Quiz Bowl
November 13, 2017
The audience hushes into silence as Mr. Gilden announces the first toss-up questions. “For ten points, name this election” *buzzzz* “1972?”… “That is correct.”
The audience jumps and cheers, sitting on the edge of their seats, as the senior participants proceed to the set of bonus questions.
Every year during Spirit Week, the grades compete in the annual Quiz Bowl tournament. Quiz Bowl is a game in which teams compete head-to-head to answer questions from all areas of knowledge, including history, literature, science, fine arts, current events, sports, and popular culture. The teams consist of four representatives from each grade who answer brain challenging questions. Since this event is two periods long, two teams are created for each grade, and after the first period ends, the teams switch. Including both halves of the event, senior contestants were Meeghan Xu, Rebecca Hirschhorn, Simona Fine, Courtney Hakimian, Joshua Nouriyelian, Shiron Shaoulpour, Matthew Han, and Jon Sasson. Representing the junior grade, Yoel Hawa, Eyal Hakimi, Bella Mirro, Joshua Rothbaum, Lenor Levy, and Jason Beeferman. For the sophomores, participants were Judah Nouriyelian, Victor Chen, Sean Eliassi, Shiv Karwal, Adam Tsou, Mark Xu, Matthew Xu, and Shang Ni. Lastly, freshmen representatives were Damien Chafee, Alex Geula, Kate Needham, Lance Hakimian, Adam Sanders, Gracie Tropp-Levy, Jared Astrof, and Brenner Yellis.
The defining feature of Quiz Bowl is the use of a “buzzer system” that allows players to interrupt the reading of a question to guess the answer. This element adds a dimension of confidence, anticipation, and rapid recall to what is primarily a game about knowing facts. Those “toss-up” questions are answered individually, but doing so earns one’s team a chance at a multipart “bonus” question. Bonus questions are worth more points and allow collaboration, but are generally more difficult. The discussion is led by the team captain, who also provides the answer to Mr. Gilden. If a team captain provides an incorrect answer before the question is asked, five points are automatically deducted. However, providing an answer after the question is asked will have no penalty.
The seniors came in first with a lead of 285 points, followed by juniors with 275 points, freshmen in third place with 185 points, and sophomores with 130 points.
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