General Discussion

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General Discussion

Post by Lightinfa »

Well I felt like the set was converted pretty well, we seem to have averaged around 16 ppb. So in this thread post any general or specific thoughts or criticisms you have. We would like to fix as many problems as possible before the New Trier mirror on December 18, so outliers, misplaced clues, typos, or anything else please post.

Thanks,
JR

EDIT: The writing responsibilities were as follows. I wrote all the history and geography and wrote a small amount of questions in myth, visual art, and literature. Tommy was responsible for everything else. I would particularly appreciate criticism on the geography as I did not feel like those questions were top notch.
Last edited by Lightinfa on Sat Dec 04, 2010 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Kouign Amann »

As evidenced by the lovely distribution of PPB stats, difficulty here was solid. There were a few bonus parts in the lit that seemed like Tommy was just toying with people, but those were pretty few and far between. The much more tightly controlled length was also much appreciated. This was probably my favorite high school set of this year so far: it was really very good.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Down and out in Quintana Roo »

This set was really well-written, with all sorts of interesting ideas and answers. I liked a lot of them, i just thought that a good portion were pretty difficult, too difficult for a lot of the field. I'm sure that the tossups on Doctorow and Permittivity of Free Space and Deng Xiaoping(!) were really fun for those top teams, but... those were not fun to read in lots of other rooms.

I don't have copies of the questions, so making specific comments at the moment is hard, but i'll try after i get some sleep.

EDIT: Just wanted to add, about the "well-written" part... this was one of the best-edited tournaments i've read in a really really long time. That is, practically every single tossup was written in nice grammar with no weird mistakes or dangling phrases or things like that. It helped me read clear and quickly and it was nice to have a non-NAQT tournament edited this well. Great job editors.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by jonah »

For the sake of advertising this set's quality, which I am thrilled to hear about, for my mirror in two weeks, is it okay with you, Aidan and Andrew, if I quote your general praise in my tournament's announcement thread?
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Frater Taciturnus »

jonah wrote:For the sake of advertising this set's quality, which I am thrilled to hear about, for my mirror in two weeks, is it okay with you, Aidan and Andrew, if I quote your general praise in my tournament's announcement thread?
You can absolutely quote me as saying that this is the best set I've ever seen produced exclusively by high schoolers.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Kouign Amann »

jonah wrote:For the sake of advertising this set's quality, which I am thrilled to hear about, for my mirror in two weeks, is it okay with you, Aidan and Andrew, if I quote your general praise in my tournament's announcement thread?
Go for it.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Down and out in Quintana Roo »

Yeah that's fine.

I do hope, and wish, that other mirror sites make it clear what the difficulty of this tournament really is. There were many many answers that mediocre and even some upperclassmen-filled (yet not uber-quizbowl-experienced) teams will never have heard of before.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by The King's Flight to the Scots »

JR, would it be possible for people who aren't playing this tournament to get the set? I'd like to see how it looks.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

Cernel Joson wrote:JR, would it be possible for people who aren't playing this tournament to get the set? I'd like to see how it looks.
Yeah, I'd be interested in seeing it as well.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

Carangoides ciliarius wrote:I'm sure that the tossups on Doctorow and Permittivity of Free Space and Deng Xiaoping(!) were really fun for those top teams, but... those were not fun to read in lots of other rooms.
Obviously, I haven't seen the actual questions here yet, but I'm not sure why you're singling out a tossup on a major, major figure in Chinese history as being wacky or out-there. The first two you've listed, I can certainly understand, but does Deng really deserve the (!)?
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Down and out in Quintana Roo »

Yeah, i think so, i don't remember ever seeing it tossed-up in a non-Nationals set. My search, unofficially (at least, not counting NAQT), confirms this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sour ... =&gs_rfai=

In fact, he has NEVER been tossed-up in ACF Fall either, and only been an answer in ACF Regs once: http://carloangiuli.com/acfdb/search.ph ... perpage=10

Do you still think he's appropriate for a high school field? Or do you believe that all tournaments (including ACF Fall) have been in the wrong by excluding him?
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Lightinfa »

Cernel Joson wrote:JR, would it be possible for people who aren't playing this tournament to get the set? I'd like to see how it looks.
Ok I've sent you the set. Rob- I do not see your email on your profile, so could you give me an email to send the set too?
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Auks Ran Ova »

Perhaps I'd underestimated his difficulty, but citation of past appearances alone isn't a particularly convincing or useful argument. As a hugely important figure in modern China, I'd certainly expect him to appear in world history classes; even setting aside any appeals to the curriculum, he's an important enough figure that tossups on him (while still probably on the harder end of any given set) still seem like a fine idea to me.

JR - heh, probably should have included that before! [email protected]
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Lightinfa »

Ukonvasara wrote:Perhaps I'd underestimated his difficulty, but citation of past appearances alone isn't a particularly convincing or useful argument. As a hugely important figure in modern China, I'd certainly expect him to appear in world history classes; even setting aside any appeals to the curriculum, he's an important enough figure that tossups on him (while still probably on the harder end of any given set) still seem like a fine idea to me.

JR - heh, probably should have included that before! [email protected]
Sent. And in regards to Deng we certainly learned about him in our world history class although our classes aren't necessarily representative of most schools.
Last edited by Lightinfa on Sun Dec 05, 2010 3:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by The Toad to Wigan Pier »

Finals Round wrote:Materials in this phase may have a Fermi level which lies in a gap of the available energy levels for its electrons, and overcoming a small gap may be aided by doping. Those gaps are explained by band theory, which is derived from the “nearly free electron” model for this phase, which expands on the simpler “free electron” model. A mixture of compounds assumes this phase below the eutectic point, and a gas transitions to this phase via deposition, the opposite of sublimation. For 10 points, name this state of matter exemplified by ice.
ANSWER: Solid
That first clue is quite misleading. The question seems to be referencing the band theory of solids, but the clues are really talking about semiconductors. Now semiconductors are not a "phase" in a normal sense, but not all semiconductors are solid. There are liquid and liquid crystal semiconductors as well and both fermi levels and bandgaps are used to describe them.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Bananaquit »

JR beat me to it, but one of the mandatory history classes at Maggie Walker spends virtually all of the time before Christmas on China, so Deng gets a lot of play in that class (at least a full class period, maybe more, as I recall). Obviously, though, most schools will not cover him in any detail, so he is probably too hard for non-Nationals (although someone on TJ B got him in my room).

However, I don't think having a few difficulty outliers is necessarily a major problem, since if one or even two appears in any given round, there are still 19 or 18 good questions. Additionally, two really good teams playing each other may welcome a few harder questions to better differentiate the breadth of their knowledge. I read the set and thought nearly all of the questions were difficulty-appropriate, and when people are finding fault with important, but slightly difficult, figures like Deng, I think it indicates the set was high-quality. It was certainly superior in difficulty level than the last few years'.

Also, this may or may not be responsible for the lack of questions on Deng, but packet-submission tournaments can often omit things because people, purely by chance, wrote on other stuff. If the thing in question is already on the fringe of the canon for that level, it is quite possible that it would never appear in the tournament for several years. Housewrites do not have that problem, since their editors can set all or most of the answer lines according to their vision of a category.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

Mr. C., it might also be good to note that, like the good teams are good argument against people whining about sets being easy, sometimes bad teams are bad and can stand to learn things from a set (when did bad teams not knowing things and thus being able to learn from sets become a problem? I seem to have missed this, since back when I was on some pretty bad teams we were encouraged to do so). Besides Raleigh Charter E and STAB, none of the teams under 10 PPB have a whole lot of experience playing either at all or playing things other than VHSL, and I think it's reasonable to assume that those teams are pretty new as well. The teams in the next chunk of PPBs, such as your own that you insist on putting down as bad at every opportunity, are also filled with young or inexperienced players. Maybe you want your top PPB a bit higher than 24.87, but I think that makes the average of 16ish all the more impressive. I haven't seen the set because I was running stats, but the numbers make this seem like it was probably the easiest GSAC in perhaps ever, and I applaud Tommy and JR for this.

Most of the complaints I heard about things being too hard last year actually came from good teams who were able to recognize such a problem, whereas this year everyone I spoke to seemed to have had a good experience. This includes the coach of King's Fork, the team with the lowest PPB. King's Fork hasn't played a whole lot of pyramidal qb, as far as I know from not remembering seeing them before, and still managed to have a PPB over 6. Also, really, there's no way there's a high school set in existence that doesn't have at least some answers that are too hard. Making a broad-sounding complaint in a public thread about what seems to be a much smaller number of answerlines than you initially indicated isn't helping anyone. If it has any effect at all, it will make mirrors do more work to assure people that they should in fact come to this tournament that you've made sound like something other than it was. Note that I am in no way saying that it's unlikely some of the tournament was too hard, and conversations I've had with JR indicated that they knew there would probably be a few things needing to be tweaked before mirrors. I am saying that that's endemic to most tournaments, and especially given GSAC's very longstanding reputation for being hard and the lack of the words "regular difficulty" anywhere in the announcement besides your post, I think you're overreacting.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by jonah »

Could you send me the set, please? I won't use the version I get now for my tournament, but I'd like to take a look at it.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Down and out in Quintana Roo »

MLWGS-Gir wrote:Making a broad-sounding complaint in a public thread about what seems to be a much smaller number of answerlines than you initially indicated isn't helping anyone.
They were literally just the first three things i could think of after driving for a combined 425 miles, reading 10 packets, and being awake for 20 hours.

Now that i've been grading AP essays all day, i haven't been able to look at the set at all.

Once i have time to look through the packets, i will discuss further as to which answers i thought were inappropriate.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Blackboard Monitor Vimes »

Carangoides ciliarius wrote:
MLWGS-Gir wrote:Making a broad-sounding complaint in a public thread about what seems to be a much smaller number of answerlines than you initially indicated isn't helping anyone.
They were literally just the first three things i could think of after driving for a combined 425 miles, reading 10 packets, and being awake for 20 hours.

Now that i've been grading AP essays all day, i haven't been able to look at the set at all.

Once i have time to look through the packets, i will discuss further as to which answers i thought were inappropriate.
I wasn't saying that those were the only 3, rather that the scale is less than it probably seemed. Outliers tend to stand out in one's mind; I've had such experiences myself.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by felgon123 »

Will, if you could send me an email recommending a good way to modify the tossup on solids properly, that would be much appreciated. Also, for the record, there was no tossup on permittivity of free space. It was the answer to a hard part of a bonus.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Smuttynose Island »

felgon123 wrote: Also, for the record, there was no tossup on permittivity of free space. It was the answer to a hard part of a bonus.
After the game I asked our moderator if "e nought" or "epsilon nought"(the way you say the symbol for permittivity of free space) was an acceptable answer for "permittivity of free space" and he said "No." Was it at least promptable? If not, then how come?

EDIT: You guys did a great job running and writing this tournament.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Cody »

waddle1 wrote:After the game I asked our moderator if "e nought" or "epsilon nought"(the way you say the symbol for permittivity of free space) was an acceptable answer for "permittivity of free space" and he said "No." Was it at least promptable? If not, then how come?
epsilon [nought] was not on the prompt line, but you are correct in that it should have been.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Down and out in Quintana Roo »

9. This man’s own rags-to-riches story from the position of canal boy was the subject of a Horatio Alger work, which was written for one of his campaigns for political office. During his Civil War service in the Army of the Cumberland at Shiloh and Chickamauga, he was elected to the House of Representatives from Ohio. After being elected to the Senate, a compromise between the Stalwarts and Half-breeds secured him the Republican presidential nomination in 1880. For 10 points, name this man who won the Presidency over Winfield Scott Hancock and was assassinated by Charles Guiteau three months later.
ANSWER: James Garfield
Let's be picky here: he wasn't assassinated 3 months after he "won the Presidency," he was assassinated 4 months after he was inaugurated into office in March, meaning he was killed in July.
20. In one work by this author, the protagonist gives a robin to a mentally retarded girl whose house he later burns down and attempts to kill John Greer. In another work, Billy Parham flees after an attempt to rescue the Mexican prostitute Magdalena results in the death of John Grady Cole. In addition to writing about Lester Ballard in Child of God, the priest Tobin and brooding Judge Holden are members of a band of scalp hunters joined by “the kid” in another novel by this author. For 10 points, name this American novelist of All the Pretty Horses and Blood Meridian.
ANSWER: Cormac McCarthy
I think McCarthy is not well-known enough by a lot of high schoolers (neither are a lot of living authors) WITHOUT MENTIONING No Country for Old Men, the only thing that a lot of people know about him. Yes i'm aware that he's a perennial candidate for all sorts of awards including the Nobel, and that Blood Meridian is often called one of the best American books of the past 50 years, but i have a feeling that there are going to be teams that hear this tossup and don't know it, then say "oh, that's the No Country for Old Men guy" since it wasn't mentioned in the question. Don't we want tossups to be converted at their highest level? Why would you leave out the easiest clue about an answer then?
20. This Progressive Conservative defeated John Turner to win the premiership. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this Prime Minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993 who was succeeded by Kim Campbell.
ANSWER: Brian Mulroney
[10] Mulroney’s term in office saw multiple attempts via proposed amendments to get this French-speaking, sometimes secessionist province to approve the Canadian Constitution.
ANSWER: Quebec
[10] Name either of those sets of amendments to the Canadian Constitution, one of which was proposed in 1987 and the other in 1992, both of which failed.
ANSWER: Meech Lake Accord or Charlottetown Accord [accept either answer]
This is one of many many examples where, while reading the set, i found myself saying "where is the middle part?" Mulroney sure is a Prime Minister and YOU GOTTA KNOW your Canadian Prime Ministers i guess, but he's not one that even close to any decent percentage of high school students could ever pull. And i assume that the third part here is the hard part, but after Mulroney, it makes for a bonus that i'm sure was 10ed all day long. There were more than a dozen others like this one where the easy part was just fine, the middle part was too difficult or just wasn't there, and the hard part was practically unattainable.

I may make other comments later, specific ones.

But i wanted to make one more general concern: the trash in this set was HARD. I mean, trash is stupid, i dislike it, but if it's part of a packet then i believe the reason it's there is for "funn" and so it's a tossup that will get answered like 95% of the time. Because remember, we want tossups to be answered. But when you're tossing up guys from beer commercials (i also question the appropriateness of that, but whatever), Homestar Runner (an internet comic whose heyday was like 8 or 9 years ago), and a geography tossup on Mordor... it's getting a little silly. Add that to a bonus series about Alanis Morissette, who was uber-popular when many students playing this tournament were basically 1 or 2 years old (TJ D had literally never heard of her before), and trash has lost its purpose. If you're going to make trash questions this difficult, just do what HFT does and get rid of them.

Plus, the "cereals" thing... it's getting a little old. When "experienced" teams who have meta-knowledge of packets know what the first question of the first packet is going to be about (as i told my kids the week before the tournament "the first tossup will be something about breakfast cereals or characters marketing cereals in some way"), your cereals gimmick has gotten stale. No pun intended.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Kouign Amann »

Carangoides ciliarius wrote:i wanted to make one more general concern: the trash in this set was HARD. I mean, trash is stupid, i dislike it, but if it's part of a packet then i believe the reason it's there is for "funn" and so it's a tossup that will get answered like 95% of the time. Because remember, we want tossups to be answered. But when you're tossing up guys from beer commercials (i also question the appropriateness of that, but whatever), Homestar Runner (an internet comic whose heyday was like 8 or 9 years ago), and a geography tossup on Mordor... it's getting a little silly. Add that to a bonus series about Alanis Morissette, who was uber-popular when many students playing this tournament were basically 1 or 2 years old (TJ D had literally never heard of her before), and trash has lost its purpose. If you're going to make trash questions this difficult, just do what HFT does and get rid of them.
Not to turn this into a trash discussion, but I believe you have confused the idea of "hard" with the idea of "old." Homestar Runner was popular exactly when the intended audience of this tournament was old enough to enjoy its idiocy fully: around age 10. If you are saying that kids these days don't know stuff about the Lord of the Rings, then I don't know what to say. I hate LoTR, but quizbowl-y people love stuff like that. Even though it's not old, The Most Interesting Man in the World is easily one of the most well-known marketing ploys out there today. Even I, child of Luddites and person who literally does not watch television during the week, could get that tossup by the middle based off watching sports once in a while. I'll cede Alanis Morissette as pretty hard.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Nine-Tenths Ideas »

Carangoides ciliarius wrote:Plus, the "cereals" thing... it's getting a little old. When "experienced" teams who have meta-knowledge of packets know what the first question of the first packet is going to be about (as i told my kids the week before the tournament "the first tossup will be something about breakfast cereals or characters marketing cereals in some way"), your cereals gimmick has gotten stale. No pun intended.
Looking through the packets, this was my only specific objection. You're giving teams with meta-knowledge a specific advantage over those without it, and that's something that should never happen.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by jonah »

Isaacbh wrote:
Carangoides ciliarius wrote:Plus, the "cereals" thing... it's getting a little old. When "experienced" teams who have meta-knowledge of packets know what the first question of the first packet is going to be about (as i told my kids the week before the tournament "the first tossup will be something about breakfast cereals or characters marketing cereals in some way"), your cereals gimmick has gotten stale. No pun intended.
Looking through the packets, this was my only specific objection. You're giving teams with meta-knowledge a specific advantage over those without it, and that's something that should never happen.
I agree with this very strongly. If you want to keep that tossup for future mirrors (which is fine), at least please re-randomize that packet so "cereals" isn't first, or even better, put it in a different packet.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Lightinfa »

Isaacbh wrote:
Carangoides ciliarius wrote:Plus, the "cereals" thing... it's getting a little old. When "experienced" teams who have meta-knowledge of packets know what the first question of the first packet is going to be about (as i told my kids the week before the tournament "the first tossup will be something about breakfast cereals or characters marketing cereals in some way"), your cereals gimmick has gotten stale. No pun intended.
Looking through the packets, this was my only specific objection. You're giving teams with meta-knowledge a specific advantage over those without it, and that's something that should never happen.
I really don't think so. The last two GSACs had been cereal mascots; this was pretty fundamentally different than that and from what I am told it was converted as grains in most rooms. In fact Sid from TJ did devote a lot of time to studying the whole cereals thing and it did not help him on the TU. And just if it will put anything to rest we are tired of the thing as well; Tommy wrote that TU to put an end to it; it will not be in next year's set.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Frater Taciturnus »

Lightinfa wrote: it will not be in next year's set.
Didn't we just spend like four posts discussing why rewarding meta knowledge is bad? Why would you go and post proclaiming this to the select few (including coach's and players on teams that will play next year's set) that this isn't going to be in the set? Isnt having knowledge of what isn't in the set just as bad as any kind of unfair foreknowledge or what is?
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Re: General Discussion

Post by The King's Flight to the Scots »

Frater Taciturnus wrote:
Lightinfa wrote: it will not be in next year's set.
Didn't we just spend like four posts discussing why rewarding meta knowledge is bad? Why would you go and post proclaiming this to the select few (including coach's and players on teams that will play next year's set) that this isn't going to be in the set? Isnt having knowledge of what isn't in the set just as bad as any kind of unfair foreknowledge or what is?
Theoretically, but, well, it's almost certainly not going to matter. Here's what people on the board know: "There won't be a tossup on a brand of cereal in the first tossup of next year's tournament, so if the first tossup next year is even a trash tossup, don't buzz with that on the off chance that it sounds like it...unless next year's editors change their minds." It would have been better not to make that statement, but...it seems to me that the advantage people gain by reading this board is just too incredibly trivial to matter. I bet you anything the first tossup in Penn Bowl this year isn't on a cereal brand, either. I suppose someone who doesn't read this board might neg with "cereals" expecting it to pay off, but that's about the worst that could happen.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by jonah »

Round 8 wrote:9. While working as an architect, the protagonist of this novel begins a relationship with an editor of art books, Maxine Ratliff. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this novel following Gogol, the immigrant son of Ashima and Ashoke Ganguli.
ANSWER: The Namesake
[10] The Namesake was written by this Indian-American author who also wrote a short story collection including “A Temporary Matter” and “The Third and Final Continent”.
ANSWER: Jhumpa Lahiri
[10] Name that short story collection, whose title story sees Mr. Kapasi work as the driver for the Das family as they visit the Sun Temple in Konarak.
ANSWER: Interpreter of Maladies
This is impossible. Just so you know.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Nine-Tenths Ideas »

It's probably still too hard, but the Namesake did become an award-winning movie with Kal Penn recently. I keep seeing Interpreter of Maladies coming up, so it seems to be wheedling its way into the canon [which may or may not be a good thing.]
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Re: General Discussion

Post by The King's Flight to the Scots »

Yeah, that could certainly use a better easy part, but it's not impossible.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by AKKOLADE »

If it's intended to have a true "regular difficulty hs set" easy part, then that's impossible.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Steeve Ho You Fat »

Could you please post the set, or E-mail me a copy ([email protected])? I thought that the version used at New Trier was on the whole pretty good, especially the tossups, but there seemed to be numerous bonus variability issues and some badly written bonuses that I'll point out after I see it to remind myself which they were.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Steeve Ho You Fat »

Here are my comments. I agree that this is a very good set on the whole, and a lot of these are just suggestions.
Round 1 wrote:17. This man designed skyscrapers including the mile-high Illinois Tower, though the only one built is located in Bartlesville. His signature style, which focused on a blend between the interior and exterior and very small amounts of storage space, is exemplified by buildings such as Kentuck Knob and the Rosenbaum House. Another work of his, a residence for the Kaufmann family in western Pennsylvania, was built into a hillside and features a stairway to a stream that runs through the middle of the living room floor. For 10 points, name this American architect of Fallingwater.
ANSWER: Frank Lloyd Wright
Maybe it's just me, but aren't there a lot of really notable Wright things that aren't mentioned at all? This tossup is pyramidal, yes, but it seems to reward knowledge about the design of Fallingwater over broader knowledge of Wright's works (the Prairie School, or Taliesin, for example).
Round 2 wrote:1. The Oren-Nayar model is a generalization of the Lambertian model of this phenomenon’s diffuse form. The waves involved in this phenomenon lie in the same plane as the normal to the medium interface, and this phenomenon does not occur for a particular polarization at Brewster’s angle. A wave undergoes the “total internal” variety of this phenomenon at the critical angle, and the angle at which this phenomenon occurs is equal to the angle of incidence. FTP, name this change in direction of a wave back into the original medium, easily observable using mirrors.
ANSWER: Reflection
Total internal reflection occurs at or above the critical angle, not only at it. Not a big deal, but it could confuse someone.
Round 2 wrote:14. One band from this city recruited William DuVall after their lead singer died of a drug overdose in 2002. The listener is instructed to “feed my eyes” and asked “can you sew them shut?” by Jerry Cantrell and Layne Staley in that band’s song “Man in the Box”. Another band from this city recently produced the album Backspacer, including the single “The Fixer”. That band’s 1991 debut album Ten generated the hits “Jeremy” and “Even Flow”. For 10 points, name this grunge capital which produced Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam, the largest city in Washington.
ANSWER: Seattle
Wouldn't mentioning Nirvana in this improve conversion without necessitating the cross-disciplinary giveaway?
Round 2 wrote:1. For 10 points each, name some major Australian cities.
[10] This is Australia’s largest city and the capital of New South Wales. It contains a notable opera house designed by Jorn Utzon which sits on Bennelong Point on this city’s harbor.
ANSWER: Sydney
[10] This capital of Australia was designed by Walter Burley Griffin. It sits on the Molongo River below the Australian Alps and contains Australian National University.
ANSWER: Canberra
[10] This city is the capital of Western Australia and was founded in 1827 by James Stirling. It sits upon the Swan River and its suburbs include Kwinana, Fremantle, and Welshpool.
ANSWER: Perth
It might just be me, but I don't feel like this has any real medium or hard parts. Over half the teams 30'd it.
Round 5 wrote:2. The deceleration of these particles when fired at a metal target causes Bremsstrahlung, and these particles exhibit the Lamb Shift. These particles scatter photons in the Compton Effect, and beta decay ejects an antineutrino of these particles along with one. Their mass and charge were measured in Millikan’s oil drop experiment, and they were discovered in experiments with cathode rays conducted by J. J. Thomson. For 10 points, name these negatively charged particles which orbit the atomic nucleus.
ANSWER: Electrons
Bremsstrahlung can refer to any acceleration of electrons in an electric field, not only when they are decelerating or because of metals.
Round 6 wrote:16. The precession rate of a gyroscope is equal to Mgr over the product of omega and this quantity, and the term M times h-squared is added to this quantity at the center of mass when using the parallel-axis theorem. Formulas for this quantity are derived from the integral of radius squared with respect to mass. The product of angular velocity and this quantity is equal to angular momentum, and the product of angular acceleration and this quantity is equal to torque. For 10 points, name this angular analogue of mass.
ANSWER: Rotational Inertia [accept Moment of Inertia]
Where this is discussing the Parallel Axis Theorem, where does "h" come from? My AP Physics textbook (Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Serway and Beichner) expresses it as MD^2, and Wikipedia has it as mr^2. I thought of Planck's constant when I heard h, which really confused me given the context.
Round 7 wrote:3. The central character of this novel names a bra marketed as a “swing top” by Elaine for J. Peterman in a Seinfeld episode. In an episode of South Park, Timmy is diagnosed with ADD after being read this novel and failing to remember what type of car the title character drives. Its most notable film adaptation from 1974 was narrated by Sam Waterston and stars Robert Redford opposite Mia Farrow playing his love interest Daisy. Narrated by Nick Carraway, For 10 points, name this novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
ANSWER: The Great Gatsby
This toss-up is kind of problematic - first of all, is it academic, trash, or mixed impure (something I didn't expect in this tournament)? Secondly, I can only imagine how many buzzer races it must cause: academic teams that know something about it might be able to lateralize from the car, but most people will know Daisy or, immediately after, Nick Carraway. Maybe it was intentional, but it doesn't really reward deep knowledge of Gatsby.
Round 7 wrote:5. Prior to this event, most of its leaders were arrested or exiled after the July Days. A Democratic Conference which endorsed a coalition with the Kadets was denounced by the group which led this event, and the only military action during it was the shelling of the Winter Palace by the Aurora. Peace with Germany was negotiated at Brest-Litovsk after this event. Ending a regime supported by the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks, this is, For 10 points, what 1917 uprising that ended the Provisional Government of Kerensky and installed a Bolshevik government of the Soviets.
ANSWER: October Revolution [prompt on Russian Revolution]
Would Bolshevik Revolution be acceptable or promptable? I think I got prompted with it, but it seems that should be acceptable, at least before Bolshevik is mentioned.
Round 7 wrote:12. During a campaign in 1948, this man traversed his home state by helicopter and defeated Coke Stevenson, and in his highest office he responded to an attack on the U.S.S. Maddox. This man created the Office of Economic Opportunity as part of a “War on Poverty”, and he passed Medicare and Medicaid as part of the “Great Society” after winning a presidential election which saw him use the “Daisy Ad” against his opponent Barry Goldwater. For 10 points, name this U.S. President hailing from Texas who escalated the Vietnam War and became president after John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
ANSWER: Lyndon Baines Johnson [accept LBJ; prompt on Johnson]
This could be "it's easy because I know it," but isn't that really early to drop the Maddox? I thought it was pretty well known that that was involved in the Tonkin Gulf Incident and that LBJ was president during that.
Round 7 wrote:3. This event was started by a mutiny of troops in Wuchang. For 10 points each:
[10] Name this uprising which lasted from 1911-1912 and saw the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty.
ANSWER: Chinese Revolution
[10] This man who founded the Nationalist Party and formulated the “Three Principles of the People” became the first Provisional President of China.
ANSWER: Sun Yat-sen
[10] Sun Yat-sen resigned the Presidency in favor of this warlord who had previously been viceroy and general. He sought to establish himself as emperor but died in 1916.
ANSWER: Yuan Shikai
The first part of this bonus is kind of annoying; I said something along the lines of "The revolution with Sun Yat-sen in it?" and got prompted. Also, as evidenced by the conversion stats showing nobody at ADVANTAGE 30'd it, the third part is really, really hard. I don't know exactly what would be better - maybe replace the first part with Pu Yi and then the second part could be "This leader of the revolution that overthrew Pu Yi..." I might even suggest replacing the third part with something easier like Chiang Kai-shek as this had the second lowest non-finals average conversion, with 58% of teams zeroing it. I don't think that Sun is too hard for a medium part, but with the easy part one a knowledgeable team could easily miss because of its lack of a name it needs something gettable. If you wanted something harder than Chiang you could do the Kuomintang.
Round 8 wrote:3. This man was the first to address the U.N. General Assembly representing a nongovernmental organization, and in 1969 he was elected chairman of that organization opposed by George Habash and Nayif Hawatmeh. In 1970, King Hussein expelled an organization this man founded from Jordan during the Black September, and this man subsequently led the intifada from Lebanon and Tunisia. The founder the political party Fatah, For 10 points, name this man who negotiated with Yitzhak Rabin during the Oslo Accords, the longtime leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
ANSWER: Yasser Arafat
You missed a word: The founder of the political party Fatah...

If you don't take these that's fine, but hopefully they'll be helpful for the Georgia mirror next weekend.

EDIT: Formatting
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Re: General Discussion

Post by AKKOLADE »

Joe N wrote:
Round 1 wrote:17. This man designed skyscrapers including the mile-high Illinois Tower, though the only one built is located in Bartlesville. His signature style, which focused on a blend between the interior and exterior and very small amounts of storage space, is exemplified by buildings such as Kentuck Knob and the Rosenbaum House. Another work of his, a residence for the Kaufmann family in western Pennsylvania, was built into a hillside and features a stairway to a stream that runs through the middle of the living room floor. For 10 points, name this American architect of Fallingwater.
ANSWER: Frank Lloyd Wright
Maybe it's just me, but aren't there a lot of really notable Wright things that aren't mentioned at all? This tossup is pyramidal, yes, but it seems to reward knowledge about the design of Fallingwater over broader knowledge of Wright's works (the Prairie School, or Taliesin, for example).
I'd consider every thing mentioned in that tossup notable, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with using the area which contains in-depth info on Fallingwater for that purpose, especially since that's towards the end of the question and that's where things should be given away.
Round 2 wrote:14. One band from this city recruited William DuVall after their lead singer died of a drug overdose in 2002. The listener is instructed to “feed my eyes” and asked “can you sew them shut?” by Jerry Cantrell and Layne Staley in that band’s song “Man in the Box”. Another band from this city recently produced the album Backspacer, including the single “The Fixer”. That band’s 1991 debut album Ten generated the hits “Jeremy” and “Even Flow”. For 10 points, name this grunge capital which produced Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam, the largest city in Washington.
ANSWER: Seattle
Wouldn't mentioning Nirvana in this improve conversion without necessitating the cross-disciplinary giveaway?
Complaining about tainting a pop culture question with the most basic of geography info is.... something.
Round 7 wrote:3. The central character of this novel names a bra marketed as a “swing top” by Elaine for J. Peterman in a Seinfeld episode. In an episode of South Park, Timmy is diagnosed with ADD after being read this novel and failing to remember what type of car the title character drives. Its most notable film adaptation from 1974 was narrated by Sam Waterston and stars Robert Redford opposite Mia Farrow playing his love interest Daisy. Narrated by Nick Carraway, For 10 points, name this novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
ANSWER: The Great Gatsby
This toss-up is kind of problematic - first of all, is it academic, trash, or mixed impure (something I didn't expect in this tournament)? Secondly, I can only imagine how many buzzer races it must cause: academic teams that know something about it might be able to lateralize from the car, but most people will know Daisy or, immediately after, Nick Carraway. Maybe it was intentional, but it doesn't really reward deep knowledge of Gatsby.
I'd sure hope that more teams would be getting it by the second or third-to-last clues than the ones before them!
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Cheynem »

I'm assuming the Gatsby tossup was trash--I'm not crazy about it, but trash clues on academic ideas are fine if it's actually a trash tossup.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Frater Taciturnus »

Cheynem wrote:I'm assuming the Gatsby tossup was trash--I'm not crazy about it, but trash clues on academic ideas are fine if it's actually a trash tossup.
It was.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Steeve Ho You Fat »

Personally, I hate trash, but I feel that if you're going to have trash it should be trash and not be mixed up with academic stuff. Apparently judging from others' reactions that's just me though.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Auroni »

That's a pretty silly idea. As long as it will produce a fair and pyramidal tossup, a nominal trash question can blend in as many academic clues as is needed to achieve those goals. Try to imagine how strange this tossup would be if you didn't get an author at the end, or the names of any characters.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Cheynem »

My problem with this tossup is that the clues are sort of random--if you don't recognize the one Seinfeld or South Park reference, you have to identify an older film (from cast members alone) and then it turns into a giveaway. I think these sort of tossups work more when there are more clues (for instance, "George Washington in popular culture," film adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, that sort of thing). One good clue for trash Gatsby is that Paul Rudd has also played Nick Carraway.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Steeve Ho You Fat »

Cheynem wrote:My problem with this tossup is that the clues are sort of random--if you don't recognize the one Seinfeld or South Park reference, you have to identify an older film (from cast members alone) and then it turns into a giveaway. I think these sort of tossups work more when there are more clues (for instance, "George Washington in popular culture," film adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, that sort of thing). One good clue for trash Gatsby is that Paul Rudd has also played Nick Carraway.
Yeah, this is what I was trying to say. You haven't seen those two random TV episodes and don't recognize actors' names and then your buzzer racing the other team that hasn't seen them either on the academic clues.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

I liked this set a lot except for the finals rounds. I can't say it enough, making finals intentionally more difficult is a really crappy practice that ruins some of the most important games in tournaments that aren't loaded with top teams. Our site's top two teams were averaging well over 300-400 ppg and their game was won 290-165. Our third place game was between teams in the mid 200s PPG for the day (including lots of playoff games, they were above 300 in the prelims) and their game ended up being decided with a 105-95 score. That was a disservice to the teams who deserved a game that did a better job of letting them find out who deserved their trophy, and the teams playing it really did not enjoy that packet as a result.

Again, making two packets harder diminishes the ability of those packets to accurately reflect a team's performance on a set, because it makes the most important games ones decided on questions that are mostly inconsistent with the rest of the tournament.

Otherwise I thought this was a very well made set, good work.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Cheynem »

What do people think of finals packets not being appreciably harder than the other packets but perhaps featuring longer questions in an attempt to more finely distinguish knowledge of top teams?
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Re: General Discussion

Post by Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) »

One thing I just noticed - Lewis dot diagrams seem to also be called Lewis structures, which is what a team gave as their answer and I had to reject it.
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Re: General Discussion

Post by AKKOLADE »

Yeah, those are equivalent names.
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