Taking Notes

cdcarter · Post by **cdcarter** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 1:31 am

A lot of people, myself included, take notes during practice, and sometimes during tournaments. I would like to know how others apply those notes. I look at them after two/three days, and see how many of the answers I can remember roughly what the giveaway clue was. Then I lookup the ones I couldn't, and the ones I think are interesting. What are other strategies?

ragnarok2012 · Post by **ragnarok2012** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 2:01 am

If the answers are things I should and want to know in depth, I write it down and look it up either that day or later.

If I know that trying to look something up ( symphony fantastique) would bore me to death or would be mostly lost on me (fermat's last theorem), I write down the the answer then write out to the side, the giveaway and a difficult fact.

ex. Devil and Daniel Webster <-- i would read it

ex. Symphony fantastique <-- dedicated to Smithson
<-- written under opium (applies to a lot of things)
<-- witch's sabbath

edit: should and want to know. im never going to read up on
Shostakovich.

Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) · Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:12 am

ragnarok2012 wrote:edit: should and want to know. im never going to read up on
Shostakovich.

That's your loss.

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:33 am

I don't speak for all coaches, but many players and coaches will also write down the answers you miss so you can go back later and review that information.

Many people sometimes will write questions based on the fact you missed a question during practice.

Bigfoot isn't the pr · Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:03 pm

I write don't any answer I find of particular interest or am not completely familiar with. I will always write down answers/clues that inspire me to write a question on topic X.

I also write down my personal stats, for the sake of calculating them myself.

I also do a lot of doodling during sports, classical music, and math questions.

Strongside · Post by **Strongside** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:15 pm

One thing I would suggest is taking those notes and making a list. Either take a piece of paper and fold it in half, use flashcards, or type it up on a computer.

On one side you can write a clue such as... This person wrote Symphonie Fantastique, and on the other side you could write Berlioz. You could repeat this for things that come up in practice that you don't know, or things you might have forgotten. If you have the time and/or interest you can look over other old questions and take notes on them.

If you can get the questions after practice or the meets you go to, looking over what you missed or didn't know and writing it down can be helpful. If you make a list you can study it until you feel you have everything on there memorized well enough. After however long, you can look over the same list and see how much you remember.

ieppler · Post by **ieppler** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 3:18 pm

Why would you study Symphonie Fantastique and not Shostakovich? Both show up in quizbowl pretty often, and a successful classical music player would have to know both. Just wondering...

Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) · Tue Nov 27, 2007 5:24 pm

Also, like, points are points and if reading a biography (or even just an online page) about Shostakovich translates to a power or a 30 on a bonus, I see no reason not to study said thing unless someone else on your team already knows that subject cold. Even then, it'd probably be worth it to study that subject for your own benefit. And I'm not just talking about classical music, I think that applies to every subject in QB. That may just be my own deal, but I try to study up, especially on things I don't know as well, since that is how you close gaps and score more points.

ragnarok2012 · Post by **ragnarok2012** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 6:36 pm

Deesy Does It wrote:
ragnarok2012 wrote:edit: should and want to know. im never going to read up on
Shostakovich.
That's your loss.

Classical music is not my forte, and I dislike the idea of studying something just for the sake of quizbowl. Shostakovich is an example of someone I have no interest in and personally, i can't force myself to remember those kinds of things.

The Time Keeper · Post by **The Time Keeper** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 7:45 pm

Whenever I come across an answer I don't know or don't know early enough, I tell myself to learn more about the topic and then don't do that at all. I highly recommend this approach.

AKKOLADE · Post by **AKKOLADE** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 7:56 pm

Dolemite wrote:Whenever I come across an answer I don't know or don't know early enough, I tell myself to learn more about the topic and then don't do that at all. I highly recommend this approach.

QFT

Captain Sinico · Post by **Captain Sinico** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 7:58 pm

I usually just underline or circle or whatever things I think I need to know in my match notes, then study them from sources (encyclopedias, old packets, textbooks, whatever) later. In my early days, I used to do this for anything that I didn't get in practice or a match but that came up more than once; your usage may vary.

MaS

cdcarter · Post by **cdcarter** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 8:20 pm

ImmaculateDeception wrote:I usually just underline or circle or whatever things I think I need to know in my match notes, then study them from sources (encyclopedias, old packets, textbooks, whatever) later. In my early days, I used to do this for anything that I didn't get in practice or a match but that came up more than once; your usage may vary.

MaS

Thanks! These are all really helpful. I end up with pages of notes, but am never quite sure where to go from there. Now I have some ideas.

Nine-Tenths Ideas · Post by **Nine-Tenths Ideas** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 10:46 pm

You can always type 'em up or turn 'em into questions. Helps me.

Stephen Colbert · Post by **Stephen Colbert** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:53 am

At the end of each week I would look over the questions my players had missed at practices, matches, tournaments, etc. Since most couldn't go more than a few hours without their iPods nearby, I made mp3's of myself reading the missed questions and distributed them to the players. This way, they could listen to questions on long rides to tournaments, randomly during the week outside of practices, or in especially boring classes.

Bigfoot isn't the pr · Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:49 am

Stephen Colbert wrote:At the end of each week I would look over the questions my players had missed at practices, matches, tournaments, etc. Since most couldn't go more than a few hours without their iPods nearby, I made mp3's of myself reading the missed questions and distributed them to the players. This way, they could listen to questions on long rides to tournaments, randomly during the week outside of practices, or in especially boring classes.

I predict a revolution in QB

rchschem · Post by **rchschem** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:07 am

ragnarok2012 wrote:
Classical music is not my forte

That's sonata good reason to ignore it, though.

Eric

BobGHHS · Post by **BobGHHS** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:04 pm

I generally will write down what my team misses at tournaments, but because I have a unique situation in regards to coaching, we really don't hit the stuff at practice -- I usually tear out the pages, give them to Dan and hope that he looks through them and learns the stuff they missed... when I had more time to practice with my kids, I used to spend a lot of time drilling them over and over on the same topics -- whatever we might be weak in for the time being. Regardless, I think note-taking is a good thing, as long as it doesn't take too much time that you are distracted or miss clues on another question.