Worst Question EVER...
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At an unrecalled varsity tournament:
What are buildings for?
A: People.
Last night at a HORRIBLE local meet:
Why is it bad for your health to be overweight?
How many days of the week end in y?
From a Wheaton North fresh-soph:
Bonus: Stand up and point to the location of the following body parts on another member of your team.
From a Moline meet: Given the following car models, name the specific type of yellow that each is produced in. (Answers were like "baby yellow", "sunshine yellow", and "electric yellow")
What are buildings for?
A: People.
Last night at a HORRIBLE local meet:
Why is it bad for your health to be overweight?
How many days of the week end in y?
From a Wheaton North fresh-soph:
Bonus: Stand up and point to the location of the following body parts on another member of your team.
From a Moline meet: Given the following car models, name the specific type of yellow that each is produced in. (Answers were like "baby yellow", "sunshine yellow", and "electric yellow")
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I also recall my very first tournament at Moline there wasa question asking for the leading (or best selling) journal of the Meat Indutry.MJG wrote:From a Moline meet: Given the following car models, name the specific type of yellow that each is produced in. (Answers were like "baby yellow", "sunshine yellow", and "electric yellow")
My poor suburban team looked at me with a "are you kidding me" look, while my assistant turned to me and asked if they were all like this.
Even the rural team we were playing couldn't answer it .... so it wasn't just us!
Of course ..... lllinois is less beef country and more soy country.
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Worst Question
For the dinosaurs out there....
The "Hare Krishna - Muppet Movie" running gag of.....
1. Who wrote Paradise Lost?
the next year - Who wrote "Who wrote Paradise Lost"?
2 years later - Who wrote "Who wrote "Who wrote Paraside Lost"?
To explain,
#1 was the in toto tossup at a modified ACF tournament at a tournament in the Potomac River basin (look up which one it was, I'm not giving it away.)
The answers are...
John Milton (duh)
Johns Hopkins C
John Edwards
The "Hare Krishna - Muppet Movie" running gag of.....
1. Who wrote Paradise Lost?
the next year - Who wrote "Who wrote Paradise Lost"?
2 years later - Who wrote "Who wrote "Who wrote Paraside Lost"?
To explain,
#1 was the in toto tossup at a modified ACF tournament at a tournament in the Potomac River basin (look up which one it was, I'm not giving it away.)
The answers are...
John Milton (duh)
Johns Hopkins C
John Edwards
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If there are no objections .......
If a question is asked this year in competition (no 15 year old questions that came up in practice), AND (important) it is OK to post it (see "question posting guidelines before posting).
1. Try to post it word -for-word, with the date and locale of the tournament.
In early May, I will pick the 10 or so best, and we'll take a vote.
Thus is born the Golden Hose Awards.
If a question is asked this year in competition (no 15 year old questions that came up in practice), AND (important) it is OK to post it (see "question posting guidelines before posting).
1. Try to post it word -for-word, with the date and locale of the tournament.
In early May, I will pick the 10 or so best, and we'll take a vote.
Thus is born the Golden Hose Awards.
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Re: Worst Question
A few more classics...
Actual tossup read at a college packet submission tournament in 1994 (believe it was TIT, but I'm not 100%).
TU: For a quick 10 points, what is the minimum age to legally drive a moped in South Carolina?
The question, you guessed it, was written by a South Carolina team.
(Four years later, I was moderating at TIT when a South Carolina team -- completely different from the 1994 squad -- walked into my room. I welcomed them to the tournament and told that there was this question I had about SC that I couldn't get an answer to, and I needed their help. I proceeded to ask the above question )
Going back further to high school and 1990, came this HS student-written question at a tournament in Morris Hills, NJ.
Q: The new editions of Playboy and Penthouse appeared on newsstands last week. Name either this month's Playboy Playmate or this month's Penthouse Pet.
Note the following:
1. This is a HIGH SCHOOL TOURNAMENT, and at least one or two teams were made up entirely of 7th-8th graders.
2. I attended a Catholic high school, and our principal, who happened to be a priest, was in the room He glared at us as the question was being read, and we promptly passed the question to the other team (the rules for this version of QB was very different from what many of you are used to -- I'll try and explain how this worked if you wish).
As you may guess, close to 25-30 coaches raised holy heck to the host school's principal, and the student who wrote the question, as well as the coach who approved the question's use, were punished.
James
Actual tossup read at a college packet submission tournament in 1994 (believe it was TIT, but I'm not 100%).
TU: For a quick 10 points, what is the minimum age to legally drive a moped in South Carolina?
The question, you guessed it, was written by a South Carolina team.
(Four years later, I was moderating at TIT when a South Carolina team -- completely different from the 1994 squad -- walked into my room. I welcomed them to the tournament and told that there was this question I had about SC that I couldn't get an answer to, and I needed their help. I proceeded to ask the above question )
Going back further to high school and 1990, came this HS student-written question at a tournament in Morris Hills, NJ.
Q: The new editions of Playboy and Penthouse appeared on newsstands last week. Name either this month's Playboy Playmate or this month's Penthouse Pet.
Note the following:
1. This is a HIGH SCHOOL TOURNAMENT, and at least one or two teams were made up entirely of 7th-8th graders.
2. I attended a Catholic high school, and our principal, who happened to be a priest, was in the room He glared at us as the question was being read, and we promptly passed the question to the other team (the rules for this version of QB was very different from what many of you are used to -- I'll try and explain how this worked if you wish).
As you may guess, close to 25-30 coaches raised holy heck to the host school's principal, and the student who wrote the question, as well as the coach who approved the question's use, were punished.
James
The football coach was just recently fired, and the men's basketball coach is rather famous...(Come on, who doesn't know Tom Izzo?)CHSplayerRohan wrote:i'll tell you a dumb one. it was a bonus.
it was "Identify the following coaches at MSU"
football
men's basketball
women's basketball
baseball
how the heck should anyone know that?
The other 2 are pretty obscure though.
But kids from Michigan would get them :-)
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Was he talking about Mississippi State (he's from Clinton, MS) or Michigan State?
Sylvester Croom for MS State football is pretty easy, as is Tom Izzo for MI State basketball. As for the others (MS State: Rod Barnes - basketball, Sharon Fanning - women's basketball, Ron Polk - baseball; MI State: John Smith - football, Joanne McCallie - women's basketball, David Grewe - baseball), they are pretty much completely obscure unless you live in the respective states. In Maryland, the average team's sports person would have gotten 3 out of the 4 for Maryland schools very easily, so that's not a bad bonus if they're asking it for the host state's schools.
Sylvester Croom for MS State football is pretty easy, as is Tom Izzo for MI State basketball. As for the others (MS State: Rod Barnes - basketball, Sharon Fanning - women's basketball, Ron Polk - baseball; MI State: John Smith - football, Joanne McCallie - women's basketball, David Grewe - baseball), they are pretty much completely obscure unless you live in the respective states. In Maryland, the average team's sports person would have gotten 3 out of the 4 for Maryland schools very easily, so that's not a bad bonus if they're asking it for the host state's schools.
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This reeks of "Which 4 Presidents are not buried in the US?"quizbowllee wrote:Because cheesy riddles make great quiz bowl questions!swwFCqb wrote:here's a question that i had the unfortunate pleasure of hearing last year on WHIV-TV out of New Concord, Ohio:
Q: What is the biggest diamond in the world?
A: A baseball diamond
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Well.....at least the presidents question actually required you to know presidents ...... To borrow from Bart Simpson: This question both sucks and blows.styxman wrote:This reeks of "Which 4 Presidents are not buried in the US?"quizbowllee wrote:Because cheesy riddles make great quiz bowl questions!swwFCqb wrote:here's a question that i had the unfortunate pleasure of hearing last year on WHIV-TV out of New Concord, Ohio:
Q: What is the biggest diamond in the world?
A: A baseball diamond
I didn't write it (credit instead to my roommate, Adam), but I will take responsibility for its inclusion in our tournament. Anyway, if you're going to ask a question about advertising mascots, it seems fair to require that teams know the company that they advertise. Just saying "sheep" is ambiguous.catsasslippers wrote:I think my favorite moment this year was the strangest (albeit well written ) tossup at the Harvard tournement.
The answer was: Serta Sheep.
Sheep, Mattress-selling sheep, and Mattress-selling sheep with numbers on them, were the answers my teammate provided, but none were sufficient.
Anyway, I'm just going to take your post as a compliment and not worry about the fact that it's posted in a thread called "worst question ever" right after the question on the world's largest diamond.
(Sorry for the double post)
Incidentally, here's my vote for worst (or should it be best?!) tossup ever:
This (noun) (verb) kids with (amount of time) of fun in the (decade). Usually ordered through Weekly Readers, you played by filling in a skeleton with (noun) and (noun). For (number) points, name this word game.
ANSWER: mad libs
(http://quizbowl.stanford.edu/archive/theme/1980s.html)
Incidentally, here's my vote for worst (or should it be best?!) tossup ever:
This (noun) (verb) kids with (amount of time) of fun in the (decade). Usually ordered through Weekly Readers, you played by filling in a skeleton with (noun) and (noun). For (number) points, name this word game.
ANSWER: mad libs
(http://quizbowl.stanford.edu/archive/theme/1980s.html)
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For precedent in high school quiz bowl, I refer you to Stephen, the Dell guy (http://www.naqt.com/samples/t1160packet_1.pdf). Serta sheep, at least, are cute.ImmaculateDeception wrote:Worst hypothesis ever?Kyle wrote:...if you're going to ask a question about advertising mascots...
MaS
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i was talking about MS state university.Djibouti wrote:Was he talking about Mississippi State (he's from Clinton, MS) or Michigan State?
Sylvester Croom for MS State football is pretty easy, as is Tom Izzo for MI State basketball. As for the others (MS State: Rod Barnes - basketball, Sharon Fanning - women's basketball, Ron Polk - baseball; MI State: John Smith - football, Joanne McCallie - women's basketball, David Grewe - baseball), they are pretty much completely obscure unless you live in the respective states. In Maryland, the average team's sports person would have gotten 3 out of the 4 for Maryland schools very easily, so that's not a bad bonus if they're asking it for the host state's schools.
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I have trouble telling if this is a joke, or if you're really planning this.OP_Huskies wrote:Well, while we're here, my friends and I are planning a "tournament" filled with questions like:
TU 3: Literature.
The derivative of x squared plus 5 x is 2 x plus 5. Who wrote "War and Piece?"
(Leo) Tolstoy (prompt on 2 x plus 5)
Seriously, don't do that. Any talented player worth their salt will leave halfway through the first game, and any coach worth their salt will leave at the same time. No good teams will bother staying, and no good teams would ever come back. It sounds like Chip Beall crap, and their's a reason good teams don't go to his tournaments.
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From the finals 1999 Falcon Fall Classic at Bowling Green State University in Ohio:
To tell time, to check the temperature, to turn on and off a videocassette recorder, to track grades, to prepare notes, to communicate long distances and to run satellites. FTP, these are all different functions of what kind of machine that you can check your email on.
The author of the question was an experienced, if not particularly good, college player who proceeded to defend the question in a later conversation. For me, that makes it so much worse than questions written by either a) inexperienced people who can't be expected to know better and b) certain individuals/companies who don't care and just crank out (or recycle) questions based on how easy it is for them. I don't think any of the authors of previously mentioned questions here thought that they were writing one of the greatest tossups ever.
To tell time, to check the temperature, to turn on and off a videocassette recorder, to track grades, to prepare notes, to communicate long distances and to run satellites. FTP, these are all different functions of what kind of machine that you can check your email on.
The author of the question was an experienced, if not particularly good, college player who proceeded to defend the question in a later conversation. For me, that makes it so much worse than questions written by either a) inexperienced people who can't be expected to know better and b) certain individuals/companies who don't care and just crank out (or recycle) questions based on how easy it is for them. I don't think any of the authors of previously mentioned questions here thought that they were writing one of the greatest tossups ever.
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OK, Rod Barnes was at Ole Miss. Get the two right, you heathen named after an African country!!! The basketball coach at The Oktibbeha County Correctional Facility---I mean Moo U---I mean Mississippi State, is Rick Stansbury. FWIW, the basketball coach at Ole Miss now is Andy Kennedy, as Rod Barnes was fired last year.CHSplayerRohan wrote:i was talking about MS state university.Djibouti wrote:Was he talking about Mississippi State (he's from Clinton, MS) or Michigan State?
Sylvester Croom for MS State football is pretty easy, as is Tom Izzo for MI State basketball. As for the others (MS State: Rod Barnes - basketball, Sharon Fanning - women's basketball, Ron Polk - baseball; MI State: John Smith - football, Joanne McCallie - women's basketball, David Grewe - baseball), they are pretty much completely obscure unless you live in the respective states. In Maryland, the average team's sports person would have gotten 3 out of the 4 for Maryland schools very easily, so that's not a bad bonus if they're asking it for the host state's schools.