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BUZZ!
Our Academic Team
Varsity quiz bowl, from the captain's chair
Hi. I'm Margaret, I'm a senior, and I'm captain of our school's academic team this year. I made this
page in the library during my free period for one reason: every September, about a dozen new people come
to practice and ask me the same nine questions, starting with "how do the buzzers work," and I would like
to stop answering them out loud. Now I can just say "it's on the Web." Also it will look nice on my
college applications. Hello, admissions office. I am very well rounded.
How quiz bowl works
| Teams | Two teams, four players each, at two tables facing the moderator. You can have alternates, and you can sub them in at halftime. |
| Toss-ups | The moderator reads a question to everybody. Anyone on either team can buzz in at any time, even in the middle. Get it right and your team scores 10 points. No talking to your teammates on a toss-up. You are alone with your brain. |
| Interrupts | If you buzz before the moderator finishes the question and you're wrong, your team loses 5 points, and the moderator reads the rest of the question to the other team. This is called a neg. Paul has six negs this season. We love Paul. |
| Bonuses | Answer a toss-up and your team gets a three-part bonus, 10 points a part, 30 possible. On bonuses you can talk it over, and the captain gives the answer (or tells someone else to). The other team just sits there and suffers. |
| A game | Usually twenty toss-ups, split into two halves. Most good questions are "pyramidal": the hardest clue comes first and the easiest at the end. So the team that knows the most gets to buzz first. That's the whole idea. |
How the buzzers work (for the twelfth time)
There's a box on the moderator's table with eight cords coming out of it, one for each player, and a
button at the end of each cord. When somebody presses a button, their light goes on, the box beeps, and
every other button locks out. Only one person can be in at a time. Then:
- Hold your button lightly, with your thumb on it. Don't choke it. Don't hold it up in the air like a
game show contestant. Nobody needs that.
- Press it the moment you know the answer. Not when you think you might know it soon.
- Wait for the moderator to call your name or say "yes." Then answer. If you blurt it out before
you're recognized, some moderators will count it wrong. Ask Matthew how he knows.
- You get a couple of seconds to answer once you're called on. Say something. A guess has a chance.
Silence has none.
- If your light didn't go on, the other team beat you. Let go of the button. Pressing it harder does
not help. Blaine.
The team
| Player | Specialty |
| Margaret (senior, captain) | Fine arts, geography, and anything nobody else knows. Also yelling "BUZZ FASTER." |
| Jolene (senior) | Literature. Has read every book on the AP list and some that should be. Can name every Brontë and what they wrote, in order. |
| Paul (senior) | History, especially American, especially wars, especially if he's buzzing too early. |
| Matthew (junior) | Chemistry, physics and math. Wants to be a chemical engineer. Knows the periodic table forward, backward and by group. |
| Blaine (freshman) | Mythology. All of it. Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian. He is fourteen and he has never missed a mythology question in a match. It's a little scary. |
| Sara and Sean (sophomores) | Our alternates. Sara does current events, Sean does sports and pop culture, and both of them are going to take my spot next year. |
Our coach is Mr. Heacock, who teaches chemistry, drives the van, reads practice questions in
a voice like a public radio announcer, and has a beard that knows things.
Fall results so far
Saturday, September 18: fall invitational, 12 teams. Two pools of six, then the top two in each pool
play semifinals.
| Opponent | Score | W/L |
| Lakeside | 255-140 | W |
| St. Agnes | 210-185 | W |
| Central | 150-230 | L |
| Valley View B | 300-95 | W |
| Northfield | 190-170 | W |
| Semifinal: Roosevelt | 175-205 | L |
Finished 3rd of 12. Central won the whole thing. They have a senior who I am fairly sure is not
human. We lost the semifinal on the last toss-up of the game (on Chaucer) and Jolene still isn't over it.
Saturday, September 25: eight-team round robin at a community college. Seven games each.
| Opponent | Score | W/L |
| Westbrook | 240-110 | W |
| Roosevelt | 220-200 | W |
| Holy Cross | 265-125 | W |
| Lakeside | 195-180 | W |
| Fairmont | 280-60 | W |
| Central | 185-215 | L |
| Pine Grove | 230-145 | W |
6-1, finished 2nd of 8. We beat Roosevelt this time, which felt very good. We lost to Central
again, but only by 30, which also felt good, in a sad way. Blaine got four mythology toss-ups in one game
against Holy Cross and one of their players asked him if he was "some kind of oracle." He has not stopped
bringing it up.
Toss-ups so far this fall: Margaret 31, Paul 26, Jolene 24, Matthew 22, Blaine 16, Sara 4, Sean 3.
Negs: Paul 6, Matthew 3, me 2, Blaine 2. (I put my own negs in. I am a fair captain.)
We're going to be on TV
On Saturday, November 13 we tape a match for the high school quiz show on one of the local channels,
the one that's been on Saturday mornings since my parents were in high school. It won't air until after
the holidays. We are not allowed to say who we're playing or who won until it airs, and I'm telling you
right now that I already plan to be smug about it. Mr. Heacock says to wear solid colors because stripes
"do something" on camera.
How to study for quiz bowl
People ask how you study for "everything." You don't. You study the things that come up over and over,
and a lot of things come up over and over. Start here:
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The Presidents, in order. Forty-two presidencies, forty-one men (Grover Cleveland counts twice,
22nd and 24th). Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J.Q. Adams, Jackson, Van Buren,
W.H. Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, A. Johnson, Grant, Hayes,
Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, B. Harrison, Cleveland, McKinley, T. Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson, Harding,
Coolidge, Hoover, F. Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, L. Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan,
Bush, Clinton. Then learn their vice presidents. Then cry.
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The periodic table. At least the first twenty elements in order, plus every symbol that doesn't match
the English name: Na (sodium), K (potassium), Fe (iron), Cu (copper), Ag (silver), Sn (tin), Sb (antimony),
W (tungsten), Au (gold), Hg (mercury), Pb (lead). These come up constantly.
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State capitals. Especially the ones that aren't the biggest city: Pierre, Montpelier, Augusta,
Harrisburg, Frankfort, Jefferson City, Carson City, Olympia, Salem, Albany, Springfield, Tallahassee,
Annapolis, Juneau. If a question says "this capital is not its state's largest city," it's probably one of these.
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Three major works for every famous author. Dickens: Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities,
David Copperfield. Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, The Old Man and the Sea.
Austen: Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility. Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury,
As I Lay Dying, Light in August. Twain, Steinbeck, Hawthorne, Tolstoy, and so on down the list.
Jolene has a notebook. Ask nicely.
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Write your own questions. Honestly the best way to learn something is to write a fair question about
it, because you have to figure out what's hard and what's easy. I wrote thirty practice
toss-ups for you. Try them.
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Practice is Tuesdays and Thursdays after school in Mr. Heacock's room. New people are always
welcome, especially freshmen, especially anyone who knows anything about opera. We have a gap.
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