Middle School You Gotta Know

[CAkE]

I have been studying off of NAQT's You Gotta Know lists, but some of the material there has not really been covered in the NAQT tournament that I went to. Is this list primarily for high school/ college players? If it is does anyone know of a You Gotta Know list for middle school?

[Adventure Temple Trail]

As I understand it, You Gotta Know is primarily aimed towards newer high school players and there are no middle school-specific You Gotta Knows to date. A large amount of what's on there should overlap in the big academic subjects, though there will be some middle school-specific subjects missing.

[the return of AHAN]

Hi Matthew! The lists were written with high school players in mind. But, actually, thy will be really good for learning the hard parts of NAQT bonus questions or lead-in clues on on toss-ups. Other good sources for practice questions include the novice sets on quizbowlpackets.com or the Collaborative Middle School Tournament Sets 1 and 2, as well as the 2009 Junior Wildcat tournament. Best of luck to you and your Hawken team at the MSNCT!

[tintinnabulation]

If you want, I can send you a list (with authors and brief plot descriptions and pronunciations, because I used to always get funny looks from moderators when I said stuff) of literature that I wrote up for my siblings' middle school/JV teams. It's not professional or complete in the least (the poetry needs work), but it's a place to start for MS.

[CAkE]

If you want, I can send you a list (with authors and brief plot descriptions and pronunciations, because I used to always get funny looks from moderators when I said stuff) of literature that I wrote up for my siblings' middle school/JV teams. It's not professional or complete in the least (the poetry needs work), but it's a place to start for MS.

Anything that would help me study would be appreciated. Thanks

[btressler]

I have been the lead editor on all the NAQT MS sets produced thus far. Here's a few general remarks on what to expect at the MSNCT:

The overall philosophy is that MSNCT is similar to the Introductory Series (level A) sets, but probably a little easier. So if you study some of those sets, you will definitely find some of the same answers used at MSNCT. In particular, care is taken to make sure the math and science is grade appropriate. For example I don't mind "calculus" as an answer but I wouldn't allow questions on calculus topics like "derivatives."

And of course, if you have access to last year's MSNCT, that is certainly worthy as a study guide.

One thing that you won't find in the same quantity in a level A set that is present in MSNCT is the "youth" literature. And since there's 20 rounds to compile, you can bet that anything the writers and I think you know about is going to come up. Lists like this are a good place to start.

When I go to tournaments, I ask the students what books they are reading, what tv shows and films they like, what topics they haven't heard a question on that they wish would get asked, et cetera. We're also gathering data about this year's sets on what questions were answered correctly. We do listen to the feedback we get from people so that future sets match our audience to the best of our ability.

I hope this helps.