After placing third at Regionals, senior Quiz Bowl members Hudson Moore, Hunter Koch and Isabel Bors and junior member Christopher Pollard finished 14th in States held at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics March 19.
Moore, the president of the club, has been in Quiz Bowl for three years and is familiar with the competition. Moore said that States were a lot more difficult than Regionals but said she was less nervous than most of the other members.
“When you get to States, you’re going against a lot of more difficult, more competitive schools I would say,” Moore said. “It is not my first competition, so I was okay at the States competition.”
Koch, a two-year member of Quiz Bowl, felt that States was a bit more difficult than what she had recently encountered at Regionals.
“States is basically the best of the best,” Koch said. “We got a wild card, because we didn’t do so well at Regionals. States had all of the best teams from all of the districts, so it was pretty scary.”
Timing and answering questions as fast and as diligently as one can is key and will gain the team more points in the long run while competing.
Quiz Bowl is not just average trivia; it can be broad or general questions. This includes topics one learns in school all the way to pop culture in today’s society.
“It’s like trivia; not just any trivia though,” Quiz Bowl advisor and social studies teacher Sara Keever said. “If you go out somewhere and you do trivia, questions can be kind of totally random. This is more like trivia of the stuff you know from school.”
While preparing for these events, members feel like it is necessary to refresh their general knowledge on certain topics, and this helps them academically.
“I have to think back on the classes that I took a long time ago maybe and refresh myself on that,” Moore said. “As a senior, I might not remember [certain topics], but since I’m in Quiz Bowl, I’m having to kind of keep that information fresh in my mind.”
Koch feels like Quiz Bowl enhances her widespread knowledge on certain topics as well and sets her up for success in upcoming classes.
“Since I had heard about it in Quiz Bowl, I already had an understanding,” Koch said. “Being quizzed on stuff I didn’t even know or just recalling facts definitely helped me in my classes going forward.”
Reviewing their school knowledge is only one of the things Quiz Bowl members do to prepare for State competitions.
“We tried to memorize frequency lists [lists of topics they study],” Koch said. “There’s one for composers, and there’s one for plays and books. We looked at all of those to be familiar with the kinds of stuff they always ask about.”
Even though the competitions can get stressful at times, Moore, Koch and other members feel that Quiz Bowl is a great club to be in.
“A lot of people think that they don’t know enough to be in Quiz Bowl or they aren’t smart enough, but everyone knows the answer to at least one question,” Moore said. “Everyone knows something, and everyone can contribute to the team. It’s a really good experience.”
– By Harleigh White
