NAQT Survey Results

[Nick]

Does NAQT find any of the survey results significant? Whats more: does NAQT find them significant enough to warrant any change in distribution and/or difficulty in any categories for the upcoming season? Would such a change relate to just HSNCT or all IS sets?

I suppose some of this could relate to the college section too.

[Important Bird Area]

Yes, we're taking these results into account as we discuss possible distribution change for next year.

[Ben Dillon]

At first glance, every category has a plurality in "same", arguing for no change in distribution.

If you merge "lots fewer" into "fewer" and "lots more" into "more", the plurality is maintained in half the cases, except for the following:

Fine Arts: "same" (36%) < "more" (41%)
General: "same" (39%) < "more" (43%)
Mythology: "same" (36%) < "more" (48%)
Pop Culture: "same" (25%) < "less" (33%) < "more" (40%)
Science/Math: "same" (33%) < "less" (36%)
Sports: "same" (28%) < "more" (29%) < "less" (42%)

Two thoughts...

1. I'm not sure how much the Science/Math result is skewed by Computational Math being included in Bonuses.

2. The public apparently wants Pop and Sports to head in two different directions. Might there be a connection between these two Distribution results and their corresponding Difficulty results, which rate them as the two with the highest percentage of "too easy"?

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

I have to say, that it is downright shocking and saddening that 21% of respondents think that there should be "lots more" pop culture in a national championship tournament.... and 17% think that there should be "lots more" general knowledge questions.

EDIT: Upon further reflection, it appears only 5 coaches responded that they think pop culture deserves "lots more" in the distribution and 17 who think there should be "more".... versus the 12 coaches who think there should be "lots fewer" and 26 coaches who think there should be "fewer."

In other words, kids these days...

[Carambola!]

People skilled at Science/Math are more likely to gravitate toward science and math competitions, respectively. Because some nationals-level science often won't even be brushed upon in many classes (inductance, -3, and 6 to name a few). In addition, many teams come from humanities-oriented schools rather than science-oriented schools. Just my take on the results.

And yes, lots more pop culture will be a bad idea as I'm sure a lower percentage of the teams that voted in such a way will be making a return to HSNCT as opposed to those who voted for same or less.

[kayli]

Most people don't fill out these surveys according to a philosophy about category distribution in quizbowl like a lot of us would fill it out. They fill them out according to their strengths. I'd take these suggestions about more or less of category x with very little weight.

[Mechanical Beasts]

Most people don't fill out these surveys according to a philosophy about category distribution in quizbowl like a lot of us would fill it out. They fill them out according to their strengths. I'd take these suggestions about more or less of category x with very little weight.

Stop making good posts! It upsets my black-and-white picture of who is a good poster on these boards.

[Down and out in Quintana Roo]

I did some painstaking results calculation on the "pop culture" answer line.

The average number of wins that a team's player, coach, or "other" person had who responded with "lots more" pop culture was... 4.746.

The average number of wins that a team's player, coach, or "other" person had who responded with "lots fewer" pop culture was... 6.299.