Knowledge Master Open Fall 2007

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What did you think of the KMO difficulty this year?

Poll ended at Mon Dec 31, 2007 7:14 pm

Too Easy
2
17%
Just Right
6
50%
Too Hard
4
33%
 
Total votes: 12

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Golran
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Knowledge Master Open Fall 2007

Post by Golran »

How did people do at the KMO this year? What did you all think of the difficulty? Harder than last year, easier? Our school got in the mid 1500s.
ieppler
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Post by ieppler »

The KMO due date isn't until December 5th. If most schools are disorganized like mine, they won't do it until then.
Ian Eppler from Brown University
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quizbowllee
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Post by quizbowllee »

Brindlee Mountain sucks at KMO:

Score: 1411
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rchschem
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Post by rchschem »

Worst. Score. Ever.

1591 for Raleigh Charter.
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Diet Chuck
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Post by Diet Chuck »

Hopper wrote:The KMO due date isn't until December 5th. If most schools are disorganized like mine, they won't do it until then.
We're so disorganized we won't be doing it until Spring because we forgot to register. wow
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pretzeldude92
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Post by pretzeldude92 »

Rapp Co. High School in Virginia: 1414. 380 kids in the school 8-12. Extremely rural. Yay.
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Youse Da Force
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Post by Youse Da Force »

1476 for Garfield. I think they were harder than last year, and that a few were either misleading or wrong. Grammer sucks.
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vcuEvan
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Post by vcuEvan »

I hope at least the healthy number of glacier and wild wild west questions were preserved.
Mitu
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Post by Mitu »

Wayzata got around 1653.
Mitu Ramgopal
Wayzata '08
jrbarry
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Post by jrbarry »

Thank God my team has not participated in that competition for many years.
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quizbowllee
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Post by quizbowllee »

jrbarry wrote:Thank God my team has not participated in that competition for many years.
We get virtually a whole day out to do it. I have a middle school team, a 9th grade team, and a varsity team that takes it. So, I basically get a day off... I can stomach a crappy computer trivia game for a day off.
powerplant
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Post by powerplant »

Having played, I believe it to have been an utter waste of time. Questions that are terrible, and the puns were aukful. Things like clicking the wrong answer because someone was misheard, and other such things made it relatively lame. Also, I don't like grammar to come up. So, yeah, I didn't like it much.

EDIT: I also thought it was harder than last year.
Joseph Wells

Garfield Heights High School '08
Centre College 2008-2010
Tri-C 2010-2011
Ohio State 2011-
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BuzzerZen
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Post by BuzzerZen »

So, how did the inevitable glacier-related question go?
Evan Silberman
Hampshire College 07F

How are you actually reading one of my posts?
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AndyShootsAndyScores
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Post by AndyShootsAndyScores »

BuzzerZen wrote:So, how did the inevitable glacier-related question go?
Not well for us.
Andy Knowles
Brindlee Mountain, '08
University of Alabama, '12
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rchschem
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Post by rchschem »

BuzzerZen wrote:So, how did the inevitable glacier-related question go?
It was really more of a language question than glaciology (at least the one I'm thinking of). A bit of a let-down, actually.
jbarnes112358
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Post by jbarnes112358 »

Maggie Walker (high school team) 1743

Maggie Walker 9th grade (jr. high team) 1733

I did not notice a major change in difficulty from last year for the high school contest. If anything maybe it was a bit easier. This was the first time we entered a 9th grade team.

To the detractors, KMO is not quizbowl. But, it an interesting competition requiring knowledge, quick thinking, and especially teamwork. Sure, some of the answers are strange. But, they mostly involve legitimate academic knowledge, though not necessarily canonical quizbowl knowledge. It is not just fact-based, as the team sometimes must deduce the correct answer using logic applied to incomplete knowledge (i.e., educated guessing)

We do it because it is cheap, requires no travel, and can often be a way to recruit students into our club. We can certainly get a feel for who knows stuff, what kind of stuff they know, and how willing and confident they are in sharing what they know.
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vcuEvan
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Post by vcuEvan »

Dr. Barnes wrote: We do it because it is cheap, requires no travel, and can often be a way to recruit students into our club.
I think these reasons are all legitimate, as much as I disliked KMO. However I never understood why Maggie Walker did it in the fall, because we invariably were forced to do it during the week before the GSAC. I can't really understand why we kept it up even when so much necessary work had yet to be done.

Last year a few of us suggested leaving it on in the background while we wrote/edited questions to no avail.
jbarnes112358
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Post by jbarnes112358 »

Adamantium Claws wrote: I can't really understand why we kept it up even when so much necessary work had yet to be done.
Yet one more reason why it was bad to procrastinate all the question writing/editing. If the necessary work had been done when it should have been done then this would not be an issue.
jbarnes112358
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Post by jbarnes112358 »

High School Results (unofficial)

1. 1745 Bergen County Academies (NJ)
2. 1743 Maggie Walker Governor's School (Richmond, VA)
11. 1659 Collegiate School (Richmond, VA)

Junior High Division

1. 1733 Maggie Walker Governor's School (9th grade)

That's all I got over the phone. Full results posted by tomorrow morning.
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vcuEvan
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Post by vcuEvan »

jbarnes112358 wrote:High School Results (unofficial)

1. 1745 Bergen County Academies (NJ)
2. 1743 Maggie Walker Governor's School (Richmond, VA)
11. 1659 Collegiate School (Richmond, VA)

Junior High Division

1. 1733 Maggie Walker Governor's School (9th grade)

That's all I got over the phone. Full results posted by tomorrow morning.
Ouch 2 points off. Still I'm pretty sure that's MW's best showing yet so good work. :cry: Congrats to the freshmen on their good work too.
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swwFCqb
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Post by swwFCqb »

Can the full results be found on-line anywhere?

Edit: Yeah, thanks, I found it

Also, to make it easier, it can be found directly here
Last edited by swwFCqb on Fri Dec 07, 2007 11:36 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Steven Wellstead
Fisher Catholic High School '07
Case Western Reserve University '11
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jbarnes112358
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Post by jbarnes112358 »

swwFCqb wrote:Can the full results be found on-line anywhere?
http://www.greatauk.com Follow the links.
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