Search found 69 matches

by whatamidoinghere
Mon Nov 09, 2020 9:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 ACF Winter - Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 42
Views: 11500

Re: 2020 ACF Winter - Specific Question Discussion

I'd like to see the tossup on "Twins" in literature as well as the bonus that talked about Serge Gainsbourg (not sure which packet this was in). Both felt like very interesting topics and I was pretty happy to hear them in the set. I also felt like the enclosure tossup was pretty hard for ...
by whatamidoinghere
Sun Nov 08, 2020 10:03 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 ACF Winter - Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 42
Views: 11500

Re: 2020 ACF Winter - Specific Question Discussion

I greatly enjoyed the vast majority of the questions in this set, but I was a little confused as to why there wasn't a prompt on either aldose or ketose on the bonus part about reducing sugars , since from what I heard the bonus part discussed free carbonyl groups, which both aldoses and ketoses have.
by whatamidoinghere
Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:52 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2020 ACF Winter High School Mirror (11/7/2020)
Replies: 9
Views: 4122

Re: 2020 ACF Winter High School Mirror (11/7/2020)

Has a logistics email been sent out for this tournament?
by whatamidoinghere
Fri Oct 30, 2020 3:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 IKEA - Specific Questions Discussion
Replies: 31
Views: 5520

Re: Sepcific Questions Discussion

I was just curious why there was a prompt on Nagel for Thomas Nagel. I'd always figured that any reference to "Nagel" was to Thomas.
by whatamidoinghere
Thu Oct 29, 2020 9:07 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 IKEA - General Set Discussion
Replies: 25
Views: 5333

Re: General Set Discussion

I loved the history in this set, and I'm pretty sure my teammates from the open no bounceback mirror would agree that they enjoyed the history questions too. Some of the hard parts seemed to veer into stuff that's really hard to get even with pretty good knowledge of the bonus's topic (such as that ...
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Oct 26, 2020 11:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Longhorn Invitational Tournament Errata
Replies: 21
Views: 3135

Re: Longhorn Invitational Tournament Errata

This is awfully minor but technically the sign Joseph Frederick held up was "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" rather than "BONG HITZ 4 JESUS." It also seems like in general there was a lack of alternate answers that included local country names/foreign language names at least in the packets I'...
by whatamidoinghere
Sat Oct 24, 2020 10:45 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Longhorn Invitational Tournament Errata
Replies: 21
Views: 3135

Re: Longhorn Invitational Tournament Errata

I'm pretty sure A Thousand Splendid Suns is not the sequel to The Kite Runner (TU 8 Round 11).
by whatamidoinghere
Sat Oct 24, 2020 10:41 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: LIT - Thanks, Philosophy & Goals, and General Discussion
Replies: 6
Views: 1028

Re: Thanks, Philosophy & Goals, and General Discussion

I'm not sure if this is the right place to say it but a lot of the mods at the West Coast mirror said there weren't a lot of pronunciation guides, though I'm not sure how accurate this is since I haven't done a full read through of the set.
by whatamidoinghere
Sat Oct 24, 2020 10:02 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Longhorn Invitational Tournament Individual Questions
Replies: 54
Views: 10359

Re: Longhorn Invitational Tournament Individual Questions

Assorted things I felt soon after playing them: Can I see TU 2 of Round 7? The audio for the opponents didn't work for me when they answered and I didn't catch what they said. I'd also like to see the Mephistopheles tossup (TU 14 of Round 8) because I felt it was pretty transparent relatively early ...
by whatamidoinghere
Wed Oct 21, 2020 9:02 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2020 ACF Winter High School Mirror (11/7/2020)
Replies: 9
Views: 4122

Re: 2020 ACF Winter High School Mirror (11/7/2020)

Unrelated to the above conversation but the form does not seem to include the High School mirror.
by whatamidoinghere
Sat Oct 17, 2020 9:15 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: TJ Electronic Scoresheets
Replies: 18
Views: 11901

Re: TJ Electronic Scoresheets

This isn't necessarily a complaint about the scoresheets, but one thing I and other moderators experienced while scorekeeping was some issue marking dead tossups. I know that Shawrisheets allows you to mark dead tossups on the sheet with a separate column, while on these sheets you have to mark dead...
by whatamidoinghere
Wed Aug 26, 2020 10:37 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Answerlines for Character Names
Replies: 8
Views: 2746

Answerlines for Character Names

Forgive me if this topic has been done before. As I've read through past sets and worked on others I've come to notice that there are seemingly two ways of making an answer line about a character in, say, a book or play where both the first and last names are acceptable. For example: ANSWER: Nick Ca...
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Aug 24, 2020 9:44 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mild weirdness in NAQT's protest rules, and a potential fix
Replies: 1
Views: 3140

Re: Mild weirdness in NAQT's protest rules, and a potential fix

Personally I'm not a fan of the current NAQT first sentence rule based on the fact that if the question doesn't contain an entirely specific clue, the player still should be able to protest in the first sentence if they protest later and get their protest accepted off previous clues (including the c...
by whatamidoinghere
Fri Aug 14, 2020 3:00 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Why are there negs in QB?
Replies: 17
Views: 4986

Re: Why are there negs in QB?

Based on my sample size of one when I asked my newer teammates, assessing a penalty for negs did help them reduce their neg rate, but I feel like once a newer player learns about the dynamics of the game, it's less necessary to use negs. The reasoning I have is that if you interrupt a question incor...
by whatamidoinghere
Fri Aug 07, 2020 11:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT rules changes for 2020-2021
Replies: 6
Views: 2376

Re: NAQT rules changes for 2020-2021

Yes, we plan to change the printing format to reduce the amount of paper-shuffling. In circuits which don't use computational math, what would moderators do in the case that there's a non-comp math tossup and a comp math bonus or a comp math tossup and a non-comp math bonus paired while printed whi...
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Aug 03, 2020 5:18 pm
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: Electronic scoresheets
Replies: 7
Views: 5760

Re: Electronic scoresheets

Mike Bentley wrote: Sun Aug 02, 2020 5:58 pm Neg5 lets you collaboratively enter stats but doesn't emulate the full scoresheet, right?
Regarding this, I believe the scoresheets in Neg5 go directly to the stats software, rather than it being a collaborative stats-entering software.
by whatamidoinghere
Sun Aug 02, 2020 6:04 pm
Forum: Databases and Quizbowl Software
Topic: Electronic scoresheets
Replies: 7
Views: 5760

Re: Electronic scoresheets

Alistair mentioned that UCSD has a set of scoresheets here, as well as Shawrisheets. I believe Penn State also has a set of online scoresheets too, though I don't know of any links to them.
by whatamidoinghere
Sat Jul 11, 2020 7:19 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Mindset in Quiz Bowl
Replies: 3
Views: 3453

Re: Mindset in Quiz Bowl

[...] what is the best way to reset your mindset after a disruption during a game and continue playing well? What are some ways to get into an appropriate mindset even before or after a match or tournament? In terms of playing questions: - If you're early in the round (say tossup 1 to tossup 6) I u...
by whatamidoinghere
Sun Jul 05, 2020 6:32 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: How do I learn visual fine arts rapidly?
Replies: 4
Views: 4082

Re: How do I learn visual fine arts rapidly?

Aside from those resources, this list (thanks Jacob Reed!) has a couple art history textbooks. The most noteworthy one is Gardner's Art Through the Ages (which is available on libgen). I've used it, a lot of my friends have, and all of them have stated that it is very goood; it covers all the main t...
by whatamidoinghere
Tue Jun 30, 2020 6:04 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Running Zoom Tournaments
Replies: 67
Views: 33261

Re: Running Zoom Tournaments

I just can't wait for there to be a Discord Video tournament, as I believe there is to be soon. For 2 months or so I've heard idle speculation about Discord video and how it'll perform well for tournaments, and yet no one seems to have thought to run a proper tournament using it. Will be very inter...
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Jun 29, 2020 11:27 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: How do I study for quizbowl in a fun way?
Replies: 8
Views: 4474

Re: How do I study for quizbowl in a fun way?

Hi, I am an incoming high school freshman looking for quizbowl advice. I participated in Middle School Quizbowl from grades 6-8, and was one of the better players on my team, and a bit above average during tournaments. However, High School Quizbowl will obviously be much harder, so I am trying to p...
by whatamidoinghere
Sun Jun 28, 2020 1:57 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Running Zoom Tournaments
Replies: 67
Views: 33261

Re: Running Zoom Tournaments

Another issue is that whenever a tournament I attend over Zoom, it crashes at least twice over the course of the day. This never happens on discord and tournaments on Zoom I've attended suggest to me that this isn't an uncommon problem. I'd like to echo this sentiment; I've done discord video packe...
by whatamidoinghere
Tue Jun 16, 2020 11:20 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2019-20 Groger Ranks Player Poll: RESULTS POSTED
Replies: 35
Views: 11417

Re: 2019-20 Groger Ranks Player Poll

Having just perused the responses on the last few years’ player polls after reading this one, I am bewildered by the overall low level of discourse/“shilling” that pervades these threads every year. I would imagine that the purpose of the yearly player poll is to encourage critical discussion about...
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Jun 15, 2020 11:27 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2019-20 Groger Ranks Player Poll: RESULTS POSTED
Replies: 35
Views: 11417

Re: 2019-20 Groger Ranks Player Poll

Here are some people who I believe merit good-to-great placement in your overall player poll. The Uni Lab Trio (Dylan Bowman, Ethan Ashbrook, Jonathan Lau) : All are very excellent quizbowl players and the fact that they knocked it out of the park at the Illinois NAQT states (on SCT, where they man...
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Jun 15, 2020 11:24 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2019-20 Groger Ranks Player Poll: RESULTS POSTED
Replies: 35
Views: 11417

Re: 2019-20 Groger Ranks Player Poll

Here are some people who I believe merit good-to-great placement in your overall player poll. The Uni Lab Trio (Dylan Bowman, Ethan Ashbrook, Jonathan Lau) : All are very excellent quizbowl players and the fact that they knocked it out of the park at the Illinois NAQT states (on SCT, where they mana...
by whatamidoinghere
Wed Jun 10, 2020 9:10 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Laws and Treaties: A Vanity Packet
Replies: 9
Views: 2984

Re: Laws and Treaties: A Vanity Packet

Very much excited for this.
by whatamidoinghere
Sat May 30, 2020 8:08 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Paired Tossups and Bonuses
Replies: 52
Views: 28722

Re: Paired Tossups and Bonuses

Yeah, I don't support pairing tossups/bonuses by subject, but I'm not opposed to just specifically designating a bonus as bonus 1 or bonus 2 (so bonus 2 is always read after tossup 2)--there's some argument to be made that this can actually result in a more balanced distribution of questions in a p...
by whatamidoinghere
Sun May 17, 2020 1:27 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2019-20 Groger Ranks Postseason Poll
Replies: 14
Views: 5112

Re: 2019-20 Groger Ranks Postseason Poll

Here are a few teams I'd like to call out who may be better than their Groger Rank. Saratoga A: Saratoga's roster was made up of three seniors (Jason, Jeffrey, and Brandon) as well as junior Rohan, who were all set to make a splash at PACE this season. Jason is quite an excellent generalist, Jeffrey...
by whatamidoinghere
Wed May 06, 2020 9:19 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Directing bonus answers in Discord tournaments
Replies: 4
Views: 3104

Re: Directing bonus answers in Discord tournaments

I've modded for a couple online tournaments in the past and for the most part I said either bolding, carat, or all caps worked. I feel like mods in general are able to figure out which answers are directed and which aren't, but this is just my two cents on what would work for directing answers. I th...
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:57 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2019 RAFT General Discussion
Replies: 2
Views: 398

Re: 2019 RAFT General Discussion

There were a couple notable Feng Shui issues, not all of them which I remember, but one of them was that there was a tossup on Frédéric Chopin only a few tossups after a bonus centering on Kate Chopin.
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:25 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: SUN 2020: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 4
Views: 689

Re: SUN 2020: Specific Question Discussion

I feel like the tossup on Pynchon (4.19) should switch around the clues about V. and Crying of Lot 49, since the latter is more widely read and more ingrained in culture I feel. This is just a thought, though.
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Apr 20, 2020 10:17 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: SUN 2020: Thanks and General Discussion
Replies: 3
Views: 473

Re: SUN 2020: Thanks and General Discussion

This set felt very well done, albeit a problem of perhaps including the indicator near the end of the tossup, which may lead to buzzer races if this set is played on HS fields (although I understand that this set wasn't meant to be on a HS field). However, this set was definitely a very good set and...
by whatamidoinghere
Sun Mar 22, 2020 9:57 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2020 MWT Specific Questions and Errata
Replies: 60
Views: 6387

Re: 2020 MWT Specific Questions and Errata

Some things that are pretty small I guess. The tossup on Arabidopsis (3.13) should really have an answerline accepting Thaliana or A. Thaliana considering that's how past sets (i.e. ILLIAC 1.5) accepted it. (My teammate said A. Thaliana in the online mirror, was negged, and then protested and got hi...
by whatamidoinghere
Sun Mar 15, 2020 12:12 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: CALISTO Academic Tournament (Discord, March 22nd) [TX Only]
Replies: 6
Views: 2562

Re: CALISTO Academic Tournament (Discord, March 21st/TX-ONLY)

Unfortunately due to CALISTO's insistence on having "regional online mirrors", attempting to get irl events hosted during a pandemic, and possibly opening the set to be mirrored for the saturated 2020-21 season, this will be TX-Only (the permission granted for the IRL version that was can...
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Mar 09, 2020 3:00 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 31
Views: 2599

Re: Specific Question Discussion

Though no one may have played packet 13, there were two errors I noticed in that packet's protons question. The first line states the following: ​In the presence of these species, nucleophilic ring opening of epoxides occurs at the ​ more​ substituted carbon through an S​ 1 ​[“S-N-1”]​ like mechanis...
by whatamidoinghere
Fri Mar 06, 2020 10:04 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Vulching (Continued)
Replies: 6
Views: 5068

Re: Vulching (Continued)

I think vulching should be discouraged in lower levels (novice teams, for example, should not vulch), but in higher level competition such as PACE or competitive local and state tournaments, I think vulching as in buzzing at "For 10 points" or earlier should be encouraged since it seems at...
by whatamidoinghere
Sun Mar 01, 2020 11:00 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 31
Views: 2599

Re: Specific Question Discussion

Also is it possible to see the Eco question? I felt like it was quite hard for HS Regs/Regs+ but then again I haven't really studied Eco in depth yet.
by whatamidoinghere
Sun Mar 01, 2020 10:35 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 31
Views: 2599

Re: Specific Question Discussion

In the game where we played the Horses tossup, I buzzed when they mentioned the Parthian Shot (but didn't say "these animals"), and said "cavalry." I ended up correcting myself in the game, but I feel like this should at least lead to a prompt, considering that our mod was a bit ...
by whatamidoinghere
Sun Mar 01, 2020 10:47 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 31
Views: 2599

Re: Specific Question Discussion

I liked the Ideal Gas constant tossup in this set (can I see it?). More of the science in this set felt like you had to have experience in the field in order to get that question early in (à la the time question), which I really liked in comparison to previous sets I've played. In addition, the geog...
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Feb 10, 2020 10:44 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Cross-Post: NAQT Timing Discussion
Replies: 37
Views: 9476

Re: Cross-Post: NAQT Timing Discussion

I'd be fully in support of changing the timing to 3/3/5 even for high school tournaments, since I've felt in my cases that mods tend to be overzealous with the 2 seconds they give, perhaps even cutting players off if they don't say their answer immediately after being recognized. If there were a thr...
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Feb 03, 2020 10:52 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 8
Views: 752

Re: Specific Question Discussion

I don't know if this has been edited but as I was reading through the set I noticed that in packet 14 they implied that Mount Mandara (the mountain in the Churning of the Ocean of Milk) was the same as Mount Kailash (the home of Shiva). I don't know if this was fixed in later packets, though.
by whatamidoinghere
Thu Jan 23, 2020 2:28 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: LOGIC General Discussion
Replies: 15
Views: 1022

Re: LOGIC General Discussion

I felt like this set in general need a bit more polish and it could have been better written. I'll get to some of those questions which I had qualms with later. The prose issues were pretty apparent throughout the set as the moderators (who were by no means inexperienced) had a hard time dealing wit...
by whatamidoinghere
Sat Nov 09, 2019 12:36 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles [Side Event]
Replies: 11
Views: 5988

Re: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles [Side Event]

I will hopefully be able to indulge in the fun that will come from this event.
by whatamidoinghere
Sun Oct 27, 2019 10:27 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 8
Views: 752

Re: Specific Question Discussion

I don't think my qualm with the Ives tossup was really as much with the answerline as much as the clues which came up. For example, here's the MBAT one: Question: One orchestral set by this composer uses bugle melodies from “Reveille” to depict a wartime regiment. Another of this man’s works depicts...
by whatamidoinghere
Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:27 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Specific Question Discussion
Replies: 8
Views: 752

Re: Specific Question Discussion

I believe this is where I'm supposed to post this, but I'm going to just give some general thoughts on certain tossups I played. Packet 1 Nothing really seemed egregiously out of place, although I feel that the Grieg question had a generous-ish powermark and the Library of Babel tossup was a little ...
by whatamidoinghere
Mon Oct 07, 2019 11:13 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2019 EFT - Specific Question Discussion and Errata
Replies: 56
Views: 7460

Re: Specific Question Discussion and Errata

I liked the Dumping/Intellectual Property/Most Favoured Nations bonus (even though it was pretty hard) as well as the Coca tossup. Overall, I thought the other academic in this set was very well done and it was a pleasure to play too.
by whatamidoinghere
Wed Sep 04, 2019 11:34 pm
Forum: Quizbowl History Forum
Topic: Odd Ways of Learning Things
Replies: 177
Views: 198102

Re: Odd Ways of Learning Things

I firstlined the BHSAT 2019 tossup on "The Buddha" cause I remembered that in Cartoon History of the Universe, the Buddha eating pork was a repeated thing that happened.
by whatamidoinghere
Thu Jul 25, 2019 10:10 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Preseason Discussion
Replies: 13
Views: 8894

Re: Preseason Discussion

With the graduation of Sharath Narayan, the James Clemens quizbowl team has fallen off the radar, however I think this year's team could make an insane run. The entire Liberty MS squad that went 4th at the 2019 MSNCT all join James Clemens this year. Expect Ethan Xu (History), Yuti Das (Literature)...
by whatamidoinghere
Wed Jul 24, 2019 2:02 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Preseason Discussion
Replies: 13
Views: 8894

Re: Preseason Discussion

Also I'd like to mention a very good team which was somehow left out of this post, which is Westview from SoCal. Shahar is very good at literature, and his team was better than their HSNCT rank (see: they beat Stevenson and went 8-2 in the prelims).