Search found 75 matches

by samer
Sat Mar 23, 2013 12:48 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Venting rage: Cheaters edition
Replies: 74
Views: 54236

Re: Venting rage: Cheaters edition

So far Watkins has suffered no consequences whatsoever for this and does not acknowledge either his guilt or the scope of what he has done. We are still firmly in the Old Testament phase of this affair. Justice and punishment only. For what little it's worth, he did have to resign his membership in...
by samer
Mon Feb 06, 2012 3:57 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 SCT Repeat/feng shui issues here
Replies: 23
Views: 4209

Re: Repeat/feng shui issues here

In DII I recall a tossup on "tales" that included "these 'from the Vienna Woods' by Strauss the Younger, and then a later question on Strauss the Younger that included "Tales from the Vienna Woods" as a clue. They were in separate packets, I believe. While human eyes should...
by samer
Mon Feb 06, 2012 3:39 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: 2012 SCT: Difficulty
Replies: 146
Views: 28794

Re: Difficulty

Maybe I'm wrong because I played on a team with some good people, but I thought that DII Set was not challenging at all. I'm not trying to say that it should be hard to the point where it alienates new schools or anything like that, it's right that it's easy, but there were some tossups (for exampl...
by samer
Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:02 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2011 HSNCT discussion
Replies: 214
Views: 50296

Re: 2011 HSNCT discussion

This act involves ritual sequences of raka'as, requires a barrier called the sutrah in front of one performing it, and can lead to a zabiba. According to the Qur'anic surah Hud, it should be performed "at the two ends of the (*) day and the beginning of the night," and it includes the Fat...
by samer
Mon May 30, 2011 6:35 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Imaginary Landscape no. 1 at HSNCT
Replies: 69
Views: 20610

Re: Imaginary Landscape no. 1 at HSNCT

I could stay late on Saturday night and do this. You'll have to put up with my crappy netbook speakers since that's all I'm bringing home for the weekend. From a technical standpoint, I think the only real complaint is that for whatever reason, some of the words used in some of the questions were v...
by samer
Mon May 30, 2011 5:45 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2011 HSNCT discussion
Replies: 214
Views: 50296

Re: 2011 HSNCT discussion

Agreed. I didn't have a problem with any of the geography questions, and the difficulty was probably at a good level for a national tournament. The only thing I found interesting is that Eritrea and Ethiopia were both tossed up and they are bordering countries (in fact, Eritrea was once part of Eth...
by samer
Tue Feb 08, 2011 1:36 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: talk about individual questions here
Replies: 124
Views: 23983

Re: talk about individual questions here

Alright, inexperienced moderator question. DII, packet 4 bonus part: Édouard Lalo composed this violin concerto for Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate. answer: _Symphonie espagnole_ Captain: "Spanish Symphony." Me: *hesitates* Captain: [sub-1s pause] "Uh, Symphonie espagnole." I...
by samer
Fri Jun 04, 2010 1:29 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread
Replies: 194
Views: 51159

Re: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread

To clarify what I meant by that: for the vast majority of students, economics and psychology are generally senior-year electives (especially economics) Is this true? To my knowledge, Samer is correct. Illinois requires Consumer Ed, which students can test out of, but that's not Econ. Connecticut re...
by samer
Thu Jun 03, 2010 9:19 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread
Replies: 194
Views: 51159

Re: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread

Unless there's a secret AP Popular Culture test, I'm not sure why it's not obvious that econ/psych should have a greater share of the distribution relative to trash. Not saying quizbowl should build its distribution around "X number of people take this AP exam so therefore these questions shou...
by samer
Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:37 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread
Replies: 194
Views: 51159

Re: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread

Either way, both economics and psychology deserve a far greater share of the distribution than trash considering the fact that they're both AP classes that are widely taken by many high school students. That's a great argument for saying there should be more questions on each, but I don't see how t...
by samer
Wed Jun 02, 2010 7:05 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread
Replies: 194
Views: 51159

Re: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread

My team does well on trash, especially pop music, but I wouldn't be averse to removing it. Especially when I perceived this weekend that there were very few questions about what I consider to be a vital topic for the future, economics. I agree with the part in bold (and would expand it to include t...
by samer
Wed Jun 02, 2010 3:03 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread
Replies: 194
Views: 51159

Re: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread

People moderate more than one match, and my guess is that the 20/10 moderator would have a few matches where s/he did not reach 20. 20/10, as Charlie pointed out, is a bit of a straw man (although it's not out of the realm of possibility), but my point still remains that I would use "failure t...
by samer
Wed Jun 02, 2010 1:24 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread
Replies: 194
Views: 51159

Re: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread

Yo BJ, I was responding to Samer's very silly hypothetical example, which I don't see as at all worth discussing, not the general idea that we should talk about fixing moderator quality. My point was that according to David's suggestion, moderator A would be "OK," while moderator B would ...
by samer
Wed Jun 02, 2010 12:21 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread
Replies: 194
Views: 51159

Re: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread

The only useful purpose of this statistic is to figure out which moderators should not have been moderating at a national tournament. To figure that out, you figure out who moderated for more than one match that did not get through at least 18 tossups and don't invite them back. The ones that misse...
by samer
Wed Jun 02, 2010 11:50 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread
Replies: 194
Views: 51159

Re: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread

Renewing my objection in another post that Tossups Heard is not as good an indication of reader speed/quality as Bonuses Heard. I'm not nearly as impressed with a reader who gets through 24+ tossups when I know several tossups went dead, especially if I thought that reader read so fast that it caus...
by samer
Tue Jun 01, 2010 12:18 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread
Replies: 194
Views: 51159

Re: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread

To elaborate on the bonuses, the most egregious example that comes to mind was somewhere around round 13. Charter A got a Gestalt psychology bonus whose first answer wasn't even Gestalt. In retrospect, the answers of perception and holistic made sense but in the time allotted both my team and me in...
by samer
Mon May 31, 2010 11:53 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread
Replies: 194
Views: 51159

Re: 2010 HSNCT discussion thread

I was responsible for looking over some of these questions for editing. If I had been told that the questions were going to allot five seconds per part (my understanding, which apparently was incorrect, was that the standard 10 seconds for calculations would apply), I would have done my best to redu...
by samer
Fri Feb 12, 2010 12:50 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: The Inevitable Distribution Discussion
Replies: 2
Views: 903

Re: The Inevitable Distribution Discussion

Tweak one: Remove 3/3 or 4/2 PC and a corresponding 2/1 or 1/2 Sports, to give a hard 2/2 per packet cap on pop culture/sports. Remove 0/1 Mixed-Impure-Academic to give a hard 1 question per packet cap. Add the resultant 5/5 to FA-Music-Composers_Works. I have yet to hear a good reason why NAQT can...
by samer
Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:52 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Miscellaneous and Cross-disciplinary questions
Replies: 55
Views: 8238

Re: Miscellaneous and Cross-disciplinary questions

I hope I'm not telling NAQT's tales out of school, but there is usually a part of the distribution called "mixed, with popular culture," meaning a mixture of academic and PC (or sports) clues. I think it is at least as plentiful as straight "miscellaneous, academic," but that ma...
by samer
Sun Feb 07, 2010 3:04 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Welcome to the 2010 SCT discussion.
Replies: 228
Views: 36898

Re: Welcome to the 2010 SCT discussion.

Sorry Andrew, I wasn't clear: I meant that I see no reason why BSG could not have been an easy part in that bonus, instead of Caprica. Jerry: In other words, something like this? For 10 points each--answer these questions about the 2010 TV series Caprica : A. Caprica is a prequel to . . . answer: _...
by samer
Sun Feb 07, 2010 11:42 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Welcome to the 2010 SCT discussion.
Replies: 228
Views: 36898

Re: Welcome to the 2010 SCT discussion.

Hannah, any further thoughts on mitochondria and malaria? Though this isn't that great of an excuse, those were two of the very few bio questions originating from others, and I had way less time to write/edit than I would have liked this year (going back to like July...). Sure, although be forewarn...
by samer
Sun Feb 07, 2010 10:53 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Welcome to the 2010 SCT discussion.
Replies: 228
Views: 36898

Re: Welcome to the 2010 SCT discussion.

I'm probably going to be responded to here with some numbers that prove me wrong/I'm going on gut feel, and maybe this is my Canadian-ness shining through but: What, exactly, is the point of having 2/2 U.S. Politics in every pack? (Other than that, I enjoyed the tournament) I won't be the one provi...
by samer
Wed Nov 26, 2008 5:20 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Masterplots?
Replies: 7
Views: 2747

Re: Masterplots?

You can also try used bookstores/library sales. I found a copy of the Fourth Series, two volumes, for <$10.
by samer
Wed Jun 18, 2008 11:04 am
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Chip's Love of Pyramids! (renamed from NAC legitimacy)
Replies: 80
Views: 11004

Re: Chip's Love of Pyramids! (renamed from NAC legitimacy)

Howard wrote:Coming to a tournament near you:

"Why is the sky blue?"
Obviously, the answer is "ozone." :lol: :roll:
by samer
Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:15 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: PACE NSC 2008 Question Discussion
Replies: 93
Views: 15552

Re: PACE NSC 2008 Question Discussion

With the Tallis, I buzzed in and said "Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis" and was negged because I said "by" instead of "of." Am I the only person who thinks that in a situation like this I should have been awarded the tossup? I mean, that's a really silly thing to ...
by samer
Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:17 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: PACE NSC 2008 Question Discussion
Replies: 93
Views: 15552

Re: PACE NSC 2008 Question Discussion

In general though, I think PACE would have been able to produce just as valid results if they were to use the stretch round format for just 20 tossups and have that be that for the game without all these wacky bonus formats. Luckily though, the questions were good enough that the format didn't real...
by samer
Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:28 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT Discussion
Replies: 102
Views: 22182

Re: ICT Discussion

ImmaculateDeception wrote:Also xenon (lower bound now 22%).

MaS
The elements "quota" in Chemistry is not the problem here; the problem is the "miscellaneous science" category, which can theoretically be all elements (or all astronomy or all biochemistry or all quantum mechanics, etc.).
by samer
Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:54 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT's Post-ICT Survey
Replies: 84
Views: 20188

Re: NAQT's Post-ICT Survey

Perhaps a survey question could ask whether people would prefer a chemistry distribution divided into organic/biological and non-organic (in which element questions could still definitely be written, but would be more relevant to what is taught in college chemistry courses). Your proposal more-or-l...
by samer
Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:46 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT Discussion
Replies: 102
Views: 22182

Re: ICT Discussion

the chemistry distribution in particular was divided into "elements" and "non-elements". No, it's actually more complex than that, and elements are strictly limited to a small percentage of that distribution. As others have pointed out, the production did lag behind schedule thi...
by samer
Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:14 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT bid prediction
Replies: 41
Views: 8230

Not that most folks here care, but I posted some predictions for CCs on our juco site, and I've pasted those speculations here. I might be interested in anyone's thoughts on the weight given head-to-head results versus stats, though (and, of course, any gross errors you think I might be making): On...
by samer
Tue Apr 17, 2007 11:22 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT ICT 2007 discussion
Replies: 127
Views: 58998

Oh, and in answer to Samer's question: there was a tossup on some dude who is on Ugly Betty. He's so non-notable, at least to me, that I can't even remember who it was even staring at the IMDB credits for that show. If indeed you wrote that question, then I ask: Do you expect people who do not watc...
by samer
Tue Apr 17, 2007 4:42 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: NAQT ICT 2007 discussion
Replies: 127
Views: 58998

Re: Current Events

It would take me at least six or seven weeks of working on questions for the whole evening, every single day. I sure would be pissed if I did that and then they slapped my questions together with that Best Buy tossup or Samer's "I hope you watch 14 hours of television a day if you even want to...
by samer
Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:04 am
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Player Movement/Retirement Thread
Replies: 33
Views: 17348

The idea of grad students playing quiz bowl at Harvard is, frankly, staggering. At the ripe old age of 20, I am currently the oldest person on our team. Bruce and Paul: if you can tolerate us little kids, you should both come play. I'll make sure you get info about the first practices next fall. An...
by samer
Fri Mar 30, 2007 10:08 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Nitpick zone: Pronunciation guides
Replies: 9
Views: 5298

As someone who has actually lost an ACF match because of the lack of pronunciation guides, I strongly disagree with the idea of "no PGs" being best, especially in packets that are going to be read by large numbers of people. Not everyone knows how to pronounce names in 10 different languag...
by samer
Thu Mar 29, 2007 6:15 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Flights to Nationals & Quizbowl Travel Tips Thread
Replies: 10
Views: 5846

One other suggestion: if you're on reasonably friendly terms with other area teams, you might want to investigate getting a "meeting" code that would let all of you fly--not necessarily on the same flight--and share the discount.
by samer
Thu Mar 29, 2007 6:14 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: The Court of Question Judgment
Replies: 22
Views: 8010

Matt, I see your point. My thinking was along the lines of..."the first sentence tells what's being sought and gives some trivial bit of info, while the 2nd clue begins to help uniquely identify him, while at the same time being a bit misleading by mentioning a place associated with Lincoln, t...
by samer
Fri Feb 16, 2007 1:19 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: Road to Minneapolis: NAQT ICT bid prediction thread
Replies: 83
Views: 48783

It's been pretty well documented that the Big Three stats are bonus conversion, power percentage, and PPTU to varying extents, right? Not quite. NAQT does not release the formula for the S-value, but it combines statistical measures of tossup performance and bonus performance and includes correctio...
by samer
Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:09 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Pronunciation
Replies: 67
Views: 33524

The United States is not the only English speaking country. Certainly we should allow alternate pronunciations from other English speakers. Ever hear a British person pronounce Aluminum or laboratory? I'm not sure if the former even passes the consonant/syllable test. Just a minor point here: for N...
by samer
Fri Jul 28, 2006 12:35 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Bad Negs
Replies: 826
Views: 353554

BuzzerZen wrote:In practice

Correct answer: Lycanthropy
Provided answer: Bestiality
From NAQT Sectionals this year . . .

Correct answer: Lupus (the disease)
Wrong answer: Lycanthropy
by samer
Sun Jul 02, 2006 11:26 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2006 NAQT HSNCT
Replies: 309
Views: 144840

Don't think that applies in this case -- the original title opens with (transliterating) "odin," which means "one." There might be a case if the word "life" was omitted (unless "dyen'" implies "day in the life" -- I don't know much Russian). In an i...
by samer
Sun Jul 02, 2006 11:18 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Retiring Some Questions?
Replies: 51
Views: 25201

This sort of situation does happen, sometimes out of "big news" (e.g., 9 questions on "Mad Cow disease" a few weeks after it came out), and sometimes just bizarre coincidence (I believe Princeton once got four or five tossups on the Tallis Fantasia at a single 15-team tournament)...
by samer
Sat Jun 10, 2006 3:40 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Jeopardy tryouts
Replies: 21
Views: 11065

This year, I assume, is a bit different, since a large number of people may have qualified via the recent online pretest they had at jeopardy.com. Actually, they changed the procedure; instead of random draws for auditions of 100+, they had random draws among people who passed the test for audition...
by samer
Fri Jun 09, 2006 7:45 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Restricting NAQT HSNCT in 2007 and beyond
Replies: 70
Views: 30731

Matt: We do try to win each match we play all year including at NAQTHSNCT. That doesn't change my idea about a Nationals trip as a reward for a year of work. My suggestion that NAQT might limit schools to TWO teams in 2007 is just that, a suggestion to ponder. Note: only speaking on behalf of mysel...
by samer
Fri Jun 09, 2006 7:39 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Jeopardy tryouts
Replies: 21
Views: 11065

First: If you held a buzzer in your hand on Saturday night for the J! folks, then you had a "complete" audition. Second: The tournaments are different from the regular show, in that all the invites for the tournaments go out at once. I don't know if they still do the FedEx letter like they...
by samer
Thu Jun 08, 2006 5:35 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: 2006 NAQT HSNCT
Replies: 309
Views: 144840

So, anyone care to explain why a team should earn bonus points when they never did anything to warrant a bonus in the first place? You want the bonus? You get the tossup. It's that simple. Suppose every bonus had exactly three answers, each worth 10 points; if the first team misses, then they rebou...
by samer
Sun Apr 16, 2006 2:55 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: NAQT and PACE-Who's going to which?
Replies: 50
Views: 26402

Of course, our stupid legislators could stop passing stupid laws mandating a late start date for the year so that we have to be in school after Memorial Day, but that's another thread. Someday NC will stop doing everything that Va. does. FWIW, I graduated from Danbury HS in Danbury, CT on June 24 ,...
by samer
Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:03 pm
Forum: High school area archives
Topic: Double Elimination (a la NAQT and VHSL, for example)
Replies: 22
Views: 11889

Let me make sure I've got this straight: take the eight teams and split them into two pools of four, so that two region winners and two region runners-up are in each pool? We can either do this randomly or have a pre-set rotation (I'd prefer the latter.) Then have the pool winners face off in the s...
by samer
Tue Feb 21, 2006 4:51 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: ICT invitations
Replies: 28
Views: 15824

Irrespective of the two Rochesters issue, it used to be considered common wisdom that B teams received some sort of derogatory multiplier onto their S values that made it more difficult for them to qualify. Of course, this may have been baseless all along, or may have once been true and since chang...
by samer
Tue Feb 14, 2006 9:53 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: THE thread for NAQT SCT discussion
Replies: 99
Views: 57409

Since Dan brought up CBI, I thought I'd go off on a tangent: When did NAQT packets get so short? This was the first SCT I have played since 2001 (and here I date myself), when I recall packets having 28 tossups. If my notes and memory are to be trusted, the D1 packets I played this weekend had 26 t...
by samer
Fri Nov 18, 2005 4:22 pm
Forum: College area archives
Topic: personal stats data analysis
Replies: 55
Views: 29778

First, the question. Can somebody explain to a layman what these numbers mean? Does a "slope" of -60 mean you had an absolutely terrible tournament? Should one expect a number of players to have a positive slope? Long arrays of equations mean almost nothing to us humanities people, or at ...