Studying Current Events

Dormant threads from the high school sections are preserved here.
Locked
bctlfralp123
Kimahri
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Oct 04, 2019 5:29 pm
Location: Alabama

Studying Current Events

Post by bctlfralp123 »

Hey y’all, I want to improve on Current Events but studying it is like reading somebody’s inside jokes and not understanding the backstory. Any way to fix that, and just get a better grip on what’s going on?
Brannan Cade Tisdale
Saraland HS (AL) '21
Mississippi State '25?

Does knowing about Rococo make me a FA player? :lol:
TheScientists
Lulu
Posts: 56
Joined: Thu Apr 19, 2018 6:51 pm

Re: Studying Current Events

Post by TheScientists »

bctlfralp123 wrote: Sat Nov 30, 2019 2:51 am Hey y’all, I want to improve on Current Events but studying it is like reading somebody’s inside jokes and not understanding the backstory. Any way to fix that, and just get a better grip on what’s going on?
I personally recommend Wikipedia as the best way to know CE if you want an expansive look. LastWeekTonight (by John Oliver) and Patriot Act (by Hasan Minhaj) are some very informative shows for CE content. Both shows have a lot of clips on YouTube that are free to watch.
User avatar
CPiGuy
Auron
Posts: 1070
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2016 8:19 pm
Location: Ames, Iowa

Re: Studying Current Events

Post by CPiGuy »

literally read the news every day, follow some journalists on Twitter or whatever, it'll get you points

I'm not being dismissive, this is legit the simplest way to do it imo.

if there's something in the news you don't understand, Google it, too. That might help with the not understanding the backstory.
Conor Thompson (he/it)
Bangor High School '16
University of Michigan '20
Iowa State University '25
Tournament Format Database
User avatar
no ice
Lulu
Posts: 69
Joined: Tue Aug 26, 2014 9:54 pm
Location: Illinois

Re: Studying Current Events

Post by no ice »

A great way to passively absorb current events and build up your foundation to better understand their contexts is to listen to podcasts! Code Switch, Up First, and Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! from NPR are good places to start. You can listen to them in bed, during commutes, at the gym, at breakfast, etc. They're fun and digestible and require very little exertion on your part. I wouldn't even bother looking up any terms you don't understand (unless it's especially interesting), since it will almost certainly be mentioned again and the context will make it clear. You can also incorporate them into your wakeup routine if you use Google Assistant, Alexa, or Siri by setting them to automatically play the news after your alarm sounds.

Once you're feeling more confident about your ability to critically evaluate current events, some of my recommendations for more in-depth analysis of the news include Intercepted and Deconstructed from The Intercept, A Different Lens from the Hampton Institute, and Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff.

I know you're learning current events with the goal of getting better at quizbowl, but another incentive could be a much improved understanding of the world around you as you start to connect the dots. It's a fun and enriching experience that goes well beyond quizbowl. Good luck with your studying!
Last edited by no ice on Sat Nov 30, 2019 9:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
James Zhou
Hinsdale Central
User avatar
CPiGuy
Auron
Posts: 1070
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2016 8:19 pm
Location: Ames, Iowa

Re: Studying Current Events

Post by CPiGuy »

no ice wrote: Sat Nov 30, 2019 8:53 amI know you're learning current events with the goal of getting better at quizbowl, but another incentive could be a much improved understanding of the world around you as you start to connect the dots. Good luck with your studying!
IMO, current events is one of the quizbowl categories where having extensive real knowledge will translate to extensive quizbowl points with near 100% certainty. (Pure math is another.)
Conor Thompson (he/it)
Bangor High School '16
University of Michigan '20
Iowa State University '25
Tournament Format Database
User avatar
Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!!
Rikku
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:17 pm

Re: Studying Current Events

Post by Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!! »

Hey Cade,

Like with any other category, the best way to lock down your subject is via immersion. This sounds daunting, but realistically in the case of Current Events, it just means keeping up to date on the news.

How is this accomplished then? For quiz bowl (and in general; being up to date is very important), I would recommend subscribing to a few daily email newsletters. I personally like Politico's daily email which gives a brief update of all the events in the U.S. For global events, the BBC does a very good morning email, and I personally like Al Jazeera if you're really looking for a worldwide perspective.

On top of this, podcasts are incredibly helpful. The New York Times' The Daily goes in depth on one subject each episode, so it helps for getting early buzzes. A podcast like NPR's is good for knowing a lot of events too.

With this being said, I do not like Current Events questions which daddle on information which is not important in a broader sense. For instance, I do not like questions about "which person said this thing during the Mueller report" or "what did Trump say in this tweet." Don't get discouraged by these when studying; I think current events as a whole is moving towards more contextually valuable content (Penn Bowl and HFT this were two good examples I've seen already, but there's other sets out there too).
Ganon Evans
Misconduct Representative
ACF President, PACE VP of Editing, MOQBA
Francis Howell High School 2018, University of Iowa 2021
Wartortullian
Rikku
Posts: 376
Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2016 10:02 pm
Location: New Haven, CT
Contact:

Re: Studying Current Events

Post by Wartortullian »

Not sure how true this still is, but when I was in high school, regularly reading The Economist would get you a ton of early buzzes on CE.
Matt
User avatar
Ciorwrong
Tidus
Posts: 696
Joined: Fri Dec 20, 2013 8:24 pm

Re: Studying Current Events

Post by Ciorwrong »

ganman0305 wrote: Sat Nov 30, 2019 1:51 pm Hey Cade,

Like with any other category, the best way to lock down your subject is via immersion. This sounds daunting, but realistically in the case of Current Events, it just means keeping up to date on the news.

How is this accomplished then? For quiz bowl (and in general; being up to date is very important), I would recommend subscribing to a few daily email newsletters. I personally like Politico's daily email which gives a brief update of all the events in the U.S. For global events, the BBC does a very good morning email, and I personally like Al Jazeera if you're really looking for a worldwide perspective.

On top of this, podcasts are incredibly helpful. The New York Times' The Daily goes in depth on one subject each episode, so it helps for getting early buzzes. A podcast like NPR's is good for knowing a lot of events too.

With this being said, I do not like Current Events questions which daddle on information which is not important in a broader sense. For instance, I do not like questions about "which person said this thing during the Mueller report" or "what did Trump say in this tweet." Don't get discouraged by these when studying; I think current events as a whole is moving towards more contextually valuable content (Penn Bowl and HFT this were two good examples I've seen already, but there's other sets out there too).
Unfortunately, the modal location of a current events question in quizbowl is an NAQT IS set. These regularly feature incessant and crappy questions on TrumpBowl and political scandal minutiae. If you want to get good at that nonsense, have fun memorizing lists of senators, governors and important house reps. Especially pay attention to which senators and political figures are in the news for bribery, saying stupid stuff or appear a lot on CNN or Fox News or MSNBC. Modern World questions tend to reward a whole different type of knowledge but this approach to writing is certainly not ubiquitous among CE writers.

Like empirically, current events is a highly diverse category. The way I would write a collegiate Modern World or CE question differs from how Conor Thompson would do so which differs from how NAQT does it. We all get our news from different sources and with different per-conceived biases or filters for what we think is important. When I was in high school, my teammate got multiple good buzzes from memorizing senators and governors and while I hope the way NAQT current events for high school is moving away from this super US-centric, scandal-focused way of writing, I fear that type of knowledge is still heavily rewarded in high school. In college, doing what the above people say is highly helpful but current events rarely come up. It appears on the same order of magnitude as like computer science.
Harris Bunker
Grosse Pointe North High School '15
Michigan State University '19
UC San Diego Economics 2019 -

at least semi-retired
User avatar
The Stately Rhododendron
Rikku
Posts: 484
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 7:18 pm
Location: Heart's in the woods

Re: Studying Current Events

Post by The Stately Rhododendron »

Without a doubt, the single best way to get points in "Current Events" is to do some deep dives into political histories of most countries. This is something that Wikipedia can do yes, but you are going to have to ask yourself if that's the way you learn things. I am a partisan of working class struggle, and find stories about this struggle quite compelling. This meant that growing up, I studied working class political movements across the world. The Library was helpful, so was Democracy Now, Vijay Prashad's works, documentaries (many countries have national film boards with many documentaries available for free online), talking to people at the weird commie summer camp my family went to, etc. I also would develop a habit of cross checking information across several sources (since I grew up reading the Washington Post, which takes a fairly derogatory view towards working class movements worldwide). This meant stories stuck in my mind, so fast forward a few years, I can 30 bonuses on Albertan history, because I found it fascinating that so many poor farmers found a gobbedly gook anti-semetic monetary theory called Social Credit so fascinating. Anyways, find the stories that you find compelling, and seek them out world wide. You will get points.

It also helps to know the names of major political parties in most countries!
IKD
Yale 18
Oakland Mills 14
"I am the NAQT beast I worship."
User avatar
benchapman
Lulu
Posts: 63
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2018 9:17 pm
Location: Toronto, ON

Re: Studying Current Events

Post by benchapman »

What I would recommend is just reading the newspaper every day; if it’s an important story, it’s likely to show up more than once so it’s easier to remember. If your school has copies of the WSJ or New York Times, you could also take advantage of that.
Benjamin Chapman
Hunter College High School '21
University of Toronto '26
User avatar
Ndg
Rikku
Posts: 387
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2012 3:24 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Re: Studying Current Events

Post by Ndg »

CPiGuy wrote: Sat Nov 30, 2019 6:13 am literally read the news every day, follow some journalists on Twitter or whatever, it'll get you points

I'm not being dismissive, this is legit the simplest way to do it imo.
A Very Long Math Tossup wrote: Sat Nov 30, 2019 4:43 pm Not sure how true this still is, but when I was in high school, regularly reading The Economist would get you a ton of early buzzes on CE.
These are definitely both true. In particular, I remember noting how much stuff I encountered on Twitter (including news articles linked from there) was coming up at HSNCT last year.
Andrew Nadig

Mannhiem Mannheim Manheim Township, 2005-11
Carnegie Mellon University, 2011-15
MahoningQuizBowler
Rikku
Posts: 417
Joined: Fri Jan 23, 2004 10:58 am
Location: Youngstown, Ohio
Contact:

Re: Studying Current Events

Post by MahoningQuizBowler »

I recommend the BBC Global News Podcast and any of the Economist podcasts, with the speed cranked to at least 2x to keep/enhance your listening skill at national pace -- especially if you aren't exposed to that level of speaking speed at your local tournaments during the regular season.
Greg Bossick
Director, Mahoning Quizbowl League (2004-2011, 2013-present)
Director, NAQT Ohio Small School State Championship (2018-present)
Executive Director, Ohio Academic Competition (2013-2016)
K@b00m
Lulu
Posts: 33
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2019 10:24 am

Re: Studying Current Events

Post by K@b00m »

I usually look at CNN, WaPo, NY Times, WSJ, and BBC once or twice a day and read a few stories. Would this be good for a national level?
Kapil Nathan

Bumpus MS, Alabama '18; Hoover HS, Alabama '22; somewhere '26
2019 (both), 2020 (JV), 2021 Varsity ASCA State Champion
5th Place Solo JV NH Bowl 2019
US History Bee Varsity Division Champion 2021
National Political Science Bee Champion JV 2020
National Science and Political Science Bee Varsity 3rd place Finisher 2021
International Geography Bee 3rd place JV 2020, 4th place Varsity 2021
Varsity National History Bee Semifinalist 2020 and 2021
Locked