Our yearbooks looked very nice this year. I haven’t pored over it, but I haven’t found my name misspelled yet, and I have only found a few minor errors, which is certainly to be expected. I got a lot of nice notes in my yearbook from a lot of friends, and even from people who I haven’t talked to very much; I certainly left some nice notes as well. Plus, only one person signed with an unintentional factual error: “Good luck at Purdue, though I’m sure you won’t need it.” Well, I guess they’re right: I won’t need good luck at Purdue.

I didn’t keep as good a record as yesterday, and the day was a lot shorter, so I’ll be pretty terse.

Nick was going to pick me up at 7:10 this morning. I woke up at 7:15, and was out the door at 7:20, though I wasn’t really particularly awake. I bought a bagel and coffee at the overpriced hotel eatery. Then I refilled the coffee and drank it again. 32 ounces of coffee and vigorous walking helped me regain alertness, though I didn’t perform all that well regardless. Same as last year, actually; I was substantially worse on Sunday both years.

We were seeded fifth after yesterday, which we were really happy about. (Two teams went 9-1. As you recall, we went 8-2.) Maybe we could have placed higher had we not let ourselves get raped by State College A. Oh well, fifth in such a strong field is certainly an accomplishment. As we walked to our first match, I remarked, “This is a change. Now we’re the giants; everyone’s out to get us.”

The format was double-elimination. Placing depended on how many rounds you played until being eliminated, unless you were in the top four, in which case it got more complicated later to determine third place and the championship.

Round 1: New Trier 325 – Arcadia A 60

Round 2: New Trier 390 – Georgetown Day 230

Round 3: Walt Whitman 300 – New Trier 185

Round 4: New Trier 295 – Chattahoochee 220

Round 5: Troy 345 – New Trier 265

We tied for 13th place with seven other teams. That’s better than we’ve ever done at NAQT Nationals, and in the largest and hardest field yet. We’re happy.

Besides, we have PACE Nationals at Ann Arbor in two weeks, and I’m traveling with Team Illinois to the PAC national tournament in Orlando a bit after. PACE has a smaller field than NAQT, but all the elite teams will be there. It will be scary.

Ah, quizbowl. An intense mental activity against the best teams in the nation, with some of the brightest, most knowledgeable, most…interesting high-schoolers. A few quotes of the day follow, without comment.

“Damn, that’s good bread.”

“I was minister of her interior all night!” (after hearing that Sarkozy was previously minister of the interior)

“Wait, I said, ‘Grab Robert’s nutsack’?” (Nick asked confusedly)

“My whole life’s an Irish jig; is that a crime?”

“Eat this, toll man!” (to the guy manning the hotel’s toll booth)

“What has a hardness of 4400?”
“That’s what she asked!”

“Do you think I could beat Yao Ming if I had an axe?”

—

Oh yeah, we had a tournament too.

Our first match was against Novi A (Novi, MI), a team about which we’ve heard a lot of very good things; we were a bit worried before we started, but we beat them fairly comfortably. Our second match was against James Island Charter (Charleston, SC), and it was an extremely close match that we won by only 10 points.

We then had a bye, our first of four, and saw Maine South with a bye of their own.

Our third match was against Minnetonka A (Minnetonka, MN). As the tournament was power matched, every match was against a team with an equal record, so each match should theoretically get harder and harder. As we just barely won our 1-0 match, we were afraid about our 2-0 match, but beat Minnetonka soundly.

We then had another bye, seeing Maine South yet again as we hung around doing nothing. Our fourth match was against Wilmington Charter A (Wilmington, DE), and at one point we had a lead of about 250 points. We ended up squandering this lead terribly and losing by five points, which was a huge disappointment as we headed to lunch. Oh well, we were 3-1.

After lunch (at McDonald’s, as Reinstein almost ran into about five other cars, again…) we played East Lansing A (East Lansing, MI) and beat them by about 100 points, to become 4-1. We also won our next match against Garfield Heights (Garfield Heights, OH), and then we had another bye to relax.

To advance to Sunday’s playoff rounds, we had to go at least 6-4. We were 5-1 by this point, so we were mainly trying to win as many as possible, instead of being concerned about simply making it to the next day. (Record and points scored helps determine seed going into the playoffs.)

Our next match was against the 5-1 Livingston (Livingston, NJ), who we figured would be very good. They weren’t bad, but we beat them by 340 points, which surprised even us.

Our next round was our fourth and last bye. We were 6-1 at this point, so we were guaranteed to make it into the playoffs. It was all gravy from this point…

So we had some serious deliberations and agreed to split an onion pizza. We got it just before the next match began, so Robert and I were busy inhaling a slice each before the match began. And it was against…Eden Prairie A (Eden Prairie, MN). They were one of the most talked-about teams before Nationals, because they had very impressive stats throughout their season, but only against Minnesota teams. Basically, everyone knew they were very good, but had no idea how very good. (There’s a huge difference between “very good” and “very, very good.”) We ended up beating them by a fair margin, and then we were 7-1. (They were 6-2 after that match, and ended up going 8-2.)

We walked into our next room, and after us came Richard Montgomery A (Rockville, MD). Now, Richard Montgomery was national champion last year, so we were…very concerned. Nick and I know how good they are, so we were kind of afraid. Fortunately, this round was my round to shine, as I got 100 points in tossups (3 powers, 6 regular, 1 decent neg). With one tossup left to go, they were 45 down, which meant that they could tie it. Luckily, they negged on it, so we won by 50 points.

Woo! We beat last year’s national champions by 50 points! (They are still a very, very good team this year. It was a very close match.) We were 8-1! None of us thought we’d ever be 8-1 at Nationals with such good competition. We had beaten big name after big name; we were already well-known, but we were making a bigger name of ourselves after that. (Besides that, we had card #2 and were playing card #1 next.)

And our last match was against State College A (State College, PA). This room was the one in which the podcasts were taking place, so our voices would be recorded for all eternity, for quizbowlers across the country to listen to our match. This was huge. We would be first or second seed if we won.

So naturally, we started slow, and only got slower. State College was doing fairly well, but we were terrible. Neg after neg…losing buzzer race after buzzer race…it was pretty humiliating at the half.

And then it just got worse, as they started playing extremely well. Our tiny chance diminished into no chance at all as they kept powering tossups very early, and we sat there helpless. They ended up beating us by about 400 points, as we scored only 50. Needless to say, this hurt our points per game significantly. Instead of being second place, we fell quite a bit by losing and scoring only 50.

Oh well, we’re still way up there, and everything changes very quickly on Sunday; we’re still seeded highly for tomorrow. It’s double-elimination, so we just have to win as many as we can without losing twice…some of our matches will surely be against teams we have already faced. Hopefully we won’t see State College A early.

—

New Trier: 8-2

Carlo, 435 points, 10.0 GP
Nick, 370 points, 10.0 GP
Ben, 320 points, 10.0 GP
Robert, 95 points, 8.5? GP
Jonah, 15 points, 1.5? GP

Today, teams across the country are arriving in Chicago to compete in the 2007 NAQT High School National Championship Tournament. One hundred sixty teams in all are competing in the HSNCT, hailing from as distant mythic locales as California and Florida; one team is even coming from Ottawa. (Yes, that Ottawa. Yes, it really does exist.) The tournament is in a Rosemont hotel, so we don’t have quite as much of a trip.

The ten preliminary matches are all day tomorrow; teams with a winning record will advance to Sunday’s double-elimination playoff. Last year we eked out 6-4 on Saturday with a substantially weaker team; we hope to do better tomorrow. (We quickly bowed out in two matches on Sunday.) Anyway, we looked at our points per game from last year, and it was horrendous. We really were pretty bad, weren’t we…

Tonight is registration and scrimmaging against other teams. Our team is driving down and playing to get warmed up–and perhaps we’ll get to scout out other teams?

Yep, that’s it. Crazy. I’ll never have as structured learning again in my life.

Well, I have two days left in high school. It feels weird; I can’t say whether it feels longer or shorter, but a lot has happened since the beginning of freshman year. I mean, that’s a really stupid thing to say. Of course a lot has happened since freshman year. But I think that maybe more has happened to me than it does to most people. Let’s see which I can list:

A lot has happened to me in my personal life. I’ve definitely grown a lot emotionally since then, especially during sophomore year. Now I’m a lot more open to people than I was then. I have some amazing friends now like Margaret that I certainly wouldn’t have been as close to if I met them before when I did. (I even have a great girlfriend now who tells me all the time about how wonderful I am…)

I’ve grown a lot in other ways, too. I’ve become a lot more comfortable with myself. I know that I enjoy helping and teaching, as well as exploring on my own. I have become sure of my greatest passions: math and science, with a definite interest in writing about them.

I think I’ve gained a lot by joining math team and WYSE/JETS. Math team doesn’t have much room for growth or leadership, but I feel I have been a very active member all four years. Joining WYSE this year, I found myself an integral member of the team, placing first in state at math, and contributing to the team score at every competition.

Scholastic Bowl has been an entirely different matter, a portal to the rich world of quizbowl unknown to most outside of the activity. I joined New Trier’s team sophomore year, quickly finding that I enjoyed it, and quickly realizing that I could actually make a difference. By junior year, I was a serious question-writer, and by senior year, I helped form (what coaches seem to think the best) Illinois question company. I made the Scobol Solo finals the first year I participated, and won the whole thing this year. Coming from almost nowhere during sophomore year, I have turned into a top player and a leader in the activity as a whole.

I’m not quite sure how it happened, either, but a lot of people know who I am. I mean, a lot of Scholastic Bowl players and coaches remember who I am, or know my name even when I’m not sure who they are. But students and teacher at New Trier, too, seem to know about me before I know about them. Time and time again this year, I have met people who know a lot more about me than I know about them…

I’m definitely ready for college; I think it will afford me a whole new world of experiences and opportunities. I’ve always been one to take opportunities…

Sometimes…I get into moods where I…like to blast awful music…and enjoy it… *hangs head*

I’ll blame Margaret for this one.

Look, guys. I don’t get it. I know standardized testing is flawed. I know it’s hard–nay, impossible–to truly measure the aptitude or knowledge of students nationwide through a mere set of questions. I’m not arguing about the relative merits of testing. What I want to know is why…why students must make such a big deal out of it.

I don’t really think that standardized testing is so awful, except that anxious students and parents have made it that way. I mean, how else are schools supposed to determine at a glance how qualified students are? I don’t think they should ever be used in and of themselves, but so far as I can tell from the people I know, they do a fairly good job of telling the brightest students apart from the bright, from the average, from the below average. It’s a pretty good idea, and if such exams are well-executed, I’d bet they do a lot more good than harm.

But with the inception of a “test-prep” industry dedicated to preparing students to do “well” (read: “better than they should”) on such exams, all bets are off. For starters, I think the entire idea is stupid and unhelpful, especially on tests that aren’t very content-oriented, such as the SAT and ACT. All you need to do beforehand is take one practice test so you’re used to the format and style of the questions.

Instead, these books purport to teach how to beat the test, strategies for guessing questions, etc. Honestly, if you want to learn to do that, you need to sit back and think about things. Do you have better things to do with your time other than waste it on perversions like studying for the SAT?

But those people are perhaps beyond help; what really sparked this was all those who inordinately freak out before and during AP tests. During Spanish and English, I have sat near girls who have had crises filling out the bubbles with their names and such. (Oh no, I signed my name in pen!!?!) Honestly, relax. And during AP test weeks, too. I don’t really mind the tests; they’re meant to test how much I know, and I think I know enough to get the scores I need. I review anything I deem necessary, but other than that, I don’t worry about it. If you want a 5, just sit back and think, “Will I do better than 80% of test-takers?” If you want a 4, will you do better than 60%? (Yes, it varies by test, but you get my point.) I mean, that’s all you really need to do. This is especially true at New Trier, where the AP classes tend to be much harder than the tests.

So calm down. They’re just…tests.