<p>Just curious how many CC people have students involved with or have had experience with quizbowl competitions.</p>
<p>I didn’t really pick up on it until college and wish in retrospect that I had a chance to play more in high school, particularly on “good” nationals-level questions (as opposed to Jeopardy-style short buzzer races and other TV-ish gimmicks). For any parents looking for a good extracurricular for their students, I highly recommend it as an activity that encourages intellectual curiosity (always good for college preparation) as well as a competitive spirit. You don’t get good at good quizbowl by just memorizing things, you really have to enjoy learning and read on your own far beyond what classes teach you to get a kind of “mental map” of the entire canon of a subject. </p>
<p>What really struck me most when I watched the high school national championships last weekend (200 teams from all across the country competing at once!) was how much the higher schoolers knew. It was astonishing how many of them had mastered the highest levels of science, history, literature…things that even graduate students in those disciplines might be hard pressed to know, let alone recall in a few seconds. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the top high school teams now regularly beat up on college teams on questions that are far, far more advanced than any high school class could teach. This year’s high school national runner-up, State College Area High School from PA, finished 12th at the hardest collegiate national tournament. This was a team of high school juniors (!!) playing as well as many teams of crusty grad students on questions that ranged from the difficult to the ridiculous. It’s also not just random memorization too- they really know and appreciate things like fine art, poetry, scientific principles, etc. It’s just amazing to behold and a sign, to me at least, that there are at least a non-insignificant number of high schoolers out there who are getting a lot out of the standard liberal arts education… in high school!</p>
<p>My D was on the jr. high team this year. After watching a couple of matches, I observed two things:
The questions are RIDICULOUSLY hard and random!</p>
<ol>
<li>Some schools take it very seriously and cut throat! One competiting school, had 2 players who buzzed in probably at least 80% of the time and were almost always correct - the advisor played those 2 EVERY match leaving out many kids on the team to never play.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>When my D was a sophomore her school began QB. She loved it. They qualified for Nationals even the first year, and have every year, but only go to Nationals when it doesn’t conflict w/graduation (bs). I enjoyed watching, and agree, the kids know a lot.</p>
<p>Our school had a great Quiz Team! The Booster Club did a Parent Quiz event every year that the Team organized and ran - so much fun and extremely competitive! The teachers even formed teams and it got very strategic as to who you recruited to be on your team. I counted myself lucky to answer 3 or 4 questions but really excelled one year when they had a song lyric category!</p>
<p>My D (freshman) LOVES Quiz Bowl. She has designated herself as the literature person on her team, and amazed me with her poetry and ‘Brit Lit’ knowledge a few times when I watched them compete. Her team is going to Quiz Bowl camp this summer, but it conflicts with another camp she is attending so she won’t be able to go. I wish there were more camps (in more convenient locations for us, anyway).</p>
<p>My team just competed at the National Championships. We didn’t do very good, but it was a fun experience. Some of the teams there were absolutely ridiculous in the amount of things they knew.</p>
<p>In HS it is a great experience especially when you get to compete state wide or on local TV shows.
In college though, it is unfortunately hard to justify the time if you are taking courses in any serious major.</p>
<p>I’m from the DC area and was on my HS It’s Academic team in my Jr & Sr year (captain Sr yr). In Sr year we progressed to quarterfinals, which was fun, seeing that I went to an all-girls school of 200 and we beat some of the large public HS with 2000 kids. My Jr year in college I organized a College Bowl team and my Sr year we hosted the regional championships. I agree the level of competition jumps significantly from HS to College. </p>
<p>I encouraged my Jr D to get involved since Freshman year and she finally joined in January this year and was put on the first team after a few months as the general trivia, science & sports expert. She enjoys it - I understand how it’s done in NJ is a bit different than in other states.</p>
<p>There’s also a program called KMO (Knowledge Master Open), which is a one-day competition. When my daughter switched schools, we formed our own team and they competed in my dining room. One year, DD was the team. It was fun.</p>
<p>My kids’ school had an Academic Olympics team that my son captained for two years. (No one from the class ahead of him ever made it to “starter” status, which he had for three years.) It was a good experience for him, and academically respectable. I used to judge competitions sometimes – “events” based on interviews, public speaking, or essay-writing, not the substantive content-based tests. I liked the AO format a lot more than Quiz Bowl.</p>
<p>My school had an It’s Academic team. I would have been on it for four years, except for spending my 10th grade year abroad. It’s the kind of thing I am good at. (No one likes to play Trivial Pursuit with me – I win a lot, and I am very competitive about it.)</p>
I’ve been a quiz bowl captain since 6th grade. Ivy Leagues eat that stuff up,especially Harvard, seeing as a scandal has left them barren of college his bowl awards.
This thread is 5 years old… You should start a new one to discuss. QB is seen as a good academic EC, but it is no hook for Harvard. They aren’t recruiting for it…