Search found 930 matches

by setht
Tue Apr 04, 2023 9:56 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2023 Division I ICT: specific question discussion
Replies: 28
Views: 4241

Re: 2023 Division I ICT: specific question discussion

Can I see the tossup on alternating permutations? The indicator "these permutations" seems egregiously limited. The only potential answerlines that I can think of are "alternating permutations," "cycles," and "transpositions." There's also "odd," &q...
by setht
Mon Apr 04, 2022 7:34 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2022 NAQT ICT: Division I specific question discussion
Replies: 14
Views: 2345

Re: 2022 NAQT ICT: Division I specific question discussion

Could I see the tossup on particle beams, please? In particular, I'd like to know why "particle collider s" was promptable and "particle accelerator s" wasn't, given that those terms are generally used interchangeably for "the larger apparatus in which particle beams are us...
by setht
Thu Feb 10, 2022 8:19 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2022 NAQT SCT: Division II question-specific discussion
Replies: 8
Views: 1180

Re: 2022 NAQT SCT: Division II question-specific discussion

Thanks Seth. I'm looking forward to seeing this ruling. We don't normally post rulings (because we don't think people will be interested), but sure: I (as the member of the protest committee in charge of communicating the ruling on this protest) wrote "we rule that "coastline" does n...
by setht
Wed Feb 09, 2022 6:03 pm
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2022 NAQT SCT: Division II question-specific discussion
Replies: 8
Views: 1180

Re: 2022 NAQT SCT: Division II question-specific discussion

Shouldn't "it would probably be okay to prompt" imply a ruling of "moderator prompting was ok, and game result should not have been changed"? In cases of moderator discretion, it seems strange to actively overrule the mod's prompt. "It would probably be okay to prompt"...
by setht
Wed Feb 09, 2022 11:34 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2022 NAQT SCT: Division II question-specific discussion
Replies: 8
Views: 1180

Re: 2022 NAQT SCT: Division II question-specific discussion

Thanks for writing and editing; it was a fun set to play! One gripe: on the bonus on fractals (Packet 3?), we answered 'coastlines' for the first part. Our mod wasn't sure whether or not to prompt; they eventually decided to prompt (with the encouragement of the other team, thanks William & Mar...
by setht
Wed Feb 09, 2022 11:12 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2022 SCT general discussion
Replies: 7
Views: 1074

Re: 2022 SCT general discussion

I want to say a quick word of thanks to Rob Carson, Jonathen Settle, and Andrew Wang for their diligent work as set editors on this year's DI SCT--and, of course, all of the writers and subject editors whose work fed into the set. And the DII editors as well; producing a set as large as SCT is diff...
by setht
Wed Feb 09, 2022 11:08 am
Forum: Collegiate Discussion
Topic: 2022 NAQT SCT: Division I question-specific discussion
Replies: 15
Views: 2252

Re: 2022 NAQT SCT: Division I question-specific discussion

There were several places where I would have liked more comprehensive directions in answerlines, I very much agree with this. Two more examples to me are the tossup from Packet 6 on "paradoxes" which I (and another player at our site) negged with "contradictions" on the Graham P...
by setht
Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:57 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2021 NAQT ICT: online, April 10
Replies: 29
Views: 13507

Re: 2021 NAQT ICT: online, April 10

Does NAQT have a policy on players staying unmuted throughout the match vs. only unmuting when answering questions? Some members of our club (who do not have major sources of background noise) would prefer the former because buzzing in the Buzzin.live client and then unmuting in the Zoom window can...
by setht
Mon Apr 05, 2021 11:05 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2021 NAQT ICT: online, April 10
Replies: 29
Views: 13507

Re: 2021 NAQT ICT: online, April 10

A quick clarifying question: are players allowed to buzz on Buzzin.Live with a keyboard attached to the same computer that Zoom is running? This is assuming that the keyboard is able to be held such that both hands are on the webcam. Yes, that is fine: A player sitting back from their camera can us...
by setht
Tue Feb 09, 2021 11:02 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Alabama 2020-2021 Discussion Thread
Replies: 83
Views: 27868

Re: Alabama 2020-2021 Discussion Thread

I just wanted to echo Lee here: Team members can tell the captain (or designated typist) when to buzz and what to type, and can collaborate on answering. The "no communicating with any other person in any fashion" rule is for our standard, single-player Buzzword games. The ASCA District ev...
by setht
Tue Oct 13, 2020 2:18 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: TJNAT 2020 Online (10/10/20) (HS-Closed)
Replies: 10
Views: 4687

Re: TJNAT 2020 Online (10/10/20) (HS-Closed)

We, the coaches of Centennial High School and Burleigh Manor Middle School, discovered as the tournament proceeded that NAQT had sold this packet IS 193A to at least one parent in our community over the summer. We know of 2 students who had access and we are investigating with NAQT if this happened...
by setht
Wed May 20, 2020 5:28 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: This Time, A Stern Warning
Replies: 179
Views: 146947

Re: This Time, A Stern Warning

The probability (again assuming that ICT 2011 is a regular difficulty tournament,) of doing that well at both of those tournaments is simply calculated by multiplying those probabilities, which amounts to about 1/500,000. Doesn't this assume that the probabilities are independent? Is that a good as...
by setht
Tue May 19, 2020 10:39 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAQT's initial precautionary measures for NCT's
Replies: 8
Views: 2441

Re: NAQT's initial precautionary measures for NCT's

To minimize the possibility of infections during the HSNCT, we plan to keep track of CDC and WHO guidelines for large-scale gatherings and follow the guidelines wherever possible. We have reached out to the hotels to ensure that they are taking the issue seriously and making effective changes to th...
by setht
Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:20 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Buzzword: A New Online Competition from NAQT
Replies: 12
Views: 5406

Re: Buzzword: A New Online Competition from NAQT

The Buzzword player results screen always shows the complete text of Buzzword questions that you have previously played. (The note about practice questions is there to indicate that after specific Buzzword events conclude, some tossups used in this project will also show up in future collections of...
by setht
Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:15 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: FLopen 2020
Replies: 11
Views: 18723

Re: FLopen 2020

TaylorH wrote: Fri Feb 21, 2020 1:15 am RMPSS (3.5/3.5)

1 Mythology
1 Religion
1 Philosophy
1.5 Social Science
This part adds up to 4.5, not 3.5, and I don't see any compensating mistake elsewhere, so I think the posted distribution actually adds up to 23/23.
by setht
Mon Feb 10, 2020 10:57 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 Division I SCT: specific question discussion
Replies: 78
Views: 16699

Re: 2020 Division I SCT: specific question discussion

The tossup on "hydrogen" that referred to it as "this substance" had a clue that Rafael, Noah, and I felt was ambiguously worded, referring to the "production of the 21 centimeter line in this substance." I gave an answer of "intergalactic medium" - I assume ...
by setht
Mon Feb 10, 2020 10:17 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 Division I SCT: specific question discussion
Replies: 78
Views: 16699

Re: 2020 Division I SCT: specific question discussion

tossup on "three" in math: the object clued in the Hopf fibration and Poincare conjecture clues is a 3-sphere topologically, but it's considered a 4-sphere geometrically (as it is a hypersphere embedded in 4D euclidean space). Although Hopf and Poincare are topological concepts and both u...
by setht
Mon Feb 10, 2020 5:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 Division II SCT: specific question discussion
Replies: 20
Views: 2437

Re: 2020 Division II SCT: specific question discussion

Here's the DII version of the hydrogen tossup. Hendrik van de Hulst predicted that this substance can undergo a spin-flip transition to produce a radio wave feature known as the 21-centimeter line. The spectral classes of stars were originally arranged alphabetically based on the observed strength o...
by setht
Mon Feb 10, 2020 2:03 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 SCT general discussion
Replies: 38
Views: 6383

Re: 2020 SCT general discussion

Speaking only for myself, I think the obvious takeaway is that I didn't give myself enough time to work on the set. And, to actually address concerns regarding the 2020 ICT: I think by far the most important component of the solution is to have editors spend more time working on the sets. I will do...
by setht
Mon Feb 10, 2020 1:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 SCT general discussion
Replies: 38
Views: 6383

Re: 2020 SCT general discussion

I think this set’s failures can be directly attributed to a lack of oversight within NAQT’s editorial system. . . . There is no particular set of guidelines for what set editors (FEED and SEED) should do beyond ensuring that questions are packetized correctly, factually correct, and typo-free. None...
by setht
Mon Feb 10, 2020 1:11 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 SCT general discussion
Replies: 38
Views: 6383

Re: 2020 SCT general discussion

Speaking only for myself, I think the obvious takeaway is that I didn't give myself enough time to work on the set. It's embarrassing to have missed silly things like "Béla Bartók/Barók/Bela Bartok" and "I have just replaced this bonus part text with clues for John Dryden, but neglect...
by setht
Mon Feb 10, 2020 1:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 SCT general discussion
Replies: 38
Views: 6383

Re: 2020 SCT general discussion

The set editors in DI were Andrew Hart (head editor), Rob Carson, and Billy Busse (science). The set editors in DII were me (head editor), Larissa Kelly, Jeff Hoppes, and Samer Ismail (science). I want to thank my fellow set editors, and the writers and subject editors, for all their work on the sets.
by setht
Wed Nov 13, 2019 1:15 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT format and seeding discussion
Replies: 74
Views: 45204

Re: ICT format and seeding discussion

It would benefit the community to run an open-ballot pre-nationals poll that explicitly asks participants to predict how well the teams will finish at both ICT and Nationals. (It is also in everyone's interest to participate in such a poll, if it comes into being.) I love this idea, and it would mo...
by setht
Mon Sep 16, 2019 10:46 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials
Replies: 6
Views: 5385

Re: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials

Quick question... In the case of past sets, are we just scanning in the packets "as they were" or have mistakes that were found been fixed? In the case of old sets, we will generally grant access to the most recent version (which will typically have fewer lingering, unfixed mistakes) at t...
by setht
Mon Sep 16, 2019 10:40 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials
Replies: 2
Views: 3422

Re: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials

Is there a particular reason why our chosen password is included in the confirmation email as plain text? Locklizard's default email template included the password as plain text. We've built an account creator that obviates any need to send passwords by email, and we've changed our confirmation ema...
by setht
Thu Sep 12, 2019 10:48 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials
Replies: 6
Views: 5385

Re: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials

This is very exciting! Will teams be given electronic access to the sets played at tournaments they attended, or only to sets of practice questions that they purchased? In the case of sets that teams played on in past years, our goal is to grant electronic access by the end of 2019. (This is part o...
by setht
Thu Sep 12, 2019 9:24 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials
Replies: 6
Views: 5385

electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials

Cross-posted from the high school section NAQT is pleased to announce that starting September 16, 2019 we will be taking orders to be fulfilled using a secure electronic distribution service, Locklizard. For now this is only for orders of practice material; in the future, we expect to also offer se...
by setht
Thu Sep 12, 2019 9:24 am
Forum: Middle school area archives
Topic: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials
Replies: 0
Views: 4558

electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials

Cross-posted from the high school section NAQT is pleased to announce that starting September 16, 2019 we will be taking orders to be fulfilled using a secure electronic distribution service, Locklizard. For now this is only for orders of practice material; in the future, we expect to also offer se...
by setht
Thu Sep 12, 2019 9:22 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials
Replies: 2
Views: 3422

electronic distribution of NAQT practice materials

NAQT is pleased to announce that starting September 16, 2019 we will be taking orders to be fulfilled using a secure electronic distribution service, Locklizard. For now this is only for orders of practice material; in the future, we expect to also offer secure electronic delivery of tournament que...
by setht
Fri Jul 26, 2019 10:28 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAQT is now accepting writer applications
Replies: 1
Views: 4243

Re: NAQT is now accepting writer applications

NAQT's open application period for new writers will end in 5 days, on Wednesday the 31st. After some internal discussion, we have slightly amended our "you must have turned 18 on or prior to your date of application" requirement. If your birthday is between August 1 and October 31, you may...
by setht
Thu Jun 13, 2019 3:39 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Can anyone help review my questions?
Replies: 3
Views: 4607

Re: Can anyone help review my questions?

I am trying to apply to be an NAQT writer so I was hoping someone could help he review some questions I wrote.[/i][/b] A quick reminder: the sample questions people send in when applying to become NAQT writers cannot include questions that have been seen by anyone other than the writer. I think wri...
by setht
Wed May 29, 2019 4:53 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2019 HSNCT discussion
Replies: 144
Views: 56834

Re: 2019 HSNCT discussion

J. Young wrote: Wed May 29, 2019 4:41 pm Can I see conversion stats for the bonus on fictional metals (alloys?)? Curious as to how many teams converted the third part.
I'm not sure when we expect to have conversion data available, but I would guess it will be at least a month.
by setht
Tue May 21, 2019 2:05 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2019 NAQT HSNCT: Congratulations Beavercreek!
Replies: 7
Views: 10752

Re: 2019 NAQT HSNCT: May 25-26, Atlanta

I want to thank the people who did the heavy lifting on this year's HSNCT set: Jason Thompson, Billy Busse, Rob Carson, Auroni Gupta, and Bernadette Spencer were the set editing crew; and Danny Vopava was the top writer, chipping in 169 questions. If you see these folks at HSNCT, please thank them i...
by setht
Thu Apr 18, 2019 8:38 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: MUSES Announcement
Replies: 22
Views: 11730

Re: MUSES Announcement

Illinois Admin wrote: Wed Apr 17, 2019 10:50 pm 2/2 Urania - astronomy (1/1 “hard science,” 1/1 “other astronomy”)
Does this mean 1/1 "hard science (within astronomy)" plus 1/1 "other astronomy (not hard science?)," or is the first 1/1 "hard science, which need not be astronomy at all"?
by setht
Mon Apr 15, 2019 12:34 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion: Question Content
Replies: 90
Views: 46668

Re: ACF Nationals 2019 discussion

When Seth’s time ran out due to an unfortunate incident at NAQT and ICT production was in a rush, Will Alston, Will Nediger, Billy Busse, and Neilesh Vinjamuri helped Seth with those issues and freed up his time for the rest of playtesting / and readthroughs. So, their unrelated actions helped out ...
by setht
Fri Apr 12, 2019 9:10 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT format and seeding discussion
Replies: 74
Views: 45204

Re: ICT format and seeding discussion

I haven't had any issues with the ICT seeding. It's always seemed pretty reasonable, even when my team didn't make the top bracket last year. However, I think that it would help if NAQT clearly announced the metric used to seed teams, or even published the seeds before the tournament. I think most ...
by setht
Thu Apr 11, 2019 5:47 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 ICT DI specific question discussion
Replies: 31
Views: 2473

Re: 2019 ICT DI specific question discussion

Could someone post the question on reconnection? Some people in the plasma department got really excited and want to see it, and I don't have our binder. This process has a slow rate proportional to one over the square root of the Lundquist number in the Sweet-Parker model. The flux freezing seen i...
by setht
Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:39 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT format and seeding discussion
Replies: 74
Views: 45204

Re: The ICT format is awful and unfair (or: why I now play for the "Ann Arbor Campus, University of Michigan")

Is there a way to fairly reward teams for the percentage of games they won, or at minimum give teams who have an undefeated record and a strength of schedule above a certain value an added boost? I don't think there's any way to do this (or make almost any plausible adjustment to the D-value formul...
by setht
Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:30 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT format and seeding discussion
Replies: 74
Views: 45204

Re: The ICT format is awful and unfair (or: why I now play for the "Ann Arbor Campus, University of Michigan")

I think one possible takeaway from this discussion, as others have suggested, is that D-value (and A-value at ACF Regionals) are acceptable measures for determining qualification - since you have to use something and the statistics will still allow good teams to qualify - but that extrapolating fro...
by setht
Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:21 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT format and seeding discussion
Replies: 74
Views: 45204

Re: The ICT format is awful and unfair (or: why I now play for the "Ann Arbor Campus, University of Michigan")

Will's "garbage in, garbage out" analogy is calling the D-value a not great ranking for determining how teams will do at nationals, and I think that in particular something is wrong with the way the "strength of schedule" calculation works, and the fact that there isn't much of ...
by setht
Thu Apr 11, 2019 2:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 ICT DI specific question discussion
Replies: 31
Views: 2473

Re: 2019 ICT DI specific question discussion

I seem to remember a tossup on neutron star mergers which clued LIGO -- is my memory mistaken or did this happen? If so, LIGO's first detection of gravitational waves was definitely the result of a black hole merger. My memory of this question is that that sentence was saying something about LIGO's...
by setht
Wed Apr 10, 2019 10:44 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT format and seeding discussion
Replies: 74
Views: 45204

Re: The ICT format is awful and unfair (or: why I now play for the "Ann Arbor Campus, University of Michigan")

I think that Northwestern was over-seeded as a 1 seed, but given that we were in the bracket with Maryland it evened out. With the benefit of hindsight (specifically, seeing how things played out at ICT) I would agree that Northwestern probably shouldn't have been a 1-seed, but look at what was kno...
by setht
Wed Apr 10, 2019 5:43 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT format and seeding discussion
Replies: 74
Views: 45204

Re: The ICT format is awful and unfair (or: why I now play for the "Ann Arbor Campus, University of Michigan")

I commented on an early draft of the DI brackets. Jeff made some adjustments based on my comments, but the final brackets are somewhat different from the version adjusted for my comments so evidently Jeff made further tweaks. I'm guessing this was based on feedback from veteran circuit observers, bu...
by setht
Tue Apr 09, 2019 3:19 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Lederberg 3: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 13
Views: 1360

Re: Lederberg 3: Specific Question Discussion

I already mentioned this to James at the ICT site, but in case he lost track of my comments in the whirl of Lederberg + ICT: I think the tossup on accretion (round 1, tossup 3) needs some revision. In particular, the second, third, and fourth sentences say that turbulent viscosity (generic or specif...
by setht
Tue Apr 09, 2019 11:52 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 ICT DI general discussion and thanks
Replies: 27
Views: 2926

Re: 2019 ICT DI general discussion and thanks

Hi all, Big thanks to everyone who played, staffed, and helped write or edit this year's ICT sets. From the production side, I'd like to extend my gratitude to Seth Teitler and Billy Busse for their excellent editing work, and to all of the writers whose submissions made it a real pleasure to edit ...
by setht
Mon Apr 08, 2019 5:59 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 ICT DII specific question discussion
Replies: 3
Views: 487

Re: 2019 ICT DII specific question discussion

The answerline for the tossup on “ventriloquist dummy” seems to both accept and prompt on an answer of “dummy” alone. This was a mistake that we noticed very late in the production process and I tried to fix, but evidently the correction got lost somehow. The intention was that dummy would be accep...
by setht
Mon Apr 08, 2019 5:49 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT and Feedback Rhetoric
Replies: 12
Views: 6744

Re: The ICT format is awful and unfair (or: why I now play for the "Ann Arbor Campus, University of Michigan")

I don't remember hearing any issues about the alphabetical aspect last year, which is why—to the best of my knowledge—we didn't even contemplate changing it. In before this thread inevitably degenerates horribly to say that, at least as far as I was explained things by R. and others last year, the ...
by setht
Thu Apr 04, 2019 1:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Lederberg Trinity (Summer 2019)
Replies: 61
Views: 34037

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Lederberg Trinity (Summer 2019)

I would prefer that we finish the prelim bracket before breaking for check in. If we can keep a 15 minute/round pace that would mean delaying staff checkin time until 7:45. Would that be an issue? Obviously if we are slower/ If catastrophic delays happen we can just break at 7:30 and come back to f...
by setht
Thu Apr 04, 2019 11:07 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Lederberg Trinity (Summer 2019)
Replies: 61
Views: 34037

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Lederberg Trinity (Summer 2019)

Okay, after talking with Joel, here's the deal: 1) we can start at 6:30, but we'll need to break around 7:30 so that staffers can check in and help with set-up. 2) teams providing buzzers to ICT need to check in their buzzers before starting in on the side event. Team buzzers can be checked in start...
by setht
Thu Apr 04, 2019 9:27 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ANNOUNCEMENT: Lederberg Trinity (Summer 2019)
Replies: 61
Views: 34037

Re: ANNOUNCEMENT: Lederberg Trinity (Summer 2019)

NAQT staff check-in (and some set-up tasks) for the ICT *starts* at 7:30, so a 6:30 start time for this tournament is completely infeasible (unless you can get Joel to exempt Lederberg participants) I've sent an email asking how Joel would like us to handle Friday evening staff check-in and set-up.