Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Way to Study Quizbowl

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kidgib
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Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Way to Study Quizbowl

Post by kidgib »

Recently, I was made aware that people outside of the highschool quizbowl discord weren't aware of what "Pks" were, and I decided (and was urged to) post on the forums about it.

"Pks" are when two players trade bonuses with each other using QuizDB. There's a great video demonstration by Karan and Matt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbeOWd2 ... e=youtu.be, but I'll list out the steps below:

Preliminary Steps:
1) Usually, pks are done over Discord, so split-screening Discord and QuizDB is optimal.
2) Find someone to pk with and tell each other what categories/subcategories and difficulties you would like on QuizDB. (For example, you could say "Literature, 4 or "American Literautre/World History 3-5)

Doing the Pk:
1) Copy and Paste the first bonus part from QuizDB into Discord and let your partner answer.
2) Repeat until bonus is completed.
3) Now, it's your turn to answer and their turn to paste!

Tks
1) You can also do "tks" or tossups instead of bonuses. Players will still take turns choosing difficulty/category, but now send a clue at a time until the other buzzes.

All of this is better explained, and shown, in the video above. Pks are super useful and extremely fun. Speaking from personal experience, they're a great way to meet other people (whether this be within your own club or someone else) and to get better at a rapid pace. I know a fair number of people, including myself, who have used pks in combination with other forms of studying to get better. It's the optimal way to familiarize yourself with the canon, practice answering bonuses and tossups and to overall strengthen your game.

Recently, many people have created pk Discord bots, allowing you to pk by yourself. This includes Everclue, Chestnut and many others, and I'm sure the creators would be happy to elaborate more about them if you are interested.

I hope this was informative, and I hope that more people will start to use pks. To those already familiar with pks, feel free to clarify anything I have said. If you are feeling confused, the high school and main Discords are great places to ask questions about pks as well.

Thank you!
Alex Moon
Georgetown Day School '20
University of Pennsylvania '24
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zxc
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Re: Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Way to Study Quizbowl

Post by zxc »

Another method of studying I have experienced success with is Clue Time. In a Discord voice call, one person shares their screen, but scrolls down through the questions at reading speed one line at a time. On tossups, "collaboration" is done by people buzzing in and explaining their thought process, encouraging the use of context clues and "lateral" thinking, but "controller" does not scroll down to the answer line until everyone agrees on the answer with 100% certainty. Bonuses work as usual, with everyone working on the same team. Powers, negs, and PPB can be kept track of but is not necessary.

The important takeaway is that memorable clues or impressive buzzes are shared between all participating members, so that each clue is more likely to be recognized by a member of the group if it comes up in the future.
Walter Zhang
Vestavia Hills 19
Brown 23, 23
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