Mountain Lakes, NJ - 1/4/14
Replies: 24
Views: 12693

Re: Mountain Lakes Invitational - Mountain Lakes, NJ - 1/4/1

Hello everyone, As I'm sure most people in the NYC metro are aware, there's some pretty bad weather forecasted for Thursday night into Friday. I will be discussing options with the superintendent tomorrow morning, particularly as to if the tournament can still happen in the event that Mountain Lakes...
by Northern Central Railway
Mon Dec 30, 2013 6:48 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mountain Lakes Invitational - Mountain Lakes, NJ - 1/4/14
Replies: 24
Views: 12693

Re: Mountain Lakes Invitational - Mountain Lakes, NJ - 1/4/1

Andrew: If you need another experienced moderator for the ML Invitational, please let me know (e-mail at scottblish at gmail.com) by this Thursday evening, as I should be able to make it down this weekend if you need the help. I'll have to know by then, though, so that I can make sure that the day ...