Intra-School Olympics Quiz 2008

I had conducted the Intra-School Olympics Quiz in my school on 26 August 2008. The Prelims were followed by 6 teams in the Finals. The Quiz was an open one – Anybody from Classes 6-12 could participate. I am uploading the Questions of the Quiz – You can click on the links below to download (I know this is coming pretty late, but better late than never!)

Prelims

Prelims Answer Key

Finals (With Answers)

Feedback about the Quiz is welcome.

Cheers

Prateek

Quiz Files

Here are the some of the much awaited Quiz Files. Some files have been compiled based on memory – So there could be slight errors/rephrasing of questions. Do put your comments if you have any queries, questions etc. Enjoy! Click on the links below to download.

HT Pace Inquizitive 2008 Prelims

Samsung Olympic Games Quest 2008 Delhi Prelims

TAPS Fest Quiz Prelims 2008

Sports Quiz Prelims AIIMS Pulse 2008

Microsoft Office HT-Pace Inquizitive 2008

15^th September 2008

Hindustan Times Inquizitive 2008 – Sirifort Auditorium

This was my 3^rd time at the Quiz and the first ever time I qualified for the finals. One of the best and biggest inter-school Quizzes in Delhi, this one is special because it is conducted by Siddhartha Basu (Though the research and preparation is done by his team the “Tree of Knowledge”). Tripathi Sir accompanied us in an auto. 6 teams make it to the finals after a Written Preliminary Round. The questions are mostly easy, but because of the large number of teams involved, the cut-offs are quite high and many teams are eliminated due to the “(*) starred questions. Deepesh and I had prepared a lot during the last 2 days, mostly Current Affairs and from some random quiz books. The venue had changed this time, from Talkatora Stadium to Sirifort as Talkatora is currently under renovation for the Commonwealth Games. Though Talkatora is a much better venue,  I was happy that it was being held at Sirifort this time – Might just prove to be lucky for us (Quite a lot of happy memories at Sirifort). And it did. We not only qualified for the finals, but also came 2^nd – Losing out to Vivekananda School on the tie-breaker….There were around 8-9 Rounds in the Finals – Headlines, Camouflage, Direct Questions, Audio, Video, True/False Propositions, All or Nothing. They had some of their familiar/trademark round and a new one called Camouflage – Where we had to find the answer out from many letters in 30 seconds after a clue (Like Mud Pit to Medal – Was Sushil Kumar. We managed to give some really good answers..Including 3 Dry questions in a row. We had pretty much led throughout the Quiz – closely followed by other schools….but messed it up in the All or Nothing Round where Vivekananda scored 30 Points. As usual, for the nth time this season, it all boiled down to a tie-breaker…But it was a satisfying experience. Having made it to the top 6 finally and then coming 2^nd felt good. It’s not everyday that you come 2^nd in a Sid Basu Quiz………. 🙂 We won iPods and Backpacks for ourselves – Which they still have not sent us. They did not even mention which iPod they are talking about – I just hope it’s not Shuffle! It turned out to be a memorable day. You can read more about the Quiz here.

More Quizzes and competitions….

29^th August 2008

TAPS FEST General Quiz at Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan

Managing around 18-20 events on a single day always becomes a difficult task, but then the TAPS Fest is always like that. The GK Quiz Prelims were held in a classroom, and we got 13 on 20. The highest was 14 – By DPS Dwarka. We qualified easily into the finals and finally finished 3^rd (After 4 tie-breaker questions with DPS Dwarka). Obviously, needless to mention, the host school won the Quiz 😉

My Rating of this Quiz – 4/10.

5^th September 2008

Ozone Science Quiz

Held at the Indian Social Institute, this Quiz is organized every year by the Ozone Cell. I had come 2^nd in this Quiz when I was in Class 8. But this year the Quiz had changed its venue, and I believe the paper-setters also. It’s a one-stage quiz (20 Multiple Choice Qns on Ozone Science). It was an extremely boring and absurd question paper, and I must have managed to get around 10-12 correct. There was negative marking too. Anyways, Pranav Kumar from our school came 1^st in the Quiz. He has been taking part in this Quiz from many years now and is an expert at Ozone Sciences and all environmental issues.

6^th September 2008

Times NIE Quiz Wizard – Doon Public School, Paschim Vihar

We came 2^nd in this Quiz in 2006 (Sahil and I). This time, my partner was Deepesh from Class XII. This Quiz is organized by Times NIE and Doon Public School, Paschim Vihar. Mostly schools from West Delhi take part in this Quiz. The Prelims were conducted through a “High-Tech Self Assessment System”, where in the Question was shown on the screen (EduComp) and we had to press the correct option number on our remotes. Yes, they had given remotes to each school! 30 Qns in the prelims – And we got around 16 of them correct. There were around 15-16 schools in all. We qualified for the finals. And easily won this one. We got a bouquet of flowers!!!!, A trophy for the school, and a Pair of Binoculars each (Made in Russia)…..Well yes strange but true!

8^th and 9^th September 2008

Dynamix Fest – Ramjas RK Puram

We participated in the Quiz and Crossword here. Day 1 had the Quiz and Crossword Prelims. Quiz Prelims were quite easy. And we managed to solve quite a lot in the Crossword also. The Crossword clues were absolutely cryptic and it was fun to solve them…Some real tough ones had left our grey cells tickling!
Day 2 – The Finals of the Quiz and Crossword. Dynamix has had some really good students in its clan, amongst them Roshan Shariff, Uma Damle (Now at NIFT Bangalore) and Prashanth Khanduri (These are the only ones I know). This fest is organized totally by students, with the teacher announcing there that – “Not even an iota of help was given by the teachers to the students”. But then the students messed it up….Bigtime! The Quiz finals were absolutely crap, the less said about them the better. Though the Crossword Finals were good, actually both these events were “fixed” beforehand. And this fact is quite well known now and I am sure about it. This was not quite needed. And it was extremely irritating – This team (Sanchia Khurana Harsh Dalal) from New Green Fields school got a perfect score in the Crossword Finals and knew almost each answer in the Quiz Finals. We came 3^rd in the Crossword and were just “Finalists” in the Quiz. Results and Solutions of the Dynamix 2008 Fest can be seen here.

My rating of the Quiz – 3/10.

And for the Crossword – 5/10.

Matrix Ecomm-Buzz Fest 2008 – Mount Saint Mary’s

28^th August 2008

Mount Saint Mary’s – Matrix Ecomm-Buzz Fest

Crossword and Symposium

My third time at this fest (Jointly organized by their Computer and Economics Clubs), we participated in the Symposium and Crossword.

The Symposium (For which, Vaibhav and I had worked really hard) turned out to be a disaster for us. The topic we had chosen was – Use of Computers as Decision-Makers in Sports. Vaibhav was our Visual Aid Supporter, and I was the speaker. Rohit was the interjector for our team (He was told about it a day before, as usual). They had selected around 10-12 “Best” Presentations and called up the schools. (I believe they did not get more CD’s than that!). I exceeded the limit of 2 Minutes 30 seconds by around 2 more minutes. And Vaibhav also messed it up a bit during the synchronization. Though our presentation was good, I am not quite the best of speakers. Someone from the debating team would have been a better option. But this was a learning experience and definitely I can work upon the weaknesses and mistakes we did to improve ourselves. Also a suggestion for the Matrix-Ecomm Buzz Clan – Try having only 1 or maybe 2 Topics for the Symposium rather than having 6. Judging the content of 6 different topics becomes a difficult task and it’s not a level-playing field then.

In the Crossword, we surprisingly came 2^nd. Montfort School came 1^st. Our score was 9 and the highest was 9. The Crossword did not have any cryptic clues, and was like a quiz-of-sorts. Again, there were some good questions and some absurd ones. But it was nice to be 2^nd. We just got Individual Trophies and our certificates have not been sent to us yet! The results of the fest can be seen here.

My Rating for the Crossword – 5/10

DPS MUN Training Session and CBSE HIQ Prelims

23^rd August 2008

DPS MUN Training Session

Went to attend the DPS MUN (Delhi Public School Model United Nations) Training Session at DPS RK Puram along with Vaibhav and Uma Tata Ma’am. There was a briefing and introduction from Mrs. Shyama Chona and then we had 4 Workshops all through the day – Starting from around 10-30 AM to 4-30 PM – Workshops on Resolution Writing and Position Papers, Caucusing, Speeches and the Executive Board and Internet Research. I came to know all about this famous event – There were DPS Branches from all over India. And we had some funny Mock Sessions also. My first experience of a “MUN”…..Would be a day to remember. A report of the training session can be found here.

24^th August 2008

CBSE Heritage India Quiz Prelims

Preliminary Round of the CBSE Heritage India Quiz 2008 – Like the previous two years, we did not qualify for the finals even this year (Results were out recently). I attempted a whopping 95+ Questions (even though there was negative marking), but my partners did not perform upto expectations. This Quiz requires all the 3 members of the team to give the paper separately and then the total is added (600 Marks). The top 12 Schools from each Zone are selected. Even though my individual score was not bad, (Between 115-125), it actually does not count – Its all about the team effort. So will definitely make it a point to build upon a strong team for the 2009 edition. Best of Luck to all the teams who made it and I hope a Delhi School wins the Nationals!

My rating for the Quiz – 7.5/10

Inter-School Social Sciences Quiz – Vasant Valley School

22^nd August 2008

Inter-School Social Sciences Quiz – Vasant Valley

On 22^nd August 2008, Rohit and I went for the Annual Inter-School Social Sciences Quiz held at Vasant Valley School, Vasant Kunj. I have been participating in this Quiz for 4 years now (This was my 4^th time at the Quiz). In Class 8^th, we did not even qualify for the finals. In 9^th, Sahil Kalra and I reached the finals and came 3^rd. Then again in 10^th, Piyush and I came 3^rd. So I have had a lot of experience in this Quiz. Its one of the few quizzes in which the Prelims are to be given on a computer and your score is automatically calculated. Also, there is a time limit of 900 Seconds (15 Minutes). The Quiz is generally of good standard and though it is a Social Sciences Quiz, it usually encompasses questions from all spheres – History, Geography, Sports, Business, Tech, Current Affairs, Arts, Literature, Music and Movies etc. The Quiz is conducted by their Social Sciences Department and they usually get some ex-student as quizmaster for the finals. This year, there were 40 Questions in the Prelims and compared to previous years, some questions were absolutely weird and not quite the “workoutable-kinds”. (What does SHFJ stand for in SHFJ Manekshaw’s name, How many countries does Israel border to name a few). There is negative marking (+1,-1) so the cut-offs are usually very low. I had enough experience to realize that it was best to attempt only those questions which we were completely sure about. So we attempted only around 14-15 questions and our score was a dismal 6. But even then we managed to qualify for the finals alongwith DPS RK Puram, Vasant Valley and GD Goenka. The finals of this quiz are a bit heavy on questions regarding Geography, Indian Crafts, English Movies, etc. We had been unlucky to have missed out both the previous years on a merit position. (Only 1^st and 2^nd Positions are awarded). But I was determined to win it this time around. Only, it was not to be – First Round – (Olympics) and first 2 questions of this quiz – On the Buzzer and we got both of them right – A good start, eh? But then things changed soon with rounds like Trees of Delhi, Geographical Features, Indian Currency Notes etc. This year’s quiz surprisingly was extremely mis-managed and there was no balance in the questions. The Quizmaster in the finals (The earlier one was pretty good), had no clue about the answers (He kept asking the teachers), and he was not quite the best of quizmasters. There was a power blackout, buzzers did not work (Most of the rounds were buzzer ones) and this quiz seemed to me like some lottery of sorts. There was chaos all around. I expected better from Vasant Valley. Also, strangely, all the tough questions were answered by the host school, which really raised questions in my mind. They were maintaining a pretty good lead through the quiz after some rounds. I am not sure whether the quiz was “fixed” or not but it seemed to me it was. I have never seen these persons quizzing anywhere and even then they won the quiz so easily. At the end of the quiz, we finished 4^th (Out of 4 finalists L. It was not the best of experiences. But the good part was that atleast our qualifying streak continued! I guess missing the Don Bosco Mensa General Quiz for this one was not quite the wisest decision. (This quiz was also on the 22^nd).

My rating for the Quiz – 4/10

Enigma General Quiz – Jamia Milia Islamia

17^th August 2008

Encomium 2008 Fest – Enigma General Quiz at Jamia Milia Islamia

On 17^th August 2008, I went alongwith Sahil Kalra (now in 2^nd Year Computer Engg. at NSIT) for the Enigma General Quiz as part of the Encomium 2008 Fest at Jamia Milia Islamia (Yes, the name which Delhiites fear nowadays). This Quiz was on a Sunday and I had a Political Science weekly test, just the next day. Sahil had already told me in advance that we would be going for this one – He had won the same quiz in 2007. This Quiz, though mainly for college students is open to school students as well. We went by DTC and reached Jamia in almost 1.5 hours, due to the huge traffic jams at Naraina etc. Totally exhausted standing for this much time in the bus, we were happy to finally reach the venue. Sahil’s friends, were already there solving Sudoku (There was a competition for that 2). Sahil helped them solve that and meanwhile I was seeing the debate which was taking place (Topic – Nuclear Deal) – Many college students had come to participate in the fest and there were loads of events for everyone. The Quiz Prelims, has 20 questions, and it was an easy set (with some weird and some good qns). We managed to get 14. 6 Teams qualified for the finals – 2 were from NSIT, 1 from BVCOE, 1 from Jamia Milia itself, and 2 mixed – Ours from NSIT/NEPS and Harish Alagappa’s team (Winner of the NIE Fun-da-mental Quiz 2005) – He is doing Aerospace Engg. From Amity University now. The Finals had around 6 rounds – Sahil and I managed to give some brilliant answers, but even that was not enough. Jamia Milia, came 1^st -Most probably, it was rigged 😦 – It happens quite a lot on the college circuit, but this was quite disappointing. We finished 5^th – But then the good part was even amongst so many college teams, we qualified and did well in the Finals. 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th positions were closely fought. And so were the 2^nd and 3^rd. Thanks to Sahil for taking me as a partner in this Quiz!

My rating of the Quiz – 5.5/10

Helen Jerwood Debate – St Thomas’ School

12^th August 2008

Helen Jerwood Debate – St Thomas’ School, Mandir Marg

Next up, I went for the Helen Jerwood Debate at St Thomas’ School. Actually, I went for this one accidentally. Smita Ma’am, the English HOD, recommended my name for the Interjector’s position. Normally, I am not much into debating and was not interested in going as the interjector. But finally when ma’am requested and coaxed me to go, I decided to give it a shot. The topic for the debate was – “Money Matters, Matters Don’t”. This selection of mine was done only a day before the event. I did zilch preparation for this one because interjection has to be mostly done spontaneously and impromptu. Kakolee Ma’am went along with us (4 students – 2 speakers, Jasmine and Sanjmeet and 2 Interjectors – Hitesh and I). I was totally tension-free and was expecting nothing – Just going there for the experience and fun. I had a look at the speeches of our team and interjected them in the car when we were going along. The topic was an interesting one, no doubt. St Thomas’ is located at Mandir Marg and many of the teachers of our school are alumni from this institute. This was the first time I was going to this school and this was the first time they were conducting this debate. Their auditorium was a nice one, air-conditioned and had a great ambience. There were around 12-13 schools in all. Cross-questioning on interjections was not allowed. I made 2 interjections I asked one question about the nuclear deal from one of the schools and did not quite receive a convincing answer. The second interjection I made was to the host school’s speaker. There was a lot of booing from the audience on my question. This girl was speaking for the motion and spoke well, but made some not-so-great points about how money had taken centre stage in Parliament on the day of the Nuclear Deal Trust Vote and also how money was the important aspect of the Indian Premier League. I asked her if she had listened to the speeches of P Chidambaram, Rahul Gandhi, Dr Manmohan Singh, Laloo Prasad Yadav etc – They spoke about the merits of the deal and also, the money-for-vote scandal was not proved. I stressed about the fact that our PM believed in the Nuclear Deal and the “matter” here was most important and not the money factor, which she so conveniently chose to remember. I also made a point about how the most inexpensive team, the Rajasthan Royals won the IPL and also Shane Watson, one of the least valued players, won the MVP Award. Its not money which can buy the hardwork, determination, performance to excel on the field and the game of cricket is most important….This did the trick – She almost faltered to give me a reply, but then answered that yes those were true facts, but there are always exceptions and she mentioned something else too – Not quite the best of answers…Later on, she said, “Good Question.” Sadly they did not let Hitesh ask any question because they said – Only 2 interjections allowed per school and I had made both of them….Anyways our speakers had a great speech and they spoke quite well. The judges included a journalist – who later mentioned that she was a bit disappointed from the interjectors. (They asked too many repetitive and useless questions and stuff and I do agree with her). Then came the time to announce the results – We bagged the Best School Prize, Best Speaker (Proposition) and surprise surprise!! – Best Interjector also. This was least expected a day back, but quite a sweet moment of victory! I got the novel “Shantaram” by Gregory David Roberts as the prize. It was a nice experience in all. Refreshments were served later, after the debate was over. We went back to school – And the Principal was quite happy with our performance. She gave Rs 1000 (The note which was used as a part of the debate by one of the speakers) to us. She also gave a book to Jasmine, who spoke against the motion (A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini) from her personal library as she had got nothing as a prize. And also a book to Hitesh (The Night by Elie Wiesel)….She seemed to be in the best of moods that day! Anyways, all in all, a fulfilling day came to an end. Special Thanks to Smita Ma’am for sending me for the debate!

Times NIE Samsung Olympic Games Quest 2008

6^th August 2008

Times of India – NIE Samsung Olympics Quest – Sirifort Auditorium

The next quiz of the season, was the Samsung Olympics Quest 2008 – Held on 6th August in Delhi. I came to know about this quiz from Agrim, who told me about it at the Columban Open. Then in school, I got the letter from ma’am. The Quiz was solely on the Olympics (Yay!!!!!!!) and was being conducted by Times of India-NIE and Samsung. It was to be telecasted on CNN-IBN and had some amazing prizes from Samsung. Rohit, Sahil and I prepared hard for this quiz – I had experience and had a genuine interest in the Olympics, I had read a lot on Olympic history for the ESPN School Quiz in classes 6 and 7. We were pretty much excited about the quiz. It was to be conducted by Channel V Veejay-turned actor Gaurav Kapoor. I saw the advertisement for this quiz loads of times on CNN-IBN, being advertised as India’s first ever National-level Olympic Quiz with almost 1000 schools participating. The regional rounds of this Quiz were held in Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi. The Delhi round would be followed by the Nationals (Winners of all the 4 cities taking on each other). Charu Ma’am took all of us in her Swift and thank god we did not go by auto – It was raining like cats and dogs! And there was traffic all over the city….We reached the venue – Sirifort Auditorium on time. There were cheering teams, banners and ofcourse advertisements by Samsung, They showed us a the ad so many times that I had learned the tune by heart….They also showed us a brief history of Samsung’s association with the Olympics since 1988. The Prelims had 20 qns, and the first four questions were visuals. I will upload the Prelims questions soon – I have them in a file. The Prelims were of moderate level – But you can never be sure of qualifying with so many teams around….The results were announced in some time and we managed to qualify. Our score was around 15 in the Prelims. The Delhi Finals had 6 teams and the winners would go on to the National Finals. There were 6 Rounds in the Quiz – and the last one was a buzzer round. They had cryptic clues, videos, direct dries, and the Quiz was quite interesting. We managed to win the Delhi Round quite easily, with St Francis De Sales also putting up quite a good show, finished a close 2^nd. For winning the Delhi Round, we won our school a 32-inch LCD TV from Samsung and got individual LCD Monitors, as well as Gold Medals and certificates. This Quiz was organized very well and everything was on time and done quite professionally. You can read more about the Quiz here –

Link 1

Link 2

The National Finals had only 4 Rounds, and the level was a bit higher – It was a low-scoring affair. We did not score any points in the first round and all the other 3 teams did. While, in the second round, none of the teams scored apart from us. The third round, on Videos – Had quite tough questions, and nothing was clear in the positions. All the 4 teams could win in the last Round (Called the “Last Sprint”) on the Buzzer. It had 3 teams on the same score before the last question was asked – Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. The last question of this round – Babe Didrikson won 2 Gold Medals and 1 Silver Medal at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. She won the Gold in the 100 Meters and 110 Meter Hurdles. In which event did she win the silver?

Nobody pressed the buzzer till 15 seconds. Then as it was the last question and nobody pressed the buzzer, Gaurav asked the same question yet again – This time I don’t know what made me press the buzzer after a lot of thinking – I knew quite surely that the answer was either the Long Jump or the High Jump. Making an inference that most sprinters take part in the long jump only (High Jump is a specialist event normally), I decided to take a gamble (There was a negative of 5) and pressed the buzzer. Everybody thought that I would have the correct answer and the whole stadium cheered us….We said Long Jump – Gaurav Said – New Era, its not the Long Jump, but the High Jump – Oh, there was pain and agony…..But then this happens in quizzes. Making it to the Nationals is a good achievement, but we would have definitely liked to win. On hindsight, I guess going for the buzzer was not the best decision if I was not 100 percent sure because then all 3 teams would have had a tie-breaker (The tie-breaker for Kolkata and Mumbai turned out to be a very easy one :-(, which we could have easily got. But then that’s how it is sometimes – You are lucky at time and unlucky at others – Everything balances…Apeejay Nerul, Bumbag won the Nationals and got individual Camcorders. We won Individual MP3 Players from Samsung, (Pebble Model – Quite cute they are in appearance) and got Bronze medals for finishing 3^rd. All in all, a thrilling experience…even after losing out on the last question of the Quiz…

My rating of the Quiz – 8/10.