by nhscody » Sun Mar 11, 2012 3:30 pm
I understand what you guys are saying about learning more, which is a strategy that is sure to work, but these questions we were playing were just plain easy in the prelims. I don't want to say a lot, because I assume these questions are still going to be played (they are National History Bowl questions), but in one question, the first line was a buzzer race. As for using a buzzer when we practice, there are some problems with that.
My school isn't a traditional high school that students take all of their classes at, rather it is a magnet school that gifted students are allowed to attend to take accelerated/AP classes, so some students take a full schedule there and others take only one or two. Because of this, we cannot meet up to have Quizbowl practices and at the last competition, we just pulled students from the AP history classes (because it was history bowl) to compete in spots we didn't have filled by regular QB players, so we just end up telling others what we are going to cover and work out what we don't have covered. Because of this, a few of the people who also go to my school get together with me to read packets occasionally, but we don't have buzzers and it isn't the whole team. In addition to this, there are only about three tournaments a year in my state, judging from the past, so I guess the whole learning more strategy probably would be the best thing to do.
Is the constant buzzer race thing an anomaly of this competition? The questions seemed to get harder as we moved on to the point where it wasn't, but the last competition I went to was NAQT and there were almost none. If it isn't always like that, I can see where the learning more thing would be a lot more helpful.
Cody McKeehan
Central Academy and North High
Des Moines, Iowa