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The tide of history

Discussion of quizbowl topics not related to specific tournaments
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Charlie Dees
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Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:00 am
Location: Columbia, MO

The tide of history

Post by Charlie Dees »

Jeff Hoppes, NAQT's Vice President of Communications, recently announced this on hsquizbowl.org, about the future of their High School National Championship.
This is a quick announcement about NAQT computation policy for next year's HSNCT.

NAQT has decided to remove computational math tossups from the 2010 HSNCT. It is likely, but not certain, that there will be computational math bonus parts. Expect a full announcement re: HSNCT distribution change later this summer (once we've decided what other changes we wish to make).
He goes on further to say that NAQT is internally discussing a more wide reaching change to their Invitational series sets, such as changing their distribution to have fewer computation tossups and more bonuses, and offering hosts the opportunity to buy sets that have all the computation questions excised. Some of these questions will probably be replaced with math theory questions. So to summarize:
Zero computation tossups will be asked at the two reputable national championships. Zero of the two reputable national question writing companies will be forcing their customers to buy computation tossups (assuming this NAQT policy goes through). Being able to calculate quickly will not assist anyone in their quest to win a national title. There are also no reputable house written tournaments with calculation questions. The national trend is becoming less and less arguable - computation questions will not exist at any well regarded tournament. We in Missouri have a choice right now, we can either adapt to national standards and start focusing on better kinds of quizbowl that reward knowledge and make this game so useful for any smart or curious person, or we can stick our fingers in our ears and start singing the alphabet song at the top of our lungs until everyone stops trying to make this state's game better, and leave all our future superstars stuck in a place where they just kind of stagnate and never get the opportunity to really focus on becoming good players. It's up to you, MACA and MSHSAA. I suggest you do something to emulate the former, for the benefit of the actual kids we are advocating for.

KentB
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The tide of history

Post by KentB »

Renewing the contract with QG is obviously a step in the right direction. MSHSAA has been listening to our logic!

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