This Tuesday

I quizzed out on the last question before we wrapped up (no pun intended, if you know what i mean). We are reviewing from now on so I was pretty amazed. Of course, kaleigh quizzed out before me. Hm. I ought to post on Kaleigh. Someone remind me. 

Funny thing: I answered a question on Philemon 6 ("I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.") and like two questions later we had it again, only this time it was a quote question!

Philemon

I promised myself at Nationals last May that I would memorize at least one book. And now I have Paul's letter to Philemon a little over half memorized. w00tness! Can't wait until the next tourney.

Politics of Bible quizzing

If you look closely at any quizing society, you will find that it is a lot like a mini-high school. Rivalry-- why do you think we make fun of...never mind. Romance-- no comment :) Competition--it's what sets quizzing apart from any other Bible study. 

But there ar edifferences. Success is determined not by clothes or appearance or grades, but by how hard you work toward the prize. We talk not of sex, drugs, and other crap; most discussion is about our faith, our lives, and our team's record, lol. That's what I like about quizzing. God is in it. You can sense His presence in these people's lives, almost.

Part 3: Setup and

Sorry I haven't posted in forever. Almost nine months. I have been posting in my AoPS blog, the link to which will be included...eventually. Hm.

So. There are two teams in every team round, generally three people per team, although it is not unheard of to have a two-man team if the quizzers are good enough, or four people, and the extra would be a substitute. More on that later. The quizzers are seated in a row of three chairs (three people, three chairs, right?) which are connected to an electronic box by jump seats, small rectangular pressure-sensitive pads so that, when one person jumps, the little LEDs light up, indicating the order in which the quizzers jumped.

Scoring:

There are generally 15 questions per team round, 20 for individuals. Whoever gets the question correct earns themselves (or the team) 20 points. The quizmaster will start reading the question, and when he or she is finished, the quizzers will try to get up first. If, however, someone jumps before the question is complete, they have "pre-jumped" and must complete the question in 20 seconds. (Whenever a quizzer makes an answer, that person has 20 seconds to do so.) 

That's basically Bible quizzing, at least how the Free Methodists do it. There are, I understand, variations on the rules, as evidenced by the videos I found on YouTube. Hmm. I'll try to get the link in.

Part 2: Divisions and Conferences

In Bible Quizzing, there are three main divisions, aka ranks. When you join your team in (usually) fifth or sixth grade, you are called a Young Teen Rookie. After you have quizzed for two years, you are a Young Teen Veteran. In around tenth grade you are classified as a Senior Teen Veteran. [Disclaimer: I only speak for my team and conference. Elsewhere things are probably done differently.] This is done so that experienced competitors do not go against rookies, so as to give an 'equal' chance to all. For this reason, there are often A and B divisions to even competition out within a rank when some teams are better than others. In addition, one who joins in 11th grade and has never done quizzing before is grouped with the YTVs as a Senior Teen Rookie.

Conferences are just like regional chapters, usually containing part of one state. The conference is larger if states don't have a lot of teams.

Bible quizzing: what is it? Part One: The Big Idea

At Bible quizzing, what we do is this: Each year, the world's quizzers study a certain book of the New Testament, in my case, or more than one as was the case last year. (We did Romans and James.) Each week, the team gathers at church to read a chapter and work on it, as in practicing on the jump seats.
[jump seats: electronic pads placed on a chair. When a quizzer sits on it and then stands up, the pad is connected to a box, and a light goes on corresponding to the quizzer's position. Before their invention in what, the 70s?, quizmasters had to use a piece of paper and judge the order in which the quizzers stood up.]

Then once a month, my team meets with teams from other area churches to compete over what we have learned.

The reason for this blog's existence

Well, I started this blog because I'm studying the Bible, specifically Acts this year, although I may not really post regularly until this fall, when I begin a new year in Bible quizzing.

This is also because we are encouraged to journal our thoughts, and personally, I think a blog is a friendlier form of doing so. Less obligatory. And if there are any Christians out there, you can feel free to comment and join me.