How to Prepare for the Science Bowl

Step-by-Step Guide

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   Step 1: This portion of the guide is geared towards those who have little to no Science Bowl experience.

   For those looking for more advanced tips, scroll down to the "Captaining" section. ,,, These are:
   Answering after you buzz but before you are verbally recognized is known as a “blurt.” Blurts are treated like an incorrect answer to an interrupt (at least at the official Department of Energy competitions).
   
   Don’t blurt.
   
   If you have trouble doing this, don’t watch the moderator; only listen to him or her.
   
   Eye contact doesn’t count as recognition.
   
   If you still have trouble, put your backpack or some other large object between you and the moderator.
   
   Points are issued for a correct answer to a toss-up question.
   
   Collaboration is not allowed on toss-ups.
   
   If you say anything (except your answer, and then only if you are called on), your team will be disqualified from answering the question.
   
   Points are issued for a correct answer to a bonus question.
   
   Should your team answer a toss-up question correctly, you will earn a bonus question, which only your team is allowed to answer.
   
   Collaboration is allowed on bonus questions, and you are given longer to find the correct answer.
   
   The designated team captain must start giving the answer before time is called.
   
   The other team can’t make noise (especially by buzzing).
   
   Points are added to the other team’s score for an incorrect interrupt of a toss-up question or an interrupt blurt.
   
   Once one person on your team has either collaborated, blurted, or given an incorrect answer to a toss-up question, no member of your team may buzz.
   
   If you don’t know the answer, don’t buzz in early and prevent your teammates, who may know the answer, from answering.
   
   If you do know the answer, buzz quickly.
   
   If nobody on your team has buzzed about 3 seconds after the full question has been read, guess before the question expires. , Questions are not repeated., Is it a toss-up or a bonus question? Is it multiple-choice or short answer?, the correct answer as written on the answer sheet), or both.
   
   For example, if the scientific answer to a multiple-choice question were “resonance points,” “resonance point” would not be accepted.
   
   Hence, it’s usually best to just give the letter.
   
   The only times you would want to give the “scientific answer” would be when you had forgotten the letter or the correct answer has not been read yet.
   
   You never would want to give both answers because it would be counted wrong if they didn’t match.,, You may even want to write down the format of the question, because people often forget it and do silly things like blurt out “X” as the answer to a short answer question., Teams have five seconds to give the answer., The question clearly implies the exact format of the answer choices (such as a question asking for a simple numeric answer) The answer-choice(s) read so far establish a pattern as to the format of the remaining answer-choice(s) (for example, if the first answer-choice is: “W.
   
   Milliohms,” and you know the answer is some variant of Henry's, you should buzz in and say “Millihenrys”.
   
   Of the 4 answer-choices, if three have been read and none are correct, buzz in and say “Z.” While some older Science Bowl questions include “none of the above” or “all of the above” as an answer choice, which could throw a wrench in this logic, no new Science Bowl questions contain these types of choices. , Should you interrupt and give an incorrect answer, you will be penalized.
   
   The majority of questions are answered by interrupt in some matches, so interrupts are often worth the risk., On multiple-choice questions there is no advantage to waiting for someone else to guess if nobody knows the correct answer. (You have a 1/4 chance of guessing correctly if you go first.
   
   If you wait, then there’s a 3/4 chance that the other team will guess wrong, times a 1/3 chance that you’ll guess correctly from the remaining choices, which gives you the same 1/4 chance of guessing correctly.) Don’t wait for them to guess, because you have a brain and intuition, so your chances of guessing correctly are actually at least a little better than random.
   
   Only refrain from randomly guessing if your team is running out of time to catch up to the other team or the question is computation-based, in which case your buzz would give the other team extra time to solve it.
   
   Always make a reasonable guess; even when you think you have no idea, you might get it right just by saying a scientific word that seems related to the question. , Do not hesitate.
   
   Be confident in yourself.,,, Don’t let that happen to you., Whether you trounced your opponent, vice versa, or it was neck-to-neck battle, thank them because they’re challenging you to improve (or because they were polite enough to take a pounding).,,,,,,,,, Never be too shy to buzz; decide whether or not to buzz rationally.
   
   Buzz a little more slowly than you have been during the week or two before a tournament but not necessarily to the point where you aren’t getting any interrupts., It may scare weak-minded teams when you get an impossible question right.
   
   Don’t be weak-minded; we beat many teams that knew way more science than us, because we were better at playing the game.,, The ideal speed also varies with the difficulty of the questions, because easier questions increase both the speed of your teammates and your opponents, so you’ll want to buzz really quickly while still getting the bulk of them right (after all, they’re easy).,, Ask your teammates to do the same for you.
   
   Ideally everyone on the team would know how to adjust their speed to the ideal during any match., They’re not just guessing; they’re really good at predicting what will be asked.
   
   If you want to beat a team that can do this consistently, you’ll have to push yourself to anticipate what questions will ask. , The more divisions the better, but usually the problem only has a limited number of parts that can be done by different people.
   
   Have everyone who doesn’t get a part do the same thing as someone else as a double check.
   
   You can set up default roles during practice to eliminate the need for the initial “giving of orders” during the actual competition.
   
   Feed – as long as you start talking before time is called they will let you finish your answer, as long as you don’t stall.
   
   If your teammate knows the answer, but doesn’t have time to tell you before time is called have them say it one word or phrase at a time while you repeat it to the moderator.
   
   You will want to tell practice this with your team during practice, so they learn how to feed to you. , No one respects a cocky jerk or a timid pansy., Even if everyone agrees on the correct answer, ‘double check’ if you have time.
   
   There are a lot of tricky Science Bowl questions that will dupe everyone on your team no matter how smart you all are., Also, when you have time on a bonus question, ‘double lens.’ ask your teammates how certain they are of their answer and adjust for their tendency to have the correct answer, have the correct answer in that subject area/topic, and perceive their own accuracy correctly., Everyone has a tendency to trust themselves too much or too little.
   
   As with humility and arrogance, neither will help you or your team; adjust, adjust, adjust.,, If your team is moderately ahead of the other team, it is advantageous to slow the game down in order to preserve your advantage., Use eighteen or nineteen of them even if you know the answer immediately., (If you buzz in any sooner, the moderator will simply ignore you.), Consider participation in the National Ocean Science Bowl.
   
   It’s like Science Bowl, but focuses on ocean-related questions, and is sponsored by the consortium for ocean leadership., The most effective type of practice is one that simulates an actual match.
   
   Practices that simulate actual matches will help your team increase their speed, master the rules, develop their intuition for the types of questions that are asked (helpful if you start to ‘anticipate’), test out strategies presented in this guide and/or some of your own to see if they work for you, master the strategies that do work for you, and take the competition more seriously., To encourage bravado, you could give shy-buzzers the handicap of going without penalization for interrupts (until they are sufficiently bold)., They should also change their moderation style between each game (i.e. read more or less quickly, use clearer or less clear pronunciation, or even switch your accent to simulate judges from different countries)., Get everyone on your team to read the rule-book (including yourself).
   
   Know the rules; they change not just from year to year but from judge to judge.
   
   Most, if not all, judges, especially at state, will know the rules worse than you do, because they don’t spend all year training. (If they don’t, study them more.) Challenge them respectfully when you catch a mistake, and challenge during practice the same way you would at a competition.
   
   The moderators will likely (and rightly) get irritated if you whine like a brat., Additional methods of practice include studying the glossaries of science textbooks to build your science vocabulary (possibly having each team member specialize in certain subjects) and reading sheets with Science Bowl questions and answers.
   
   You can get questions by asking for a copy at the end of any competition you attend (they may or may not give you one), searching “Science Bowl questions,” and asking other teams to email you copies of their questions.,, The sooner you pick your team(s), the sooner you can practice that much more realistically.
   
   However, the sooner you pick your team(s), the sooner you will remove the motivation of making the top team(s)., Pick teams out of individuals who preformed well, participated often, complement each other’s weaknesses, effectively answer bonus questions together, and have experience at state or nationals or are younger and have the potential to lead the team to nationals in the future., (Note that although some old Science Bowl questions are in the computer science category, no new questions have this category.) You would then repeat the process with the remaining members for the B team, and so on.
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   Step 2: Be prepared.

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   Step 3: Bring paper and a pencil for computation problems and taking notes.

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   Step 4: Know the basic rules.

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   Step 5: Listen carefully to the question and stay focused.

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   Step 6: Listen closely to the format of the question.

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   Step 7: Answers given to multiple-choice questions must be either the letter of the answer choice (W

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   Step 8: an exact statement of the “scientific answer” (i.e.

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   Step 9: Answers given to short answer questions must be an acceptable variation or form of the given answer in the opinion of the moderator.

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    Step 10: Take notes on longer questions

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    Step 11: or questions involving many numbers.

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    Step 12: During short-answer questions

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    Step 13: buzz as soon as you know the answer.

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    Step 14: During multiple-choice questions only buzz before the correct answer choice has been read in the following situations.

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    Step 15: If you buzz before the question has been completely read and are verbally recognized by the moderator

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    Step 16: this is known as an interrupt.

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    Step 17: If nobody is buzzing in

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    Step 18: don’t be afraid to guess.

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    Step 19: For those who are new and/or are being “out-buzzed”: buzz quickly.

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    Step 20: For those who interrupt excessively: stop that.

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    Step 21: For everyone: find a happy medium.

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    Step 22: A lot of people get so absorbed in the game that they stop caring about their competitors as human beings.

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    Step 23: Shake people’s hands after you play them.

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    Step 24: If they ignore you

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    Step 25: rest easy with the knowledge that they have many non-scientific lessons to learn.

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    Step 26: The competition can get intense

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    Step 27: but always remember to have fun with it.

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    Step 28: If you get frustrated after a loss or gloat after a win

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    Step 29: remind yourself that you ultimately play because it teaches you science and leadership skills in an exciting way and inspires others to learn and grow as well.

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    Step 30: If this is not the case for you

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    Step 31: or you just plain don’t enjoy it

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    Step 32: do something else that you do value for the right reasons.

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    Step 33: This section of the guide is for more advanced competitors looking for ways to gain an edge in the competition mechanics and practice strategies.

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    Step 34: While the guide is aimed at team captains

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    Step 35: others would benefit from it as well

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    Step 36: particularly coaches

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    Step 37: prospective captains

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    Step 38: and members of highly competitive teams.

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    Step 39: The Science Bowl values leadership and teamwork over scientific knowledge

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    Step 40: but values speed over all three.

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    Step 41: Push yourself faster during practice even if it costs you some interrupts; this will help you speed up more quickly

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    Step 42: and your teammates will struggle to keep up

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    Step 43: which will help them even more.

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    Step 44: Speed can scare your opponents into psychological submission.

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    Step 45: Never let a question die; always guess if no one else knows the answer whether it be a toss-up or a bonus.

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    Step 46: There is an ideal speed at which the difference between “penalty points” (the points you lose to interrupts and correct toss-up and bonus answers by the other team to questions that you interrupted – a maximum of 18 per question) and “reward points” (the points you gain by answering more toss-ups and their bonuses correctly – a maximum of 14 per question) is greatest.

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    Step 47: For any one person

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    Step 48: this ideal speed varies with time

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    Step 49: because they will constantly learn more science.

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    Step 50: Ideal speed depends on the ratio of your teammates’ average accuracy to average speed

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    Step 51: because there will be times when you buzz before your teammate can say the right answer and get it wrong and vice versa.

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    Step 52: When your teammates are missing too many questions

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    Step 53: whether by answering incorrectly or not buzzing on questions they know

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    Step 54: tell them to adjust their speed accordingly.

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    Step 55: Toss-ups: Anticipate – when you’re facing the best teams in the U.S.

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    Step 56: especially during earlier rounds

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    Step 57: you may notice that they answer questions correctly before enough information has been given to solve them.

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    Step 58: Bonuses: Divide and Conquer (especially on computation questions) – quickly assign various parts of the problem to your fastest computers.

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    Step 59: Rather than being humble or arrogant

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    Step 60: a strong captain knows his/her own strengths and weaknesses at least as well as those of his teammates.

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    Step 61: The strongest captain doesn’t necessarily win the most toss-ups or know the most science

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    Step 62: but he or she does know what his friends know (and when to take their advice).

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    Step 63: Taking the extra time to make sure your answer is right doesn’t cost anything anyway (unless you’re trying to catch up quickly at the end of the game).

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    Step 64: This is when knowing yourself comes into play

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    Step 65: because you must consider your own answer along with everyone else’s and assign it its due weight.

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    Step 66: Bonus questions are worth 2.5 toss-ups; if you and your team master bonuses

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    Step 67: you will win the matches in later

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    Step 68: harder rounds (like the finals) when each team may only answer ~4 toss-ups correctly.

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    Step 69: At the national competition

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    Step 70: rounds consist of two ten-minute halves.

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    Step 71: You are given twenty seconds to answer bonuses.

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    Step 72: If your team is too far behind the other time to catch up by playing at your ordinary pace

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    Step 73: and a multiple choice toss-up is given

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    Step 74: give a random guess immediately after hearing the question type and subject.

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    Step 75: There are a lot of ways to study for Science Bowl; pick the ones that work best with your learning style (i.e.

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    Step 76: visual

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    Step 77: auditory

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    Step 78: kinesthetic) to reduce wasted time not just in Science Bowl but in all subjects.

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    Step 79: See http://www.Nosb.Org/ for more information.

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    Step 80: You might consider making a few temporary alterations to the rules though.

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    Step 81: Whoever is moderating should be super nit-picky about all of the rules

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    Step 82: because the competition moderators (at least at nationals) certainly are.

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    Step 83: Many super talented teams lose matches because they don’t actually know the rules.

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    Step 84: The challenge system will reward your diligence for reading the rule-book and your people skills in communicating your challenge to the moderator.

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    Step 85: There are many ways of picking teams

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    Step 86: but regardless of the method you and/or your coach chose

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    Step 87: explain it to your team at the beginning of the year!

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    Step 88: Ask your coach to keep track of people’s scores and attendance at practices.

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    Step 89: Shuffle the teams you compete in at practice until you settle on your team(s)

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    Step 90: so you can see who works well together.

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    Step 91: You could build your a team by taking the highest 3 scorers

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    Step 92: with the remaining the remaining slots being filled by whoever best fills the gaps in knowledge of the 7 subject areas: Astronomy

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    Step 93: Biology

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    Step 94: Chemistry

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    Step 95: Earth Science

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    Step 96: Energy

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    Step 97: and Physics.

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