Harvard Fall Tournament (HFT) XI Is Available For Mirrors
Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 2:40 pm
Hi all! The 10th edition of the annual Harvard Fall Tournament (HFT X) was received very well this past year, so we are now announcing that HFT XI will be available for high school tournament mirrors starting October 15, 2016, and until two days before the 2017 HSNCT. I (Raynor Kuang) will be head editor, with contributions from Robert Chu and the rest of the Harvard team. The Harvard editing team is approaching the idea of collaborators, but as of now the set will solely be written by Harvard members. This is the set that will be produced for the Harvard tournament also on November 5, for which another post will be made.
The Set
As last year, I will be head-editor. This set is targeted at the core high school "canon," but I personally have a desire to see questions used which accurately reward knowledge learned in the classroom and with "real world" significance. Answerline difficulty will vary, with most being comparable to a NAQT Invitational Series set, but some may be easier, and some (i.e. fewer rather than more) will be HSNCT difficulty. We are looking to make the set slightly more difficult than last year, but were overall satisfied with performance statistics from last year. As with previous years, there will be 15 power-marked rounds, with the last two rounds being finals packets of slightly higher difficulty. The vast majority (95%) of questions will be 5-6 lines Times New Roman 10 point font. The distribution is as follows:
4/4 Literature (1/1 American, 1/1 European, 1/1 British, 1/1 World/Ancient/Misc)
4/4 Science (1/1 Biology, 1/1 Chemistry, 1/1 Physics, 1/1 Math/CS/Earth Science/Astro/Other)
4/4 History (1/1 American, 1/1 World, 2/2 European/British/Ancient)
3/3 Fine Arts (1/1 Painting/Sculpture, 1/1 Classical Music, 1/1 Other Arts)
1/1 Social Science / Philosophy
1/1 Religion
1/1 Mythology
1/1 Geography/Modern World
1/1 Popular Culture
Notes:
-A tiebreaker tossup and bonus will be provided for each round coming from one of the "Big Three" categories (literature, history, or science), in addition to some emergency backup questions.
-Some subdistributions will not be precise, to allow for heightened presence of more "important"/high school appropriate answers (e.g. math) and decreased presence of traditionally difficult high school topics (e.g. world literature or social science).
-Like last year, the popular culture category will be focused primarily on film, television, sports, and music, and an effort will be made to provide answerlines that have a strong presence in the US popular conscience, or even academic importance.
Fee and Mirrors
The fee is $15 per non-host team present at your mirror site. This fee is negotiable to lower amounts for special events, such as solo sites, sites with low team attendance (< 8 teams), or sites with significant team attendance (>40 teams). This negotiability is completely at my discretion and is in no way set in stone.
If would you like to mirror this set, please contact me at raynorkuang AT college DOT harvard DOT edu. If I don't respond in a convenient time, definitely email me again. A running list of mirrors and desired geographic sites will be maintained in the post below. When the mirror period is over, I will personally upload the set immediately. If there are conflicting regional requests, consideration will be made for attendance size, quality/consistency of program (i.e. I'd prefer not to have the mirror evaporate the day before), and first-come first-serve.
Other Comments
I'm personally very excited to be editing this set, and hope you're excited to mirror/play it! If you have any questions or comments at all about mirroring the set, such as fee, logistics, content, and/or what you are/are not allowed to do with the set, please contact me, and I will endeavor to be as helpful as possible (questions about playing it should probably go in the main site thread, which will be posted as soon as we get some more logistical details sorted). Looking forward to hearing from you!
Mirror Sites
10/15: Hoover Invitational (Alabama and neighboring)
11/5: Harvard (Northeast; main site)
11/12: North Carolina School of Science and Math (NC)
11/19: Western Kentucky University (WKU)
11/20: Michigan State University (MSU)
12/3: Auburn HS (Illinois)
12/10: MOQBA "Fall" (Columbia College, Columbia, MO)
12/17: Texas (TBD site)
1/28: Rutgers (New Jersey/New York)
2/19: Solon High School (Comet Winter Clash) (Ohio)
3/4: Canyon Crest Academy HS (SD, SoCal)
4/8: Marist HS (Georgia)
4/8: Downington East HS (Pennsylvania)
4/29: Georgetown (Mid-Atlantic)
The Set
As last year, I will be head-editor. This set is targeted at the core high school "canon," but I personally have a desire to see questions used which accurately reward knowledge learned in the classroom and with "real world" significance. Answerline difficulty will vary, with most being comparable to a NAQT Invitational Series set, but some may be easier, and some (i.e. fewer rather than more) will be HSNCT difficulty. We are looking to make the set slightly more difficult than last year, but were overall satisfied with performance statistics from last year. As with previous years, there will be 15 power-marked rounds, with the last two rounds being finals packets of slightly higher difficulty. The vast majority (95%) of questions will be 5-6 lines Times New Roman 10 point font. The distribution is as follows:
4/4 Literature (1/1 American, 1/1 European, 1/1 British, 1/1 World/Ancient/Misc)
4/4 Science (1/1 Biology, 1/1 Chemistry, 1/1 Physics, 1/1 Math/CS/Earth Science/Astro/Other)
4/4 History (1/1 American, 1/1 World, 2/2 European/British/Ancient)
3/3 Fine Arts (1/1 Painting/Sculpture, 1/1 Classical Music, 1/1 Other Arts)
1/1 Social Science / Philosophy
1/1 Religion
1/1 Mythology
1/1 Geography/Modern World
1/1 Popular Culture
Notes:
-A tiebreaker tossup and bonus will be provided for each round coming from one of the "Big Three" categories (literature, history, or science), in addition to some emergency backup questions.
-Some subdistributions will not be precise, to allow for heightened presence of more "important"/high school appropriate answers (e.g. math) and decreased presence of traditionally difficult high school topics (e.g. world literature or social science).
-Like last year, the popular culture category will be focused primarily on film, television, sports, and music, and an effort will be made to provide answerlines that have a strong presence in the US popular conscience, or even academic importance.
Fee and Mirrors
The fee is $15 per non-host team present at your mirror site. This fee is negotiable to lower amounts for special events, such as solo sites, sites with low team attendance (< 8 teams), or sites with significant team attendance (>40 teams). This negotiability is completely at my discretion and is in no way set in stone.
If would you like to mirror this set, please contact me at raynorkuang AT college DOT harvard DOT edu. If I don't respond in a convenient time, definitely email me again. A running list of mirrors and desired geographic sites will be maintained in the post below. When the mirror period is over, I will personally upload the set immediately. If there are conflicting regional requests, consideration will be made for attendance size, quality/consistency of program (i.e. I'd prefer not to have the mirror evaporate the day before), and first-come first-serve.
Other Comments
I'm personally very excited to be editing this set, and hope you're excited to mirror/play it! If you have any questions or comments at all about mirroring the set, such as fee, logistics, content, and/or what you are/are not allowed to do with the set, please contact me, and I will endeavor to be as helpful as possible (questions about playing it should probably go in the main site thread, which will be posted as soon as we get some more logistical details sorted). Looking forward to hearing from you!
Mirror Sites
10/15: Hoover Invitational (Alabama and neighboring)
11/5: Harvard (Northeast; main site)
11/12: North Carolina School of Science and Math (NC)
11/19: Western Kentucky University (WKU)
11/20: Michigan State University (MSU)
12/3: Auburn HS (Illinois)
12/10: MOQBA "Fall" (Columbia College, Columbia, MO)
12/17: Texas (TBD site)
1/28: Rutgers (New Jersey/New York)
2/19: Solon High School (Comet Winter Clash) (Ohio)
3/4: Canyon Crest Academy HS (SD, SoCal)
4/8: Marist HS (Georgia)
4/8: Downington East HS (Pennsylvania)
4/29: Georgetown (Mid-Atlantic)