Discussion

[TheDoctor]

Any specific critiques or suggestions are appreciated! Please remember not to discuss these questions outside of this thread until the all-clear has been given in early December.

[Flutist Wren]

There was a protest in my room in one of rounds 8-10 on the "diagonal" tossup involving "face diagonal" being required/not accepted (don't remember which and I don't have the set in front of me). I believe the specific point of contention was a clue about the square root of 3. I didn't know enough to decide whether that was a legitimate error, but that might be something worth looking into. On a more general note, I thought some of the Judaism bonuses were too difficult. I'll probably remember something else later, there were some other issues I noticed. On the whole, though, I thought it was an excellent novice set.

[TheDoctor]

To get things moving a little bit more, I'd greatly appreciate any specific feedback on my questions, listed below.

Round 1: Don Quixote, Eros
Bonuses: Ragnarok/Heimdall/rainbows, Scarlet Letter/Hawthorne/Young Goodman Brown, Austen/Hardy/Lawrence, Monet/Seurat/David, Jane Eyre/Bronte/Burns

Round 2: Last Supper, Dragons, Gulliver's Travels
Bonus: Keats/Grecian Urn/Byron

Round 3: Divine Comedy, Athena, Michelangelo
Bonus: Robot/Vonnegut/Asimov

Round 4: A Christmas Carol
Bonuses: Streetcar/New Orleans/The Awakening, Titans/Atlas/Calypso, Auld Lang Syne/Tennyson/Pope

Round 5: Hera
Bonuses: Washington/Bradstreet/Edwards, Tale of Genji/Pillow Book/Japan, Canopic jar/Isis/Ammit

Round 6: Jesus
Bonuses: Pei/Louvre/Gehry, Shelley/Browning/Lyrical Ballads, Their Eyes Were Watching God/Morrison/Brooks

Round 7: Dionysus
Bonuses: Romeo and Juliet/Tybalt/Paris, Whistler/Turner/Cassatt, Loki/Coyote/Anansi

Round 8: Canterbury Tales, Twain
Bonuses: Oliver Twist/Dickens/Fagin, Hades/Charon/Orpheus, Donatello/Degas/Duchamp

Round 9: Valhalla, South Africa, Black Holes
Bonus: Odin/Asgard/Yggdrasil

Round 10: Woolf
Bonuses: Caesar/Shylock/Falstaff, Heracles/Hydra/Hippolyta, Dome of the Rock/Temple Mount/Jerusalem, China/India/Australia

Finals 1: Shinto
Bonuses: Saints Patrick/Francis/George, Candide/Voltaire/Eldorado

Finals 2: Arthur
Bonuses: (Great Vowel Shift/diphthong/Chomsky), (Carpe Diem/Beat/Absurd)

[Flutist Wren]

Can I get a copy of the set? My email is on my profile, jchsscholarbowl at gmail dot com

[jonah]

There was a protest in my room in one of rounds 8-10 on the "diagonal" tossup involving "face diagonal" being required/not accepted (don't remember which and I don't have the set in front of me). I believe the specific point of contention was a clue about the square root of 3. I didn't know enough to decide whether that was a legitimate error, but that might be something worth looking into. On a more general note, I thought some of the Judaism bonuses were too difficult. I'll probably remember something else later, there were some other issues I noticed. On the whole, though, I thought it was an excellent novice set.

Face diagonal is outright wrong. The clue that referred to the diagonal of a cube was "For a cube of side length s, the structure by this name has a length of s root 3." That's definitely the main diagonal; the face diagonal has a length of s root 2.

[Flutist Wren]

Alright, cool. There were some other math protests but I don't remember what they were off the top of my head.

[Wackford Squeers]

I wrote the following tossups:
Madison, Gettysburg, Clay, T. Roosevelt, Hitler, Prussia, The Pope, Byzantine Empire, Mao, Afghanistan, Joseph Smith, Monotheism, Chanukah, King David, Osiris, Thor

and the following bonuses:
XYZ/Dreyfus/Chirac
Louis XVI/Charles I/Cromwell
Milosevic/Yugoslavia/Clinton
Shogun/Tokugawa/Daimyo
Passover/Moses/Dayenu
Talmud/Khasids/Payot

As far as Judaism bonuses, I'll stand by Dayenu as a good hard part, as it doesn't come up very often but definitely rewards real knowledge, as anyone who has been to a seder will remember it. Khasids and payot may be too hard, khasids are mine, payot Jonah's. My original third part for that bonus was going to be the Pale of Settlement (though that might also be too hard), to reward interdisciplinary knowledge of something historically important, as opposed to just deep religious knowledge. In a similar vein, my original version of the Chanukah tossup had more history clues than the version that was played. I suppose it's a question of quizbowl philosophy whether one favors clues that stick to one category or more interdisciplinary ones. I feel like including less clues of pure ritual and liturgy make religion questions more accessible, especially at a novice tournament.

[gauss1181]

Hey guys, sorry to admit this but I just joined this SCOP discussion group today and I was wondering if this forum discussion includes discussion about the GHOST SCOP Novice mirror from the tournament on 10/30/2010. If so, can someone please email me the question set from SCOP Novice so that I could collaborate on the discussion? My email is mchen@imsa.edu. Thanks.

[in on these shenanigans]

Yep, this forum (which will become public shortly) is for all SCOP mirrors, including GHOST at Lisle. The set will be posted on quizbowlpackets.com later today, after I'm able to send it along.