Studying Sets You've Already Played

[Invisible Rail]

Does anyone else find this helpful? I feel like when I play a set, I remember a lot of the clues I hear, and so I don't have to spend as much time studying sets I'm familiar with in order to gain the same amount of knowledge I would if I practiced an entirely new set. On the other hand, when I do this, I'm not getting exposed to new kinds of answer lines - I'll just buzz earlier on the same kinds of clues; probably clues I might have gotten anyway.

Is it worth the time to study some sets I've played, and boost my knowledge in those areas, or is it more efficient to put in more time and effort, but be exposed to different kinds of questions and clues?

[UlyssesInvictus]

I do both. I study the sets I've already played, not by actually playing them, but by going back and reading them and essentially learning all the clues I can feasibly learn in addition to looking up more context for the clues I find particularly interesting. AFAIK, most good players do a variation of this by writing down clues they hear at the tournament and then looking them up at home, thus making actually having the set irrelevant. I also don't mind replaying sets I've heard before, because I doubt anyone can memorize every clue they hear in one playthrough, and if you miss a clue enough times, you can berate yourself into permanently learning it.

I mainly "play" sets I haven't heard before to practice buzzing discipline and to test my knowledge of clues. It may vary from person to person, but I find I can "cement" my memory of a clue by learning it and then playing on that clue unexpectedly. It probably has something to do with how memory works.

As for whether to solely practice on old or new sets, I don't think it matters too much as long as you're mixing the two types and dedicating time to practicing (meaning not just satisfying yourself by buzzing on a tossup and moving on--the researching clues part is probably the most important part). You're learning either way.

[Good Goblin Housekeeping]

sometimes you can go over things you neg and reflect, and also a lot of times you might have misheard something and it helps jog the memory to go over them. Plus there's always some packets you haven't seen/a couple of bonuses that might not have been heard if not all 20 tossups in X round got converted