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Washington
State Knowledge Bowl |
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WRITTEN ROUND -- The Written Round will consist of a printed copy of 50 multiple-choice questions, which will be the same for each team. It has a time limit of 35 minutes.
Teams
1. Each team will consist of not more than six members.
2. No team member substitutions are allowed during the Written Round.
Discussion and Answers
3. All members may work cooperatively on the Written Round to decide upon
the best answer for each question.
4. An effort should be made to keep discussions down to a level that will
not disturb the other teams.
5. Answers are to be marked on the answer sheet, which will be scored after
the round.
6. One point will be awarded for each correct answer. There is no penalty
for an incorrect response.
Other Written Round Rules
7. The use of calculators or any reference materials is not allowed.
8. Any team found cheating would be disqualified from the round.
ORAL ROUNDS -
The first four Oral Rounds
(Preliminary Oral Rounds) will consist of 50 short answer questions, which are
read aloud by the Reader/Judge. The Semi-Final and Championship Oral Rounds
will consist of 60 questions each. All 50 or 60 questions in an oral round
will be read.
Teams
1. Three teams compete against each other during an oral round.
2. Each team may have up to four members "in" at one time, who must
be seated facing the Reader/Judge.
3. The timing device must be visible to the team members. Each team will be
seated directly in front of their team "bar." When the bar is touched
by any team member, the timing device will alert the timer and the reader/judge
of that team's intent to answer the question.
4. One team member will serve as team captain, and must do so for the entire
round. The team's name card must be placed directly in front of the captain
during the oral rounds to assist the reader/judge in identifying the captain
of each team.
5. Teams will be allowed to make substitutions once during an oral round -
the halfway point (immediately following question 25 during a 50-question
round, and after question 30 in a 60-question round). At that point, the Reader/Judge
is to invite teams to make substitutions (captains may remind the reader/judge
to do so). Any team member except for the team captain may be replaced by
either of the two available substitutes.
"Buzzing In"
6. In order for a team to have the opportunity to answer a question, a team
member must "buzz in" by touching the bar.
7. The Reader/Judge will begin each question by announcing the question #.
Once the question # has been given, any team that buzzes in must respond.
8. A team may interrupt by buzzing in at any point while the question is being
read (up to 5 seconds after the last team to buzz in). The reader stops immediately,
and the Timer calls out the team (Team A, B, or C).
9. A team that buzzes in has 15 seconds to begin its answer. Time will start
when the Timer has recognized a team that has buzzed in.
10. The team that has buzzed in may answer only after being recognized by
the timer. A team which answers before being recognized by the Timer will
be disqualified on that question, and on the alternate question should it
be required to replace the original question.
11. If no team has buzzed in while the question is being read, teams will
have five seconds following the completion of the question to buzz in, or
else the Reader/Judge will give the answer and go on to the next question.
12. If the first team to buzz in answers the question incorrectly, the next
team to buzz in would have the opportunity to answer the question. If that
team answers incorrectly, the third team that has buzzed in would have the
opportunity to answer the question.
13. Each team is given 15 seconds to respond. A continuous response may be
completed after expiration of time, if begun before time has expired.
14. If at least one team has buzzed in and the entire question has been read,
a team that has not yet buzzed in must do so within 5 seconds after the Reader/Judge
has announced the previous team's response to be incorrect.
15. A question may be re-read only if the team responding to a partially read
question has answered it incorrectly and the other team(s) has not buzzed
in. Only the team(s) not buzzed in may request the re-reading of the question.
16. In a case where no correct answer is given, the Reader/Judge will finish
the question if needed, read the correct answer and go on to the next question.
Discussion and Answering
17. A team may quietly discuss the question and/or answer. A team's discussion
time ends when they provide an answer, correct or incorrect.
18. Talking between questions is to be kept to a minimum. Action on that point
is at the judge's discretion.
19. All answers must be clear and concise. It is recommended that they begin
with "Our answer is," or "The answer is," or "Our
team answer is."
20. One team member -- the Captain or his/her designee -- may give only one
answer. (The captain may appoint another team member to give the answer.)
21. If the answer to a question is a name, the last name is acceptable unless
the reader/judge pre-announces that a full name is required for that question.
22. Mathematics questions will be announced prior to the reading of the question
(i.e., "The next question is a math question.").
23. For math questions that deal with measurements, the unit in the answer
is required, unless the unit is given in the question. For example, if the
question said "How many square feet . ." then square feet in the
answer would be optional. If the question said, "Find the area . ."
-- without reference to a unit -- then "square feet" if appropriate
would be required.
24. On some questions, parts of the answer will be optional if that part was
included in the question. For example, if the question asked "What river
in North America . ." and "Columbia River" were the correct
answer, then "Columbia" alone would be accepted since "river"
was part of the question and therefore optional in the answer. If, however,
the question asked "Which body of water in North America . ." then
"Columbia River" would be required as the correct answer.
25. One point is awarded to the team giving the correct response to each question.
There is no penalty for an incorrect response.
Other Oral Round Rules
26. Pencil and paper may be used for any question, and the writings may be
shared between members. Calculators or resource materials are not allowed.
27. Any team found cheating would be disqualified from the round.
28. Only the Team Captain (or his/her designated team member) may address
a Reader/Judge for clarification or a challenge during the Oral Round. Other
team members, coaches, or audience members will not be recognized.
29. The decision of the Reader/Judge during the Oral Round is final.
30. At the end of the round, the Team Captain may choose to issue a Formal
Challenge, which will be reviewed by the Challenge Resolution Team immediately
after that round.
31. Each Team Captain must initial the score sheet at the end of an oral round.
COMPETITION GUIDELINES
Team Groupings for the Preliminary Rounds
1. If there are 18 teams
competing at a given level (for example 4A), then these teams will be divided
into 2 divisions of 9 each. (If 12 teams are competing, they will be
organized into 1 division of 12 teams.)
2. In the Preliminary Rounds,
teams will compete during one Written Round and four Oral Rounds. Each team’s
scores will be compared with the scores of the other teams within a division.
3. During the Preliminary Oral
Rounds, each team will meet the other teams within their Division at least
once (pre-determined schedule).
Advancing
to the Semifinal and Championship Rounds
4. If there are 18 teams in 2
Divisions competing at a given level, then the top 3 finishers in each
Division plus the next 3 highest scoring teams (Wildcard Teams) will advance.
(If 12 teams in a single Division, then the top 9 advance.) Total scores from
the Written Round plus the four Preliminary Oral Rounds will used to determine
which teams advance.
5. The 9 teams in the Semi-Final
Rounds will be divided into 3 groups of 3 for one oral round of 60 questions.
Based on their previous totals, teams will be grouped according to a
pre-determined schedule.
6. The 1st place finisher of each
Semifinal Round will advance to the Championship Round to compete for 1st,
2nd, and 3rd places overall. The 2nd place finishers will advance to
compete for 4th, 5th, and 6th, and the 3rd place finishers will advance
to compete for 7th, 8th, and 9th.
7. The final place each team
earns will be based on the results of the Championship Rounds.
Resolving Ties
8. In qualifying for the
Semi-Final Rounds and determining the 3 groups of 3, ties will first be
resolved by the Written Round scores. If a tie still exists, it will be
resolved as follows: Ties between two teams will result in a “mini” oral round
of 10 questions (15 Q’s for three teams). If a tie still exists after this
session, then questions will be read in groups of 5 until the tie is broken.
9. In qualifying for the
Championship Rounds, only the scores from the Semifinal Rounds will be used.
Ties within a competing group of 3 will be resolved as follows: Ties between
two teams will result in a “mini” oral round of 10 questions (15 Q’s for three
teams). If a tie still exists after this session, then questions will be read
in groups of 5 until the tie is resolved.
10. Scores from the only
Championship Rounds will be used to determine 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and
4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th, 8th, 9th places for the Tournament at that
level. If a tie exists at the conclusion of a Championship Round, it will be
resolved in the same manner as described in the previous rule (#9).
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