PACE Set Certification, 2014-2015

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adamsil
Wakka
Posts: 225
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2011 6:20 pm

PACE Set Certification, 2014-2015

Post by adamsil »

Hello,

PACE will once again be certifying housewritten HS quizbowl sets for the 2014-2015 school year. I'll be heading up a small group of volunteers responsible for the program.

Though there are some administrative changes on our end, the main difference for teams this year is that I will personally be contacting set writers about certification. Writers can accept or decline the offer. If they accept, we'll offer a timeline for when the packets need to be received (probably around two weeks before the first mirror of the set), and when we anticipate having the review process complete (hopefully, before the first mirror of the set). In this way, we will be able to adhere to a much tighter, formal schedule than in the past.

We will provide, free of charge, a comprehensive review of the set content and style, as well as a certification rating, according to the same criteria which were used last year. Writers will then use this feedback to improve the quality of their housewrites and improve the spread of good quizbowl across the country. Writers who allow us to review their sets will allow us to post the final results of this review (without question details, of course) on this public forum. The same members of PACE will review each set, to ensure consistency across the board.

If you have any questions about the program, feel free to post here or contact me privately at adsilverman at bellsouth dot net. I'll be individually contacting the first group of house-writers later this week. Thanks, and happy writing!
Adam Silverman
BS Georgia Tech '16
PhD Northwestern '21
adamsil
Wakka
Posts: 225
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2011 6:20 pm

Re: PACE Set Certification, 2014-2015

Post by adamsil »

Hi all,

I wanted to provide a bit more detail about the PACE certification program for writers interested in participating.
We are reviewing sets based on the following qualities: Content, Style, Pyramidality, Difficulty and Length, and Miscellaneous. These are similar to the criteria used last year, but I'd like to expand: Here are a few examples of the questions that we will be using to judge sets.

Content
-Are the questions factually correct? Are there any vague descriptions that should be better clarified, or clues which may not uniquely identify a single answer?
-Is there a wide distribution of subtopics in each category? Is there a balance of political, social, and military history? Is there a balance of genre, period, and nationality in the literature and arts?
-Are the questions appropriately original, in terms of answer selection and clue choice, without making sacrifices in difficulty or clarity?
-Are there any instances of plagiarism?

Style
-Are the questions grammatically correct and clear for moderators, even for those who lack quizbowl experience? Is there a preponderance of "quizbowl-ese", as described on the following page? http://www.qbwiki.com/wiki/Quizbowlese
-Is the question tone appropriate for high schoolers?
-Is there consistency in question formatting?
-Is there at least one useful, buzzable clue per clause? Can extraneous words be removed to shorten tossups?

Pyramidality
-Do questions decrease in difficulty from lead-in to giveaway?
-Are there "cliffs" in difficulty at which a hard clue suddenly shifts to an easier one, without providing clues of medium difficulty?

Difficulty and Length
-Will tossups be converted at a high rate-- even by not-very-experienced teams?
-Will average teams be able to convert bonus parts at a median rate, will weak teams be able to answer most easy parts of bonuses, and will nationally-competitive teams frequently be able to earn 30 points on any given bonus?
-Are the questions difficult enough to distinguish ability between experienced teams?
-Are questions of an appropriate length (few tossups longer than 6 lines in 10 TNR font; few bonus parts longer than 2 lines in the same font)?

Miscellaneous
-Are there any other concerns about the questions which could detract from the overall quality of the set?

I'd like to emphasize the Style header above—I strongly believe that all writers could improve in this area. Questions should be written using normal English conventions, without resorting to circuitous phrasing, in a delirious attempt to salvage pyramidality. I also want to emphasize to writers that many HS teams are not very experienced. Always consider the target audience when selecting answerlines and clues. This is the most effective and obvious method for writing a difficulty-controlled set.

We are starting to review sets for this year. If you're planning a housewrite but I haven't yet contacted you about PACE certification, let me know, and we will work out a plan. Ultimately, this process should be an opportunity for teams, especially those with new writers, to get feedback to improve their writing at the high school level.

Thanks, let me know if you've got any questions.
Adam Silverman
BS Georgia Tech '16
PhD Northwestern '21
adamsil
Wakka
Posts: 225
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2011 6:20 pm

Re: PACE Set Certification, 2014-2015

Post by adamsil »

As a midseason update--PACE is continuing to certify housewrites for this year. If you are writing a set and are interested in our feedback, but haven't yet been contacted by me, please shoot me an email ASAP.

PACE has certified GSAC as a Satisfactory set. Keep them coming in!
Adam Silverman
BS Georgia Tech '16
PhD Northwestern '21
adamsil
Wakka
Posts: 225
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2011 6:20 pm

Re: PACE Set Certification, 2014-2015

Post by adamsil »

PACE has certified Yale's BHSAT as a Satisfactory set. We're still looking for sets--you should have gotten an email from me if you've posted in the other forum, so if you're interested in participating please let me know!
Adam Silverman
BS Georgia Tech '16
PhD Northwestern '21
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