Inquizzition - 8 at Fergusson College

Set by Vivek P., Siddhesh and others from FC Conducted by Vivek P.

Results:
1st: Aditya Gadre and Suvajit Chakraborty : 90 pts
2nd: Yasho Tamaskar and Suraj Menon : 70 pts
3rd: Niranjan Pedanekar and Meghashyam Shirodkar: 55 pts
4th: Yash Marathe and Aditya Chandorkar : 40 pts
4th: Salil Bijur and Kaustubh Bhat : 40 pts
6th: Amit Garde + Hareeth Sridhar : 25 pts

Positives:
-Elims were good.Mostly workable questions
-Finals had good questions
-QM conducted quiz in a very assured manner.
-Effort was obviously honest . NO deliberate peters.
-Some really nice fundaes covered.
-Good organisation.

Negatives:
-Some of the elims questions could have been framed much better .
-The finals were biased towards us 'pop culture' quizzers and other , much better quizzers missed out because of this.
- The last theme round was made a lot more complicated than it actually was and caused much confusion.

Landmark Quiz Pune 2009 - Prelims questions

From the recent Landmark Quiz Pune 2009: Compiled by Yash S (thanks!):

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1. Full form of SIM? Subscriber Identity Module
2. Which FM has presented 8 full budgets and 2 interim budgets including one on his b’day on 29th Feb, 1986? Morarji Desai
3. Which country does not have a border on the Arabian Sea – Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Maldives? Saudi Arabia
4. Which scientific word means ‘un-cuttable’? Atom
5. What was the name of the hero in Vikas Swarup’s Q&A? Ram Mohammad Thomas
6. Which TV show has the highest Nielsen ratings since 2005 and may beat All In The Family’s record of having the highest ratings for 5 years? American Idol
7. Which letters were removed from the name of Asus to give it a higher alphabetical ranking? PEG
8. Which term was coined by Fourier with respect to environmental sciences? Greenhouse Effect
9. Big 3 Carmakers of Japan are Toyota and? Honda, Nissan
10. Symbol designed Martin K. Speckter also known as rhet, exclarotive, and exclamaquest? Interrobang
11. Which two prime-ministers are alumni of FC College, Pune? P.V. Narsimhan Rao and V.P. Singh
12. Fort in central India having historical significance and derived from cowherd? Gwalior
13. Introductory lines of a book? The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
14. Gamboge pigment is extracted by tapping resin from various species of evergreen trees. Where is it from? Cambodia
15. DNA of scientist matched from hair cell and dental records. Used to recreate picture. Visual. Who? Copernicus
16. What is the pouch of a kangaroo called? Marsupiam
17. First England all-rounder to be picked up in the IPL? Dmitri Mascarehnas
18. Who is Daniel Craig voicing in upcoming Tintin movie? Red Rackham
19. Question about type of sari, mixture of silk and zari? Paithani sari
20. Video. Identify singers. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
21. Malay name for southern third of Vietnam same as Indian coastal town. China added as suffix to differentiate from Indian town. Which town? Cochin
22. First person to knock out Mohd. Ali while he was still heavyweight champion? Chuck Wepner.
23. If Jihad means struggle, what means someone who struggles? Mujahideen
24. Quotes about instrument. Sound evokes hundred colours. Which instrument? Sarangi
25. Phrase given by Charles Darwin to explain why some genetic traits are not passed on? Natural Selection
26. Boastful city. Hosted world expo in 1893. Some more facts. Identify? Chicago
27. Name of most popular medicine in the world. What is it used to remove from blood? Cholesterol
28. Bilingual movie about which painter? English title is ‘Colours of Passion’? Raja Ravi Varma
29. Who finished joint 9th in Olympics on basis of number of gold medals won ahead of several countries? Michael Phelps
30. Name of which tribe in the Mahabharata means forest dwellers? Vanaras
31. Which religious ceremonies are ship captains allowed to perform? Baptism and Funeral
32. Which cricketer appointed ambassador for UN AIDS in Nov 2008? Sanath Jayasuriya
33. Complete list Beheaded, Divorced, Beheaded, Died of Fever, Divorced, Beheaded, _________ ? Survived (Wives of Henry VIII)
34. Origin of DC in DC Comics? Detective Comics
35. Who was born here? Visual of The White Elephant café in Edinburgh? Harry Potter
36. Visual. Cover of Amar Chitra Katha. Identify? Tanaji
37. Visual. Connected to 36. Name of pet? Yashwanti
38. Video from Johnny Gaddar. Performer name of Taranjeet Dhillon? Hard Kaur (-ve points to all school children writing Hardcore :P)
39. Video of floating turtle with 3 elephants holding a flat world. Identify? Discworld
40. Ad featuring aliens sucking out gravity. Ad for what? Fevicol

Landmark Pune Quiz 2009 - Report

Date: 21 Feb, 2009
Venue: Ganesh Kala Krida Mandir, Pune
Conducted by: Dr. Navin Jayakumar
Turnout: ~260 teams

Results
(unfortunately, this blogger lost his notes with team info and scores etc, so please add corrections if possible)
1st: Samanth Subramaniam, G. Swaminathan, V.V.Ramanan, ('QED')
2nd: Gopal Kidao, Vinod Ganesh, Rajen Prabhu ('Absolute Bindaas')
3rd: Jayakanthan, J. Krishnamurthy, Diwakar Pingle ('?')
Other finalists: Sumant+Rajiv+Vibhendu ('Travelling Pillsburies'); Pradeep Ramarathnam+Gaurav Grewal+Nitish Khadiya ('Misal Pav-er...'); Niranjan+Ramanand+Avinash ('Amnesia International'); Amit Garde+Anand S+Meghashyam ('Hoist by their own quizzards'); Amit Varma+Ananya Deb+Anil Kothuri ('Jai Santosh Ki Maa')
Cutoff seems to be 29 or 30 on 40

Best Corporate Team: Infosys
Best College Team: BITS Pilani
Best School Teams: 1st: Abhinava Vidyalaya; 2nd: Army Public School
Best Team Name: 'Consortium of Loose, Forward and Quiz-going Women'

Report
It was a new look Pune Landmark Quiz, now in its third year: a bigger venue, a change in quizmaster, and a flood of teams from places outside Maharashtra. The first was because the quiz has seen increased participation each year and threatened to burst out of last time's venue; we've heard all sorts of reasons for the second; the third seems to be because of the introduction of the "national round" (the top 2 teams from 4 landmark quizzes get to face-off in it).

For many of us, it was the first experience of Navin and team, who have received much acclaim in other centres. In terms of questions, it was a great improvement from last year. The prelims were populist, with a significant bias towards contemporary and local questions. Most of the questions were interesting to attempt, though a few of them just came down to a couple of choices to pick from - something which could be a little excruciating.

The final had a fairly simple format: 2*15 rounds of infinite rebounds/bounce/bounds in either direction interspersed with 2 buzzer rounds (16 & 10). QED took an early lead (which they never relinquished) by virtue of picking up the theme (5 questions spread over the quiz) on the very first question. The rounds went by speedily because several questions were answered on the very 1st or 2nd attempt (the ones that weren't usually went all the way to the audience who did nail some good answers).

We had been told to expect a no-unnecessary-frills quiz, which was the case - no gimmicks, and a good mix of content. Perhaps someone and who was in the audience (regular as well as casual quizzer) can provide their point of view as to how they viewed this experience.

Some of the negatives:
There were a few 'repeats' - stuff that is well known in the quizzing community. This made some of the directs more valuable than others. The theme was contrived, IMHO, and some of the elements were either lexically connected or tenuous. Also, some parts of the quiz's content seems to be somewhat formulaic (teams seemed to expect certain types of local questions and contemporary events ), thus making it vulnerable to prior preparation. This is not to diss any of the teams that took advantage of this (they were also better in other respects), but I wish the setters would find a way to make the quiz more unpredictable, even while staying within the self-stated constraint of keeping it friendly even for the lay quizzer.

A minor point was that the usual tradition of introducing the teams on-stage was omitted. Also, wonder if there could have been two projection screens instead of one, because it was a little difficult to see the screens from the corners.

On the positives: the quiz was well-conducted, and the organisation was better than last time. Another omission was welcomed (particularly by me!) - that of choosing the "Best Quizzer". The process of doing so never seemed fair or interesting to me, so we were spared all that.

Back to the results: QED were deserving winners with some fine answers, but it was a tight race among the rest of the teams. Many thanks to Landmark, especially the industrious organisers from the Pune store. The Landmark Quiz now moves on to Mumbai for the first ever such quiz there, to be held on the 1st of May.

Postscript: This blog certainly seems to have raised the profile of the word "Interrobang" in the Indian quizzing community. The question has become a frequent visitor in quizzes (especially Pune-related ones), with sightings in two BCQC Open quizzes (this one and that), at KQA's ASKQANCE last year, and now at this Landmark quiz. It is perhaps time to retire the question, because if I see the name Martin Speckter once more at a quiz, I shall scream :-). This has also fueled a great deal of personal interest in Mr. Speckter, for he has become reduced to a single claim to fame in these parts! (read why the name was chosen for this blog.)

Inquizzition - 8 - Quiz this Sunday

What: Inquizzition 8, Fergusson College, Pune
Where: Amphitheatre, Fergusson College, Pune
When: Sunday, 22 February, 11 am
Flavour: Open general quiz
Details: Teams of 2, registration free and on the spot
Contact: Nihar 90110-61474, Siddesh 99606-12098, Gaurav 98605-84841

Jigyasa - General quiz at Symbhav 2009

Set by : J Ramanand and Suraj Menon

Conducted by : Suraj Menon

Results:
1st: Yash MArathe and Yasho Tamaskar : 100 pts
2nd: Suvajit Chakraborty and Aditya Gadre: 95 pts
3rd: Subhodeep Jash and Srideep: 50 pts
4th : Maitreyi Gupta and Rohit Khaladkar : 35 pts
5th : Yash Sinha and Amit Dandekar : 30 pts
6th: Karan Chawla and Saransh Verma: 20 pts

The quiz started with an excellent 30 question elims. Great workable questions. One minor crib with the elims were the slightly tougher a.k.a. Quizzer friendly questions due to which there was a low cut-off which in turn led to a mass exodus and the quiz had more or less no audience.

The finals consisted of 56 questions seamles IR , one long connect and a theme .Some brilliant questions there too. Great range of subjects covered.
It was a tough fight till the end . The Yash's clinched it when they cracked the theme and we didn't .
Suraj added some entertainment value to the quiz with his impressions of certain QMs and cries of "Jai Ramanand " whenever any question by JR came up on the screen.

Do post your opinions in the comments section.

AFMC Shyam Bhatt Memorial quiz 2009

Set and conducted by : Major Anish

Results :
1st: J Ramanand and Aditya Gadre: 130 pts
2nd: Suraj Menon and Yasho Tamaskar : 75 pts
3rd: Akshad + 1 : 70 pts
4th : Gaurav and Avneet : 30 pts
4th : Manas and sayan : 30 pts
6th: YAsh Marathe and Maitreyi Gupta : 25 pts

The quiz started with a mostly factual 26 question elims.
The finals had 60 dry questions and a special round. The questions were good i the sense that most of them had good fundae , but then most of the questions were completely non-workable which led to the thoughts of what could have been.
A large proportion of the questions covered some very good facts .

Cribs :
-There were quite a few peters and sitters.
-The quiz started very late and went on for a long time. Better organisation definitely called for.

Do post your opinions in the comments section.

BCQC January Open report

Set and Conducted by : Pradeep Ramamrathnam

Results:
1st: Anand Shivshankar , Sumant Srivathsan , Avaneendra Bhargav
2nd: Niranjan Pednekar , Sarat Rao , Vibhendu Tiwari
3rd: Suraj Menon , Aditya Gadre , Nikhil Motlag
Other finalists:
J Ramamnand , Harish Kumar , Shastry ; Yasho Tamaskar , Salil Bijur and Arnab Pal ; Suvajit Chakraborty , Aniket Khasgiwale and Yash Marathe

The quiz started with a long elims with 40 rather tough but very good questions. The highest score was just 21 while the cut off for the six finalists was 13 . The other three teams for draft picks had their cut off as 10. All teams were awarded points in the finals with the formula (elims score) * 2.

The final was filled with brilliant questions , especially on cricket and current affairs. In addition to the standard rounds of IR passing , there was a written round where the QM used diffrential marking i.e. the teams were given points depending on how many other teams got the answer. This round changed the story of the quiz a bit as JR and co , who were doing well upto this stage fell back a bit. Niranjan, Sarat and Vibhendu did very well in this round and made up a lot of ground.

The quiz ended with a Long Visual Connect. It was cracked only by Niranjan , Sarat and Vibhendu.

All in all a long and pleasantly exhausting quiz.

Please do post your opinions in the comments section.

PS: Apologies for the late report. Also I don't have the final scores. Somebody please post them in the comments and I will put the figures into the report.

Quiztronomy 2009 - report

Date: 7 Feb, 2009
Venue: COEP Auditorium
Conducted by: Aadinath Harihar and Mohit Karve
Set by: Members of the COEP Astronomy Club and BCQC
Flavour: Astronomy
Turnout: ~75 teams

Final Results
1st: Yash Marathe (Modern) + Suvajit Chakraborty (Symbiosis Law) (E): 95
2nd: Dawood + Gaurang (IUCAA) (B): 90* (better elims score than C)
3rd: Swapnil + Omkar (SKNCOE) (D): 90
4th: Kaustubh + Karan (COEP) (A): 60
5th: D. Mithilesh + S.P.Gautham (DAV Public School) (E): 50
6th: Sanket + Chaitanya (SIT Lonavla) (F): 10

(Scores thanks to Yash Marathe)

Report
Organised in the International Year of Astronomy, the aim of this first-ever astronomy quiz by the COEP Astronomy Club was to popularise the world of astronomy among students through a quiz that would be interesting even to the non-enthusiast. In this, the quiz was quite a success.

An excellent turnout (though the organisers said they expected even more!) attempted a very interesting set of preliminary questions that were only somewhat blighted in the audio-visual questions by a mix of incorrect and disappearing pictures! The finals saw a mix of participants: a team of Ph.D students, a school team, a team from Lonavala, the usual crop of engineering aspirants, and a suited-booted-lawyer-to-be.

This was my first quiz in the fully-furnished COEP audi with all bells and whistles running, and finally, the college has a comfortable place to hold events in. The organisation was smooth, greased by a large team of volunteers. There was a small solo general quiz during the break between prelims and finals, with winners in four categories (Parents-Teachers, School, Jr. College, and Senior College).

Not that there weren't a few criticisms, largely stemming from some slides being packed dense with text - these could have easily been condensed. But largely, the finals were interesting, and balanced between the demands of a niche topic and the needs of making it appealing. The long connect at the end was quite good as well. A large number of prizes were given away: to schools and to participants (even those who just missed out on qualifying).

The organisers plan to return next year with another edition of this quiz, and it should be well worth looking forward to.

BCQC February 2009 Morning Open Quiz "Gnosolalia" - Report

Date: 2 Feb, 2009
Venue: Dewang Mehta Auditorium, Persistent Systems Ltd.
Conducted by: Suvajit Chakraborty and Yash Marathe
Flavour: General
Turnout: ~25 teams

Final Results
Joint 1st: Aditya Gadre, J. Ramanand, Rohan Jain (A): 125
Joint 1st: Anand Sivashankar, Sumant Srivatsan, Keyur Munot (B): 125
3rd: Vibhendu Tiwari, Sarat Rao, Atulya (D): 115
4th: Yash Tamaskar, Suraj Menon, Pradeep Ramarathnam (F): 110
5th: Aditya and Abhishek Chandorkar, Aadinath Harihar (E): 75
6th: Aniket Khasgiwale, Salil Bijur, Saransh Verma (C): 60

Scoring: Aditya Bhedasgaonkar

Report
A very competent quiz, the morning open had a mix of some very interesting trivia, quite a few easy ones, and a last round of specialities that didn't receive universal acclaim because of its format. The elims were not taxing, and were reasonably well-pitched even for the not-so regular quizzer (with a couple of nice red-herring questions). There were a couple of questions in the finals that drew applause.

As for the negatives, Suvajit's curious habit of tailing off into silence while reading out a question was observed. The last round consisted of 2 'speciality topics' per team; there were two sets of topics (randomly decided, I think). One of them had to be doubled (no -ves). The catch was that if unanswered on the direct, the question would pass clockwise or the other way depending on which set it belonged to. Teams felt this could lead to a lot of imbalance in attempts and value for answers. Perhaps the QMs could explain what their thinking was here.

Organisationally, no SNAFUs that I can think of, so a good organisational job done by the quiz masters.