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Preparation
Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 6:10 am
by jman010295
Hello, I am quite new to these forums but have recently been spending a lot of time recently on the quizbowl forums. I have sort of a good idea of how to start preparing, but I was wondering if you guys had any recommendations on how to learn the following subjects: the Bible, Mythology (Ancient History ie. Roman), Art, Literature, Music, History in General. Right now, I am pretty much a math/science guy, but I would like to improve my knowledge in those fields. If you guys also have any other general and helpful tips that would be great as currently I am very much a novice.
Thanks for all advice and help in advance.
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Re: Preparation
Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 4:15 pm
by 1992 in spaceflight
If you want to get good at literature, you'll want to look at plot details and stuff like that on sparknotes. And also, you could try reading some things (that helps me get literature).
I don't know if this would work for you, but with art, it generally helps me to look at the painting and then look at a question to see what details from a painting are coming up. And mythology, there's a lot of sources you can read to get good at it, like Ovid's Metamorphoses or Mythology by Edith Hamilton, which is a collection of a bunch of Greek, Roman, and Norse stories.
Re: Preparation
Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 6:48 pm
by tinioril
Read the Bible.
Re: Preparation
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 2:37 am
by jman010295
any suggestions for Art, Music, History, and the Bible (besides reading it)
Re: Preparation
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 12:03 pm
by 1992 in spaceflight
For History, some of it is just paying attention in class. What helps me to have deep knowledge about things is doing research about something (like Stalin's purges, which is what my term paper is on).
Art, like I've said, is something you can get better at just by noticing details in paintings.
Re: Preparation
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 12:30 pm
by Mike Bentley
If you know essentially nothing about a subject, you should find an introductory text book and read it in order to get some context. Once you have that, you can begin to start studying in greater depth by reading more specialized texts, looking at old packets, reading encyclopedia articles about topics you're trying to study, writing questions, etc.
Re: Preparation
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 3:29 pm
by jman010295
how about the "for dummies" series because they have books on classical music and art that I am looking into?
Re: Preparation
Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 5:54 pm
by mrgsmath
for art you might consider Olga's Gallery at
www.abcgallery.com
Great source for the visual aspect and the biographies are decent as well.
Re: Preparation
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 5:29 pm
by jman010295
any other ideas??? especially in the realm of literature...
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Re: Preparation
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 6:04 pm
by Auroni
Read a Book (or a poem, or a short story, or an essay). Or read summaries of those things.
Re: Preparation
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 6:18 pm
by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)
I think reading a lot of famous short poems is a good starting point for you to master a subset of literature, since it's basically just as easy to do that as it is to read summaries of the poems, plus you get the added benefit of then having real knowledge and getting the kind of true cultural exposure that quizbowl should aim for.
Re: Preparation
Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 12:07 am
by gizmo
For music, ACE has a pretty good guide to learning composers, which can be found here:
http://acequizbowlcamp.com/wp-content/u ... posers.pdf
If you know this whole thing you should be able to get most tossups, at least on the giveaways. There's a few things it's missing (works by Debussy, Ravel is completely omitted, Schubert works a little small, etc.) but it should be a great start.
Re: Preparation
Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 5:17 pm
by NikhilSethi
I'm not sure if this works, but I have heard that the best way to learn art is to just stare at paintings until you notice things you haven't seen before. Generally art questions focus on these things. If that doesn't work, you can use the Quizbowl DB reader and click art to learn common clues (this is true for most subjects).
Re: Preparation
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2012 7:20 pm
by Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin
Specifically for history, I think Palmer's A History of the Modern World can help if you read thoroughly. It has a lot of good content.