Generalizing for High school

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Bloomington
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Generalizing for High school

Post by Bloomington »

Hello my name is Soren Gjesfjeld and I am the Co-Captain of my middle school's quiz bowl team. I am currently a generalist and we are very solid (https://www.naqt.com/stats/tournament/s ... t_id=10944, https://stats.neg5.org/t/x88C2kaUI/2020 ... -standings). Although I am fine specializing in a certain area (History I am good at), I would like to continue generalizing for high school level, particularly for Nationals. Does anyone have any tips on maintaining generalization while scaling up?
Soren Gjesfjeld

Bloomington ‘24
Writer for IESA State Series
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EricChang5
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Re: Generalizing for High school

Post by EricChang5 »

Hi Soren!

I think it's great that you are already taking an initiative to improve at such an early age, and I wish you the best for that! I had a similar experience to you (albeit at an older age), so here is some advice that I had moving forward:

First, definitely acknowledge the difficulty jump not just in questions but also in competition. I can't say that I know all that much about middle school quizbowl, but I would say it is a pretty safe bet that high school quizbowl is just a lot larger and more popular. You will run into some very strong teams (especially in IL). Don't be discouraged by this. Students who have already been in high school for 3 years will have an advantage just by hearing what commonly comes up over the years regardless of how much they study. Playing against top-level competition is a good way to improve and to stay humble.

When it comes to picking up other categories, my recommendation is to try and read up on many recent questions and packets. Obviously reading more questions make you a better player, but I think there are definitely some proper study tips you can use while going through packets that will help you play as a generalist. quizbowlpackets.com already has recent packets listed by difficulty. I would try and go through some of the easier levels first, read a few sets at that difficulty and then continue to move upwards. Maybe start to take very easy notes, such as giveaway clues or the easy part of a bonus, on categories that you aren't as strong at. You don't necessarily have to be exhaustive in your note-taking (or whatever means you have when it comes to studying), but I do find value in starting with the foundations and basics. For example, I started off as a mythology and fine arts specialist. When I came across a bonus on distillation, I didn't really know anything about it since I haven't taken a chemistry class. I would first take note on just what distillation is. Then when I started to see it come up more often, the next time I took a note on the medium part of the bonus: azeotropes. This started to help me build my base of science and allowed me to 20 more science bonuses. There will be some topics that this is not as beneficial for, but I think it's a solid overarching way to approach your studying.

Obviously it pays off to pay attention in your high school classes, even those basic freshmen courses. I used to think that I wasn't gaining much quizbowl knowledge in these classes, but they still have content that comes up in the high school canon. At times, you will even have an advantage by more recently covering these topics (ex: taking world history in 9th grade). The older students will have an advantage on the premise only that they have taken more classes than you, but this doesn't necessarily mean they will be stronger quizbowl players than you if you study diligently. With that, it definitely pays off to also focus on topics that aren't as widely taught in high school. For example, literature and fine arts are very expansive in the high school canon but are not always categories that are taught in classes. Just familiarizing famous authors'/artists' names and famous works is useful. While everyone is in some sort of English/Literature class, not everyone will be familiar with who Allen Ginsberg is from those classes, but he is a common answerline at the high school level. Be willing to continue to learn outside of just school.

Personally, I still find a lot of value in being a specialist to some extent. Assuming the high school program that you are going into has an established program, you might not immediately come in as a freshmen and be considered the captain/top-scorer of the team (I could be totally wrong in this but hear me out). You might be put as the captain of the B-team or the 3rd or 4th scorer on the A-team. I think it is useful to play off of your strengths in these regards and contribute in those means. For example, I was not a great quizbowl player my freshman year since it was my first year, but I solely studied mythology because it was a category that I found really fun and interesting. By my sophomore year, I was able to beat our best player at every mythology question in practice and was placed on the A-team as the 4th scorer. While I wanted to become more of a generalist since I knew many members of that A-team were graduating, I still focused on my specialty and worked on picking up other categories (fine arts and literature) in my studies as well. By my junior year, I was a pretty solid player in most of the humanity categories. As a younger player, you can certainly direct your studying into just being a generalist, but I find it more beneficial to gradually pick up other categories. By staying involved in the quizbowl scene and going to more competitions, you'll improve as a generalist by just hearing the same answerlines come up. Therefore, I think it is better to continue to specialize (especially in a category as large as history) by writing questions, making study guides/presentations, and just reading up more on your strong categories.

I know I may have rambled a lot about pretty basic concepts, but I hope this helps out! By no means was I an absolutely game-changing force at the high school level, but I was able to compete and win at a solid level while still studying to be more of a generalist. Of course, a lot of your studying will also depend on the teammates and their strengths and weaknesses, but there are ways to improve individually as a quizbowl player as you are the only person that you have control over. I applaud your efforts to improve and hope you stick with it!
Eric Chang (he/him)
Christiansburg High School '15
Virginia Tech '19 (B.S.) '24 (M.S.)
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