Few questions on how to study for quizbowl

This forum is for discussing tournament formats, question styles, strategy, and such.
Post Reply
adhvaithr7
Lulu
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Dec 30, 2019 6:18 pm

Few questions on how to study for quizbowl

Post by adhvaithr7 »

I have a few questions about how to study quiz bowl. Right now, I'm not doing so great, and I wanted a few key tips:

1. What is the best way to study for HSNCT, NHBB Nats and other hard high school tournaments? I am having a hard time right now.

2. How do we get more members for the local quiz bowl club at our school during COVID-19?

3. We are running low on funds, so how do we make sure we are not paying from our own pocket?

If you could give me some advice right now, that would be great.

Thanks!
Adhvaith Ravi
Washington High, 2024
User avatar
AGoodMan
Rikku
Posts: 372
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 10:25 pm

Re: Few questions on how to study for quizbowl

Post by AGoodMan »

adhvaithr7 wrote: Mon Dec 07, 2020 2:03 pm 1. What is the best way to study for HSNCT, NHBB Nats and other hard high school tournaments? I am having a hard time right now.
I would do a good amount of packet reading + find some way of collecting and retaining information. Perhaps start at HS regular difficulty (WHAQ, CALI, etc.) and then read through (relatively carefully, both tossups and bonuses!) sets of higher difficulty until you basically feel "uncomfortable" -- as in you're not getting most questions until the end, and/or you're not converting like 3-5 questions per packet. It might feel painful, but look those unfamiliar things up and get familiar with the clues. Some people take notes, some people make flashcards, some people do both, some people write questions on things they've learned, some people can just retain stuff by reading. Whatever works for you, do that. It might not hurt to methodically do this through a few sets. Then move on to higher difficulty (BLAST, HFT, BHSAT, ACF Fall, Prison Bowl, etc.).

Ultimately, to have good success for nationals-level tournaments, you'd have to at least read sets matching that difficulty level (PACE, ILLIAC, 2018 IMSANITY, STASH, etc.) and higher (NASAT, EFT, EMT, MWT, SUN, FST, etc.). Some of these sets may be of uneven difficulty but the net gain from them will almost always be postiive, and will also teach you how question writers might ramp up difficulty on a standard answerline (i.e. tossup a specific character from a core work).

If you care about specific subjects, another good idea might be to select a difficulty level on QuizDB for a specific subject and generate ~50 random questions on it and learn clues from there.

Also, your textbooks could be great sources of clues and buzzes! If you're able to absorb information from textbooks, that could also be very valuable, for example, in the sciences and APUSH.

And lastly, don't be afraid to directly ask people for tips, via DMs and whatnot. The vast majority of the community are communicative and willing to help.
Jon Suh
Wheaton Warrenville South High School '16
Harvard '20
User avatar
Stained Diviner
Auron
Posts: 5085
Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2004 6:08 am
Location: Chicagoland
Contact:

Re: Few questions on how to study for quizbowl

Post by Stained Diviner »

I am happy to announce that, thanks to a suggestion from Athena Kern, Emily Gunter has recently written a version of her recruiting post for the PACE Quizbowl 101 site. Emily's original post is here. The updated article is at the Student Recruitment link at Quizbowl 101.
David Reinstein
Head Writer and Editor for Scobol Solo, Masonics, and IESA; TD for Scobol Solo and Reinstein Varsity; IHSSBCA Board Member; IHSSBCA Chair (2004-2014); PACE President (2016-2018)
User avatar
PadraigF
Lulu
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2022 11:12 am
Contact:

VFA Cards

Post by PadraigF »

This seems odd but I didn't want to make a whole new post for this but I guess here is my question :)

When making cards on VFA, is it logical or acceptable to use paintings as clues/the front of your card?

Any tips for how to card VFA?
Padraig Finan, 9th Grader
Washington Connections Academy (WACA)
2023 MSNCT #1 Individual Scorer
Founder of Finsheets
User avatar
Santa Claus
Rikku
Posts: 285
Joined: Fri Aug 23, 2013 10:58 pm

Re: VFA Cards

Post by Santa Claus »

PadraigF wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 11:04 am This seems odd but I didn't want to make a whole new post for this but I guess here is my question :)

When making cards on VFA, is it logical or acceptable to use paintings as clues/the front of your card?

Any tips for how to card VFA?
I wrote a short post on this in the wiki: here. Paintings work fine as the front of a card, but the back of those cards should be fairly short for practical purposes. Make sure to make a variety of other cards to ensure you're testing all the information you wish to retain.

I would also recommend these guides I wrote a little while ago: How to study and How to flashcard.
Kevin Wang
Arcadia High School 2015
Amherst College 2019

2018 PACE NSC Champion
2019 PACE NSC Champion
User avatar
Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!!
Rikku
Posts: 327
Joined: Wed Aug 02, 2017 9:17 pm

Re: VFA Cards

Post by Krik? Krik?! KRIIIIK!!! »

PadraigF wrote: Tue Apr 04, 2023 11:04 am This seems odd but I didn't want to make a whole new post for this but I guess here is my question :)

When making cards on VFA, is it logical or acceptable to use paintings as clues/the front of your card?

Any tips for how to card VFA?
I think VFA is similar to literature in the sense that you can very quickly pick up on the "painting ---> artist" attribution just like "book ---> author." Cards can be helpful in this sense, however my recommendation is to literally stop and look at the paintings that come up instead of spending a lot of time trying to just memorize names. You will have much deeper knowledge and I frankly think this is a much more enjoyable exercise.

Writers and editors start by looking at paintings too, so what jumps out to you probably jumps out to a writer as well. Let's sat your're looking at The Persistence of Memory for the first time. A few things that stick out to me immediately are the melting clocks, the clock drooped over the tree, the weird thing in the center that vaguely looks like a face with a huge eyelash there, the ants crawling all over one of the clocks, and the rocky background. Let's look at the below HS Regs TU on the question:
LIST VI wrote:A recreation of this painting shows a dead tree split into six parts and a large fish being pelted with bullet-like projections to the right. That work, which is dominated by several floating bricks, is the “Disintegration” of this painting. A central figure in this painting may have been a self-portrait, and its artist claimed that it was inspired by a piece of Camembert cheese (*) melting in the sun. Golden cliffs in the background of this painting are reflected in the water, and a grotesque, human-like figure lies in the center. This painting shows several ants swarming over a red object to the left, and three melting clocks are draped across its landscape. For ten points, name this surrealist work of Salvador Dali.
ANSWER: The Persistence of Memory
Just by looking at the painting for a minute, you can buzz for sure at the second to last sentence. Maybe on the third sentence even if you think "Hmmmmmm, what painting has stuff that looks like melting cheese?" - though knowing that clue straight up is more effective.

Similarly, the early clues in this question are details from a related painting! Looking at this painting for a minute or two could very quickly get you that buzz: a fish getting shot with bullet-like things is pretty easy to remember! I think that's what makes VFA so nifty: it really taps into your visual memory.

I despise what I call "red robe" clues. That is, "a man in red robes in this painting stands next to a guy in yellow robes and a woman in purple robes": stuff that is specific enough that "Yeah, it's in the painting" but hard to evoke a specific image. Which of these descriptions of the same image do you think would get more buzzes:
"a man in blue robes walks next to a man in purple robes in this painting" OR
"Leonardo da Vinci inspired a central figure in this painting carrying the Timaeus and raising his finger into the air"

I would say the later by far: it's much more specific in how its clued and evocative (I wrote a bonus on "pointing your finger in the air" for MRNA last year!). My point in bringing this up is that in general, quizbowl has been moving away from robes clues and more towards clues that reward recognizing the iconic parts of paintings AND the context around them.

Which leads me into my final bit of advice for you: study secondary sources early. Who was inspired by what paintings? Where has a painting famously appeared before? What have famous people said about famous paintings? Especially in higher difficulties, my first and second lines come from looking for clues that meet these criteria.

TL;DR: Reject carding, enjoy the art and engage with its surrounding material if you really want to learn and get points.
Ganon Evans
Misconduct Representative
ACF President, PACE VP of Editing, MOQBA
Francis Howell High School 2018, University of Iowa 2021
Post Reply