The Quizbowl Resource Center

miamiqb

Stylistic differences is picky. I know many like long sentences filled with lots of clues connected by commas, semicolons, and other punctuation marks that make the question feel like one long run-on sentence (or at least, that stuff in moderation). Having sent packets of longer sentences to Illino...

miamiqb

Hey everyone, Anyone who is interested in hearing about why their submitted questions were not used/change significantly just send me an email at jsridhar119 at gmail.com and I will post it here for everyone's general benefit and discussion. I am sorry about the aldehyde ozonlysis clue, I should hav...

miamiqb

oh ok thanks for clarifying. I was just confused since Mike Sorice referenced some thread about "chokign the champioship" away and that thread was not accessible. Does it even exist anymore? All I remember about that round is the fact our team came back and won, I didn't remember any choki...

miamiqb

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=820

What was going on? Someone forwarded me that link since I was on the winning team in that match and out of curiosity I tried to access the original thread but no dice. Anyone around back then on the boards?

miamiqb

There aren't too many people on these boards from Florida, but here goes nothing. Ransom Everglades is probably the best team in the state. Unfortunately, they are located way in the south, while most hs quizbowl occurs in the Panhandle region. Nevertheless, their team at HSNCT finished 6-4, and wa...

miamiqb

Also for science questions try to avoid answers that are people; let's not play "Name that scientist".

Jay Sridhar
ACF Fall 2007 Bio/Chem Editor

miamiqb

And that isn't a good analogy because there are a ton of Cuban immigrants in Miami who are very good at chess who take night classes there while working and thus make them a national powerhouse. Seems to me like that strengthens the analogy because it shows that there is no absolute correlation bet...

miamiqb

I'll close with a little personal anecdote. A little while ago (maybe two weeks or so), I read an article in the New York Times about how UMD-Baltimore County (or perhaps it was U-Miami, I'm not so sure anymore) was one of the highest ranked chess programs in the nation. Better than any of the Ivie...

miamiqb

I tried to gauge interest for an ACC quiz bowl tournament last winter, but too many random issues came up; it eventually essentially turned into AWET. I have a feeling that an ACC tournament hosted in the Carolinas would have a decent shot, mostly because we've managed to remain fairly geographical...

miamiqb

Though I guess I am a virtual unknown living basically in Cuba, I will be attending medical school next year at UM and ending my brief college career. However, I will continue to keep up with the game (writing questions, looking at packets) and eventually I hope to play somewhere while completing a ...

miamiqb

I am not as qualified as some of the people in this thread to comment (having played only 3 collegiate events, 2 on IS questions (:-P) and 1 at NAQT SCT D2). But I think as a player who played for a laidback HS coach on a laidback team in a laidback circuit but still gets hooked on ACF Regionals pac...

miamiqb

It's one thing if you don't know any better, but intentionally writing bad questions? Seriously?! I agree with this sentiment...if you are going to do something do the best job you can regardless of other people. By writing bad questions purposefully you are actually hurting the quality of future q...

miamiqb

I'll be there as a moderator, bringing nuggets of wisdom from the Banana Republic

miamiqb

Look, Miami is a bad choice. It's expensive, and it's not centrally located for the SE. But your heart's in the right place. I think the idea of locating ACF nationals somewhere where teams that don't traditionally come is something the editors should really consider. In my opinion, the region with...

miamiqb

Just to give a genuine response to this, I don't think the logistics would be favorable. Adequately qualified staff would be hard to find locally (say, within a five-hour drive), and the travel costs would be substantial (even with discount plane tickets) for nearly every team in the field. As such...

miamiqb

I know this is way early but I just wanted to see what people thought of the following idea: ACF Nationals in Miami. I don't know exactly what the hosting requirements for ACF Nationals are but with a little help it could be run here, at UM. The administration is always interested in having national...

miamiqb

If anyone is interested in playing with me I will be at USF right now as a solo team. I have already written and submitted a packet so all that would be necessary is somehow splitting the entry fee (doesn't have to be 50-50). Email me at jsridhar119 at gmail.com if you are interested Thanks, Jay Sri...

miamiqb

according to airfarewatchdog.com , one of the better sites out there for airfare deals, flights from florida airports to detroit are like 80-90 each way right now, so that may be something to keep in mind if you are down there and have interest. If you need air advice to help you fit nats into your...

miamiqb

And to Jay, this UF team was very different than the UF teams you played at Novice at USF, although it's still not to the level of the FSU team at full strength in my opinion. In case anyone cares, the FSU team was missing one of their "big three" for SCT, who may or may not be going with...

miamiqb

I was rather disappointed that Florida not only didn't get a D2 bid, but ended up 4th on the waitlist. With a ppb of 18.27 and a good overall performance, I thought they'd at least be ahead of teams like NYU and Southern Virginia, who were (by record, at least) 7th and 8th in their sectional. (No o...

miamiqb

man, if I had beaten SVU I would be on that waitlist and probably would be going to ICT. Oh well...How bout Div 2?
Of the teams I have seen Princeton and FSU are good. Harvard is supposedly tops.

EDIT: adding Stanford and Caltech (aka Noah) to my mental list. Thanks Raj.

miamiqb

Getting aside from the D2 hoopla (although I would like to hear NAQT's justification/clarification for such a policy), I'd like to thank Maryland for a well-run tournament. Most of the readers were very good and there was only one reader who was a little slow in D1 (but still quite competent). They...

miamiqb

I think we can all agree (Div1 and Div2) that the tournament in general was on the easy side. That does not bother me that much because NAQT seems to incorporate more of a speed element than ACF. To make an analogy to basketball, NAQT is like basketball in the 1980s. Fun to watch, high-scoring, but ...

miamiqb

As a first-year qber and a guy who doesn't really practice I have to say that the set was pretty easy for Div2. Some of the tossups gave give-away clues fairly early in the question and the power marks seemed as if they were overly generous (some glaring examples come to mind). IMHO, I also felt tha...

miamiqb

My experience in recruiting folks who've never heard of the game is that letting them think that full practice attendance is flexible/optional isn't a bad idea, especially when your team practices six hours a week. The key is to get them to come once or twice without worrying about committing; if t...

miamiqb

2) Make it seem informal and flexible (people don't like committments) Won't that attract more flaky people? I agree -- it is better to have 4-5 people you can count on as opposed to 15-20 people who are liable to bail on you without even telling you. Perhaps I phrased it wrongly....when people ask...

miamiqb

well the club fair was okay I guess. Unfortunately my booth partner never showed (grrr!) so I had to take down our booth and go to class after only half the fair (and right during hte busiest time, lunch :mad: ). I got a few people's signatures but mostly I got people saying stuff like "quiz bo...

miamiqb

Good luck, miamiqb. In response to the replies to my earlier post, I was simply throwing out what our experience has been. We've used ACF-level questions at interest sessions and similar events and received a lot of blank looks from potential members. The main reason we don't go to ACF events is be...

miamiqb

Thanks for all the input guys! I am armed and prepared for tomorrow. Poster board, tape, buzzers, trophy, and of course candy. I think I might bring along a packet of high school tossups which I may or may not read depending on the noise level. Otherwise, I will just give candy to people who talk to...

miamiqb

Hey all, this week my school's club fair takes place. Our fledgling organization is in dire need of advertisement (which we have been denied up to this point and we become chartered). Any ideas for a small table setup and/or things to say to people who show interest? I have in mind a table with buzz...

miamiqb

can we say Garcia Marquez? He shows up in every tournament. So does Chekhov. I used to think the same things in high school. I mean, cmon, no one has EVER read "A Doll House"? It must be terrible as all 'great; lit. We all used to groan those questions and it became a list memorization bu...

miamiqb

excellent ideas from all...so I see that most schools recommend 2 practices a week? How do you manage that without scaring off potential members?

miamiqb

a little ot, but I submitted a packet to SSI in exchange for a set afterwards. Should I be contacting the TD for that packet or is someone else at UF in charge of that?

Thanks,
Jay

miamiqb

wd4gdz wrote:Thank you UF for supplying some superb 2-line tossups and having Div2 play 7 rounds total. Well worth the $100 entry fee, I say.

Billy
FSU

ouch...

miamiqb

also, is ace camp looking for teachers/coaches? I would love to work for ace for a few weeks.

miamiqb

With practices about to start for the semester, I'm kind of curious what other teams do at their meetings. We basically just read some old packets that are geared toward upcoming tournaments, with the occasional offshoot on question writing (if one was particularly bad or something) or learning key...

miamiqb

Through the years, Brookwood, Walton and Dorman have all had outstanding female players. My best player is female. My captain a few years back was female, as was last year. Generally, I reserve seat one for my most skilled player. Two years ago, that player was female. She was not a girly girl, but...

miamiqb

The same was true in high school for our team. We had no girls most years and only convinced two (very smart) girls to join for my senior year based on friendship. Now in college we only have one girl and I think she comes mostly because her boyfriend is on the team. The ironic thing is that girls (...

miamiqb

As far as I'm concerned conspiracy theorists can think what they like. It's just a little insulting for people who don't know me, and weren't at the tournament to question my performance, challenge my integrity, generally insult me, post non-publicly available information about me, etc. Alright, ye...

miamiqb

if this kid is from ohio, what is to say if he had not heard all of the tossups before at a different NAQT tourney using the same set? And his bonus conversion could be explained by the fact that not all the bonuses are read at NAQT tournaments. Thus he got the ones he knew and blanked on the rest.

miamiqb

raj is tops....great "gameshow" type voice. He also pauses at exactly the right moments, too many readers (including myself) have not mastered that.
There was also this guy at UF, Joe Grimes, who was pretty good.

miamiqb

ValenciaQBowl wrote:
The QB canon in lit is partly self-referential, and that's fine. It's a game, not a mirror of the intellectual or literary world.

Well said. Everyone seems to forget that this is a game rather than an academic discipline...

miamiqb

Just came up with a crazy idea the other day... has anyone ever thought of a Davis Cup-like format? For those who are not tennis fans this is how a quiz bowl version would work. It would be against two teams of 2-4 players. Best out of five matches wins: Between Team A and Team B Match 1: Player A1 ...

miamiqb

There are some weird coverage/lack of coverage areas in the qb canon--though I see these tendencies becoming less with time. Originally, when far too many questions were written out of Benet's or Incomplete Education...what was included in those volumes was the canon, what wasn't, wasn't. as a side...

miamiqb

I think encouraging knowledge of non-Western culture is a good thing, it just has to be done the right way. So there should be some reasonable minimum requirement for non-American/European stuff. I am no expert :wink: but I do agree with matt here. I have noticed since I started writing questions t...

miamiqb

yeah, a guy on my team got that at the same spot. are we supposed to be talking about those questions? No, you shouldn't be at all. I want to post a word of caution for all the high school players posting in this forum. Powers are cool to talk about, but please make sure BEFORE you post that the qu...

miamiqb

From what I have observed there are three types of buzzers. Handheld buzzers where you use your thumb Buzzers where you use your index finger Buzzers where you use several fingers For each of these buzzers what is the best way to hold the buzzer? Some ways that I have thought of are pressing the bu...

miamiqb

Also, it's very much more important, at the college level, to have people who are willing to work (e.g. to practice hard, study, and especially write questions) than it is to have "smart" people, whatever we want to understand that term to mean. This is because very few people enter colle...

miamiqb

Just joined this forum...you guys are really intimidating me with all these improvement methods ;-). When I was in high school we practiced 90 minutes a week, occasionally reading questions in small groups for fun during the week at school. We only broke out the lists on the drive up to tournaments...

miamiqb

Just joined this forum...you guys are really intimidating me with all these improvement methods ;-). When I was in high school we practiced 90 minutes a week, occasionally reading questions in small groups for fun during the week at school. We only broke out the lists on the drive up to tournaments....

The Quizbowl Resource Center

Search found 52 matches

Bio/Chem critique welcome

What in the world was this about?

Re: Florida 2007-08

ACF Nationals 07 in Miami

Club Fair/Recruiting

Re: what do you do at practice?

Davis Cup?

Re: What is the best way to hold the buzzer???

Re: Wowt

Wowt