The Quizbowl Resource Center

rhentzel

The computer science in this tournament was garbage. In fact, I'd characterize pretty much all of it as "computer literacy" rather than computer science. The things that are important and interesting in computer science have very little to do with the ins and outs of specific languages, e...

rhentzel

There were a ton of stupid, cross-discipline tossups in this tournament. These questions seem like they ate into the real distribution (read: non-geography, non-trash, non-current events) in many cases. If you're going to write a shares the name tossup, please try to keep it to one category. Going ...

rhentzel

Perhaps this isn't the right place to put this, but has NAQT received all the stats from all the sites so far? If so, could we find out where to access the stats from the California, North, and Canadian regions? This is something of a "zero-information" answer, but I don't know; I'm not i...

rhentzel

What sort of subdistribution in the sports would you like to see? I think it's weird for horse racing, track and field, volleyball, and minor sports to have as much weight as soccer. Soccer is actually relatively popular and a lot of people follow it in the States. I'm not sure whether anyone actua...

rhentzel

There were a host of bad question writing principles in this set. For example, one question mentioned the author of a novel still in power. Others were fond of placing stock and trivia clues (i.e. "this guy died doing this amusing thing that has nothing to do with what he's important for"...

rhentzel

One thing I'd like to know with regard to all the distribution questions is if NAQT makes an effort to balance the distribution of the first 20 TU's in each round? We averaged a tad over 23 TU per match and I think our experience was relatively typical. Yes. NAQT's reorders its packets so that ques...

rhentzel

The bonus difficulty was all over the place. One particular problem was bonuses that would ask for three specific things from one work. For example, there would be literature bonuses that all ask for a character from a novel. Instead of doing this (it's okay maybe for really famous works, but this ...

rhentzel

End the puns and figure-it-outs in the first clue of tossups. The 2006 Sectionals, for example, had a tossups that started "This tossup will be easy as this if you answer it" or something along those lines (the answer was ABC). Without getting into details, there were several of these tha...

rhentzel

The baseball distribution is out of control. I'm not pointlessly argue that the sports or pop culture distribution is too high at this tournament, but NAQT can certainly do a better job balancing the sub-distribution so we don't hear so many baseball tossups and bonuses. According to a database que...

rhentzel

I also agree that the questions were bad, at least in Div I. There were a lot that were poorly written. I'd like to give examples but it looks like we have to hold off on that. We'd be very interested in looking at examples of questions that players thought were poorly written; if you don't want to...

rhentzel

In Division II, I can recall a total of one tossup on non-Grecco-Roman myth, and that tossup was one of the worst in the tournament. There weren't that many bonuses, either. I don't know if NAQT thinks other myth systems are too difficult for some reason, but I'd have to think that at least Norse m...

rhentzel

This topic is intended to cover questions for/about NAQT that transcend the 2008 SCT in terms of their scope. Examples might include NAQT's distribution, question length, its overall philosophy, and so on. The timing of games would also be included, but that has already been given a separate thread.

rhentzel

I apologize for not being able to get online quickly to post this yesterday, but here is the official guidance for discussing the questions at the 2008 NAQT SCT. The DII set will be used (possibly with minor modifications) at future high school tournaments, and some of those questions are shared wit...

rhentzel

Probably shortly after the completion of NAQT's collegiate Sectionals on February 9.

rhentzel

As of February 1, 2008, 113 of the 160 spots in the 2008 NAQT High School National Championship have been claimed, either by registered teams or by being reserved for state champions. NAQT encourages teams interested in attending the HSNCT to register as soon as they have qualified and obtained the ...

rhentzel

February 1, 2008 (again, today) is the first day for teams to request standby status at the 2008 NAQT High School National Championship. Standby status is explained here: http://www.naqt.com/hsnct/standby.html The essential point is that standby teams are NOT guaranteed a spot in the field. They pla...

rhentzel

February 1, 2008 (today, as I post this) is first day on which teams may request wildcard bids to the 2008 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament. Information about wildcard bids may be found here: http://www.naqt.com/hsnct/qualification.html NAQT expects that relatively few wildcard bids...

rhentzel

As Matt Bruce previously announced, unlike in past years, the DII Sectional Championship Set will NOT share questions with one of NAQT's Invitational Series. However, NAQT will be offering the DII Sectionals set to hosts that want to run end-of-year, regional, high school tournaments for nationals-c...

rhentzel

This is just a reminder that tomorrow (Saturday, February 2) is the last day for players to request eligibility exceptions for the 2008 NAQT Sectional Championships. If you have a question about your (or a teammate's) eligibility, please send us a summary (at eligibility@naqt.com) by 23:59:59 tomorr...

rhentzel

As of the New Year, 41 teams had registered for the 2008 NAQT High School National Championship. Together with the spots reserved for state championships, that means that roughly half the spots in the 160-team field are spoken for. In addition, just over 160 teams have qualified in toto. If you are ...

rhentzel

NAQT's January newsletter will be sent to the printer in the next week for distribution to over 11,000 high schools. If you're considering hosting a tournament using NAQT questions and would like it listed in the printed schedule that accompanies the newsletter, please finalize a date and contact us...

rhentzel

NAQT's January newsletter will be sent to the printer in the next week for distribution to over 11,000 high schools. If you're considering hosting a tournament using NAQT questions and would like it listed in the printed schedule that accompanies the newsletter, please finalize a date and contact us...

rhentzel

Former players (and anybody else) interested in being considered as staffers for the 2008 ICT should e-mail NAQT at naqt@naqt.com with the following information: 1. Whether or not they would be driving to the tournament 2. If not, which airport(s) they would be flying out of 3. Whether they would ne...

rhentzel

NAQT is pleased to announce that its 2008 Intercollegiate Championship Tournament (ICT) will be held April 11-12 (Friday/Saturday) at Washington University in St. Louis. This will be the third time that WUSTL has hosted the tournament; we are looking forward to another great event. Tentative schedul...

rhentzel

"I meant with his answers to your questions. I'm guessing he just wrote you back and didn't ask for a final review before you posted." That's correct; after Fred e-mailed me the questions, I wrote out my answers and e-mailed them back. NAQT, collectively, and I, personally, would be happy ...

rhentzel

There are some interesting questions being posted here that I look forward to answering when I get Fred's list of questions. I just wanted to point out, however, that there's no need to wait for a formal survey to get information out of NAQT about its goals, decisions, or ideals. I would hope that a...

rhentzel

Players and Coaches -- The Friday night thunderstorms in the Twin Cities did, in fact, knock out power to NAQT's servers until about 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday. I believe that all of our systems (web, e-mail, database, etc.) are now up and functional so I invite you to browse our site as much as you like....

rhentzel

If you are interested in moderating at the 2007 HSNCT, don't hesitate to send us an e-mail at hsnct@naqt.com to put your name forward. Please include a brief description of your experience with quiz bowl, particularly matches using NAQT's questions and official rules. NAQT does have a solid "co...

rhentzel

ETC does acknowledge the website listings thus: aside from the posters with an official rank (as listed on their website) ... Not sure what the purpose of your posting of that was unless you were just providing us the specific link... I interpreted ETC's comment, perhaps incorrectly, that he though...

rhentzel

Oh yea, what was the deal with that income tax amendment bonus that erroneously had "17th amendment" as the answer? I hope that gets changed for any future copies of the nationals set that are sold. Also, hopefully that didn't affect the outcome of any games... A mistake; it should have b...

rhentzel

I'd like to personally commend R. for coming to this board, taking the time to read all of it, and responding to our criticisms and questions. I think that speaks volumes about his dedication to the improvement of NAQT and the game in general. NAQT appreciates this praise; quiz bowl is still largel...

rhentzel

When you have unrelated bonuses (as in NAQT's format), the "reward" for answering a tossup is something, as its name implies, unrelated to the tossup, it negates the logic behind the "answer the tossup, get the bonus, the other team isn't going to know the answers anyways" respo...

rhentzel

I also noticed one question in the tournament that was flat out wrong. When our A team was playing Mounds Park, they had a bonus question basically asking for the income tax amendment, which Mounds Park said was the 16th, but the moderator said it was the 17th. Despite being ratified in the same ye...

rhentzel

But Coach Lee has reminded me of something that I noticed this year. There were a LOT of questions with dumb punnish giveaway endings. The Bride and Prejudice question asked for a title that sounded like Austen's...then there was the naval captain with a "preadolescent" name, the painting...

rhentzel

As for the questions, I know I'm not supposed to discuss specifics, but there was one question that REALLY, REALLY bordered on being a hose. In fact, I kinda feel like the question was - in fact - designed to get people who had a working knowledge of a a certain book to neg on it. Here's the text o...

rhentzel

One of the major problems with many NAQT questions is their writers' resistance to the proper use of pronouns. I refer particularly to the so-called "list tossup" in which a list of things with some common characteristic is given and one must then figure out the common link. In any tossup...

rhentzel

NAQT clearly strives to create a single effect in each of its matches, that I can't completely describe other than its being marked by, what I would call, frenzied desperation. This effect is created by its questions, rules, and treatment. I may be inferring more than you intended with this stateme...

rhentzel

I wasn't at HSNCT this year, but the math I've heard so far in the podcasts has been decent-to-poor in quality. I'm disappointed to hear that you felt that way; we at NAQT would be interested in suggestions that would improve our computation (and/or theoretical math) questions. Feel free to contact...

rhentzel

While I am vaguely aware of the differences between ACF and NAQT distribution at the college level, NAQT distribution is the norm to me. So, even being used to the "dearth" of fine arts in NAQT, I noticed the relative lack of those types of questions at the HSNCT. 2006 HSNCT Fine Arts: 6....

rhentzel

If NAQT wants to change their general distribution, that's fine by me, it's their right to do that. What I have a mild problem with is that they sort of sprung it on us at a national tournament. It seems to me that these changes should've been seen in the invitational packets to at least give us a ...

rhentzel

etchdulac wrote:Is that 885 against Walton correct? I know it's mathematically possible, but damn.

Yes, it is. I believe I read that game.

-- R. Robert Hentzel
President and Chief Technical Officer,
National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC

rhentzel

No, I think you're absolutely correct. I'm a big history buff, and I was rather disappointed by the selection of asian history in particular exhibited at the tournament: namely, basically none. NAQT didn't change its quotas for Asian history for this tournament vis-a-vis either the year's invitatio...

rhentzel

Maybe this is just me being bitter, but did anyone else notice that there seemed to be an usually high distribution of current events/politics and pop culture? NAQT made no changes to its distribution for the 2006 HSNCT as compared with the year's invitational series (save for it being 26/26 rather...

rhentzel

The one thing I didn't like about the playoff formatting was how in the double elimination rounds they used the preliminary seeds in order to rank the pools of temas by record. For those of you who weren't there, this is correct. Each round of the playoffs was paired first by won-lost record in the...

rhentzel

So, were teams that qualified as wild cards allowed to enter at the expense of teams that qualified normally? Not to be judgmental...just curious. Yes. Bluntly speaking, wildcard teams took spots that could potentially have gone to teams that qualified normally (but registered later). However, ther...

rhentzel

I was told that the largest the waitlist ever got was 17 teams, and in the end 16 teams were turned away. This is correct. The waitlist reached 17 teams. One team (Bob Jones) dropped before the tournament and replaced with the first team on the waitlist, North Allegheny (A). However, not everybody ...

rhentzel

I am from Minnesota so I can explain the Minnetonka thing. Minnetonka usually sends about three teams to meets that they got to. They went to all the NAQT quiz bowl meets in the metro area and they also hosted an NAQT meet. There were at least two tournaments where their A team qualified and their ...

rhentzel

Several teams were there as waitlist entries, including (I think) Hardee, Dobyns-Bennett, Solon, and Greeley County. When Pennridge didn't show up, they went to the next highest team on the list. Unfortunately, it was none of those teams. Instead, it was Minnetonka C. I wanted to expand on this bri...

rhentzel

I gladly encourage teams to compete at NAQT HSCT even though I know that expecting NAQT people to recommend teams to compete at the PACE NSC is highly unlikely. While NAQT is obviously in competition with other national tournaments for the time and money of top teams, we have no problem saying eith...

rhentzel

I don't know who all the NAQT members are aside from the posters with an official rank (as listed on their website). All NAQT members, including officers, are listed on our website at: http://www.naqt.com/biographies.html Other people associated with NAQT as contract writers, contract editors, form...

The Quizbowl Resource Center

Search found 260 matches

Post-2008 SCT General NAQT Discussion

NAQT Discussion Policy

NAQT HSNCT Field Size

Standby status at the HSNCT

2008 NAQT HSNCT Announcements

Question set overlap

2008 NAQT Sectional Announcements

2008 NAQT HSNCT Registration

NAQT Newsletter Schedule: Final Call

NAQT Newsletter Schedule: Final Call

Staffing the 2008 ICT

2008 NAQT ICT to be held in St. Louis

NAQT Seal of Approval

No need to wait for a survey

NAQT website is back online

Moderating at the HSNCT

Re: Getting a list of NAQT members

16th/17th Amendment

Thanks for the thanks!

Linking tossups and bonuses

The 16th Amendment and Fusion power

Crossover giveaway clues

Bride and Prejudice: An intentional hose?

The Pronoun Rule

The Desperate Frenzy of NAQT tournaments

The HSNCT distribution follows the Invitational Series

Did NAQT change its distribution for the 2006 HSNCT? No.

Playoff Seeding

Wildcard spots at the 2006 HSNCT

Waitlist length

Minnetonka and the HSNCT

NAQT's wait list and standby list

Getting a list of NAQT members