Quiz Bowl is an academic competition played in high school and college (although middle school students at Hunter are welcome to join). It is similar to the popular TV game show Jeopardy! in that questions are read to competitors, who then buzz in to answer, but it differs in that quiz bowl questions are (usually) much more difficult and better-written than Jeopardy! clues, and cover mostly academic subjects, with very little trivia.
In a game of quiz bowl, two schools are each represented by a team of four players. The moderator, AKA reader, begins to read a question, known as a tossup. Tossups in formats played at Hunter are in a style known as pyramidal. Pyramidal tossups are generally several sentences long, beginning with a leadin composed of very obscure clues, and working down, with decreasing difficulty, until the giveaway, or the easiest clue. There are several popular formats for quiz bowl competitions, including NAQT, PACE, and mACF. In the NAQT format, for example, players can signal by pressing an electronic buzzer at any time during a tossup, and, if correct, get 10 points for their team. If they get it before a certain point, the get is known as a power and is worth 15 points. However, if a player buzzes before the tossup has been read in its entirety and gets it wrong, their team loses 5 points (known as a neg) and nobody else on that team can answer. If the other team later gets the question wrong before it has been read in its entirety, they do not lose 5 points and the next tossup is read. Whichever team gets the tossup correct receives a bonus worth 30 points, generally in three parts, each worth 10 points. Unlike on tossups, conferral is allowed between teammates on bonuses, and only that team can answer. Conferral on a tossup can result in that team losing 5 points. For more information on NAQT and other formats, see the links below.
For more information about quiz bowl in general:
For more information about specific formats of quiz bowl:
Archives of sets of quiz bowl questions, or packets:
Sample QuestionsTossup 19, Round 8, Prison Bowl I (2008)
This substance’s stress-strain behavior exhibits the Mullins effect and the Payne effect. Unlike other materials, it stores strain energy in thermal form as well as electrostatic form. In its natural form, it is a polymer of hydrocarbon monomers. It can also be synthesized as a polymer of (*) isoprene or of various other monomers. It often undergoes vulcanization, a process in which it is heated and cured with sulfur. It occurs naturally in the sap of certain plants such as the Pará tree, figs, and euphorbias. FTP, name this elastic material used in most pencil erasers.
ANSWER: rubber (prompt on “latex”)
[Note: the asterisk (*) is the power mark, the point before which a correct answer is worth 15 points instead of 10, which generally immediately precedes a clue that makes the question much easier to answer. "FTP" stands for "For 10 points".]
Bonus 14, Round 7, Prison Bowl I (2008)
FTPE, name these exclaves:
[10] This 49th state is disconnected from the rest of the United States by Canada.
ANSWER: Alaska
[10] Spain has two cities on the continent of Africa, although Morocco claims both. Name either.
ANSWER: Ceuta or Melilla
[10] This Russian oblast is entirely surrounded by Lithuania, Poland, and the Baltic Sea.
ANSWER: Kaliningrad Oblast (do not accept “Königsberg”)
[Note: "FTPE" stands for "For 10 points each".] |
