How can I approve quickly in the shortest amount of time.

[Flightless Steller's jay]

I am not too terrible of a player(I average a little over 30ppg at an average tournament.) I am going into my senior year and I wanna do really good my last year. So my question is, how can I possibly get as good as possible as quick as possible? How is it that some players can get to be on the levels of a top nationals player in a matter of months?

Sincerely,

Flightless Steller's jay

[Good Goblin Housekeeping]

if you specifically want to improve for quizbowl without maybe, pursuing any intellectual interest beyond that, the fastest way to study is probably to specifically look up answerlines on a question database such as qbreader and just take a lot of notes on what clues come up frequently, maybe with filters for difficulty between hs and hs nats and just review them infrequently (flashcards, note docs, stuff like that)

Otherwise it's just about the time you're willing to put into it. If you make yourself miserable you'll probably burn yourself out and frankly you will not retain things if that's the case.

Best of luck in studying and competition your senior year!

[quizbowlchamp1]

I'm an MS Player who placed in the top 40 at nationals and averages 55 points per game, so take these words with a grain of salt.

1) Protobowl. There are private and public servers for you to practice on. It doesn't always give the best questions, but playing it a lot for maybe 3 months will get you accustomed to the HS Canon.

2) Anki/Carding. This approach is perfect if you want to improve at lit. The best carding app is Anki, which uses a spaced repetition algorithm to evaluate how well you know your cards.

3) Notetaking. You can pick between this and carding. You should use both if you want to improve the fastest. I use a combo of Google Docs and Google Sheets.

4) Reading Questions. You can use the database housed on this website. There is also an app called QuizDB. It can be separated into categories, subcategories, and difficulties.

5) Writing Questions. Once you get more advanced, writing questions is a great way to improve. It makes you research specific topics and improves your knowledge of the canon.

For more information, refer to this forum https://hsquizbowl.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14099

[dni]

It helps to associate with other quizbowlers serious about improvement. Iron sharpens iron. For me, Enes Kristo is the steel that sharpened the sword that is my science ability by curating a detailed study regimen, watching over me for months leading up to the 2023 nationals season. Thanks to Enes and everyone else's help, I graduated college as the most successful science player of the 2010s.

[voicedvelarnasal]

Protobowl

please don't. qbreader is a much better alternative as it has more recent questions, a good database, the ability to filter by difficulty, and it doesn't have protobowl's chat

[Joshua Li]

I would agree that protobowl is not as good as qbreader and not close to as effective. Qbreader has a huge database and just more options, and it doesn't have outdated toss-ups, plus they have a pretty cool system where if you sign in with an account you can track the categories you’ve scored the most on and your power rate and other metrics. Recommend creating a qbreader account and using that instead.

[Metacarpal]

qbreader is a VERY effective study method, and coupled with carding, even more so. as someone who has used both of these methods to study (and has done quite well in tournaments), I would say a good way to play would be qbreader, card what you didn't power, qbreader again, card what you didn't power, etc. anki is a very effective carding method.

when it comes to protobowl, it's definitely more fun and I definitely agree that if you want a more laid-back way to get good at quizbowl, you should use it - but honestly, qbreader is so much better for serious studying. there's also accounts you can use to check your stats.

if you're working on things like MSNCT, I advise you buy some packets and maybe listen to the recordings, it's very helpful. I myself am doing this for HSNCT.