Brandeis Quick Recall

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2024-25 Tryouts Signup

Students interested in trying out for the 2024-25 Brandeis Quick Recall team should complete this form (also available below this post): https://forms.gle/NBraZaV1485WBEqy6

You don't have to sign-up to try out, but it will ensure you get emails for dates, results, etc.

2024-25 Informational Meeting Notes

Here's a recap of what we talked about at the Tryouts Informational Meeting this year:

Students that want to try out for this year's team should complete the signup form (https://forms.gle/NBraZaV1485WBEqy6, or to the left). This will also add parent emails to my mailing list.
We're going to have an open practice (all students welcome) the two weeks before tryouts. This is to help familiarize students with the format and the type of questions they might see.
Tryouts will be a written test, with at least 65 multiple-choice questions and some number of fill-in-the-blank questions. I usually don't finalize the test until just before tryouts.
I'll select the team the weekend after tryouts. We're aiming for a team of12 to 16 students this year.
Students are encouraged to explore the team site regularly, for news and study resources.

Previous Year Tryout Tests

Below is a copy of our tryout test from 2021.

Students should use this to familiarize themselves with the format of the test (how questions are phrased) and as a study guide.

The questions in each subject sub header line up with the KAAC content guidelines (so the first Science question on the test is from topic 1 "Properties of Objects and Materials," the second question is from topic 2 "Position and Motion of objects" and so on).

One note: KAAC only has 12 topics in Arts & Humanities, while the other subjects have 13 topics each. For our purposes, the 13th Arts & Humanities question will be from the topic "Mythology: Greek and Roman Gods, Goddesses and Characters ."

2021 Tryout Test

Tryout Test 2021.pdf

2019 Tryout Test

Tryout Test 2019.pdf

Governor's Cup District

The Brandeis Quick Recall team competed Saturday, February 20th, in Governor's Cup District, hosted virtually this year by the wonderful team at Kentucky Country Day. The kids have adjusted well to the remote environment and won first place in Quick Recall, defeating Anchorage Independent in the final match. Brandeis also won first place overall! Congratulations to the students, parents, teachers, and staff that have worked hard and overcome many challenges this year!

Preparing for Tryouts

Quick Recall tryouts are soon and you want to do your best to make the team. Here are some great ways to prepare:

Pick two subjects that interest you the most. You'll be trying out for these subjects specifically. You should familiarize yourself with the KAAC Elementary Content Areas (questions in each subject will be roughly evenly distributed among these topics).
Join the Brandeis Quick Recall Quizlet class. Quizlet is basically digital flashcards, and is the most efficient way to learn lots of new information in a short amount of time. You can look for decks that have your subjects' two letter prefix (AH for Arts & Humanities, MA for Math, etc) to start. Practice the decks until you can quickly recall the word associations found in each.
Review the study materials and references on our Resources page. You may notice that most of the study guides are lists--lists aren't fun to study, but they're certainly helpful!
After you've study flashcards and lists, review what you've learned by looking over some of the question sets and prior year tests on the Question Sets page. TIP! Many students will go straight to the question sets and practice those. While that's tempting, it's not an effective way to learn new material.

National Academic Championship

The Brandeis Quick Recall team traveled to Chicago this June for the third annual National Academic Championship. The Bears played against students from all over the country, including some exciting matches with schools from Ohio and Iowa. Sixth grade was included in the elementary division, but that didn't daunt our fourth and fifth graders.

This is Brandeis's third year competing in the NAC. Our first year, the students placed third. Last year, they just missed winning the championship by one question and took second. The kids were determined to bring home the top prize this year as they headed into their matches.

After the first day of competition, Brandeis had a record of 5-1, and had the highest points scored total of any school, allowing them to be ranked #1 heading into today's single elimination bracket. After winning the opening match against Hawken A (the team that won the event both prior years), they faced off against Hawken B, the one team that had defeated them in pool play.

The Brandeis Quick Recall Team took an early lead and dominated the match, winning the game and the championship 410-255. Our Bears were crowned national champions! Sumu was named MVP too! What an exciting way for our students to cap off their year!

Congratulations to all the Quick Recall students (and their families!) for their hard work this year, especially the ones that gave up the first weekend of summer to travel to Chicago to study: Sivani, Manasvi, Emma, Aalya, Vishwaa, Shreya, Sree, Vallabh, Alvina, Aniket, Mahadev, and Sumu.

World Science Championship

Five Brandeis Bears traveled to Atlanta this summer to compete at the first annual Science World Fair. Our students previously qualified for the event by sweeping the Regional Qualifiers in Lexington in the spring. Students from all over the country competed to see who would be crowned Science World Champion by answering questions about chemistry, physics, astronomy, biology, math, and more.

John won the 4th grade division! His buzzer times were among the fastest in the event, regardless of grade level!

Sumu made it to the final head-to-head round in the 5th grade division, where he barely missed the top spot, finishing second.

Manasvi and Vishwaa each finished in the top five of their grade level, a huge achievement itself!

In the Grand Champion event, all players from all grade levels (4th grade is to 12th grade) competed together to find the single Grand Champ. Aniket, Vishwaa, and Manasvi all made it through multiple rounds, and Sumu made it to the semi-finals holding his own against middle and high schoolers. Sumu finished in the top 15 among all students at the event!

Team Tryouts 2018 — Sep 17, 2018 2:30:04 PM

First League Match — Jan 26, 2018 9:32:40 PM

SS - Elected Officials Study Guide — Oct 10, 2017 3:12:01 PM

Tryout Results 2018 — Sep 18, 2017 2:41:20 AM

Questions Sets and Practice Tests — Sep 10, 2017 10:22:25 PM

Practice Test 1 — Aug 25, 2017 1:37:42 PM

Student Questionnaire — Aug 24, 2017 10:20:11 PM

Student/Parent Meeting — Aug 23, 2017 6:32:12 PM

Summer Study Materials — Jul 24, 2017 6:23:22 PM

2017 - Second Match — Jan 23, 2017 7:08:14 PM

2017 - First Match — Jan 12, 2017 7:55:06 PM

Homework - Social Studies Assessment — Nov 5, 2016 2:25:52 PM