If you find yourself hosting a meet where you find you have to use Q uestions G alore questions this year, please be advised to check the math questions for errors. Examples from today's bonus set:
8 = x -5
A: -3
72 = -8x
A: 9
Yes, kids, that's TWO parts of a 5-part bonus with bad wrong answers. I've always wondered why we can't get tougher math from this vendor. Now I see why. Both teams tried to help the Lake Zurich North moderator; I pointed out that LZN gave a correct answer to #4, while the LZN kids pointed out out that Station's answer to part 2 was correct. Rather than listen to the team's arguing for an extra 4 points for each other, early in a tight match, the moderator said, "Well, I can't remember exactly what they (Station) said so I'm going to throw it out and replace with a new question..." In Life Science which both teams promptly bageled.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!
Later in the same set, a 4-parter:
The prompt asked for decimal answers for 1 & 2, and in terms of pi for 3 and 4...
What is the area of a rectangle with sides measuring 2 3/4 inches and 4 1/2 inches?
A: 14. 5 inches
What is the perimeter of a regular pentagon with a side length measuring 16.275 inches?
A: 81.38 inches
What is the circumference of a circle with a diameter measuring 11.5 inches?
A: 23 pi inches
What is the area of a circle with a diameter measuring 14 inches?
A: 56.25 pi square inches
YES! A perfectly BAD bonus question! Not a single freaking correct answer on the d----ed page!
At this point, my head is spinning from the double-bagel, thinking I must be mishearing the guy, and I've already made enough of a scene in the first half, to say nothing of the fact he irrationally burned the only spare bonus in the set earlier. And lord knows the guy wasn't going to let me lawyer for right answers as evidenced by me getting disregarded in trying to give points to the opponent. And let's not forget I'm trying to rehab my reputation as being the Bobby Knight of scholastic bowl in my conference. So I let it go and karma looked out for us as we won with 4 straight TU to close the game, despite crummy questions and awful bonus conversion (11.27 per bonus controlled).
And what the heck is up with moderators that won't let kids begin their bonus answer until they've buzzed in??? Where do they freaking get this idea?? My kids quickly adjusted with a "When in Rome..." attitude, while I spent much of the 1st half with my rule book open to the appropriate page, just waiting for him to try to hose us with a nonexistent rules violation.
