Monday, May 18, 2009

Tyson Gibran Quiz : BCQC May open (Morning Quiz) Report

Set and Conducted by Yasho Tamaskar and Suraj Menon

Standings :
1st : J Ramanand , Meghashyam Shirodkar and Maitreyi Gupta : 78 pts
2nd : Akhil , Suvajit and Sameer : 73 pts
3rd : Niranjan Pednekar , Aditya Gadre , Siddharth : 43 pts
4th : Abhinav Gudur ,Rohan Chokkar and Nikhil Motlag : 39 pts
5th : Yash Marathe , Vinay and Kaustubh Bhat : 13 pts
6th : Amit Dandekar , Yash Sinha , Saransh Verma : 10 pts

61 Qs seamless IR , One written round with differential marking and a Long Connect

While most of questions in the elims were good , though the elims were a bit too tough or rather too quizzer friendly which is why the cut off was very low (only about 8/35). The questions were all great however.

Positives:
The finals had some very good questions and covered a very wide range of topics which is always good to see. There were several interesting audio-visual questions . All the answers were of the kind that most of audience could have related to them. The team names and the production values in general were very entertaining .

Negatives:
The quiz was way too long and the last 30 questions had to be rushed through at a very high pace.
IMHO both the special rounds seemed forced. The TIME covers round seemed to just be about recognising people .
The long connect seemed to be made just to make up the lack of myth/religion in the rest of the quiz. In my opinion the theme was too far out and not accessible to all. In addition the 5 question weightage to the theme (something my last quiz was criticised for too) did seem too much. The two teams that cracked the theme on the second clue just ran away with it with no chance for anyone else to catch up.

28 comments:

Yash said...

NOTE- the quiz had about 5-6 mythology questions. (no attempt at sounding defensive as everything else , positive and negative views are Gadre's prerogative. )

J Ramanand said...

* I thought the elims was excellent.
* The finals were good; only blemishes were the length of the quiz (could have been ~45) and thus the rushing at the end, some qns were too easy/repeats, the special rounds had too much weightage, and some of the qs were too long or had an excess of info which we didn't usually need.

Overall, enjoyed the quiz.

Yasho said...

On a positive note- Dandekar's wish came true. So we do not need specialised Non-Bcqc (????) quizzes :)

Amit Dandekar said...

I agree with Ramanand. Though the cut-off in the elims was low the elims questions covered all topics and was a perfect mixed bag.

Finals seemed looooong. The finals were entertainment heavy with 1/3rd questions or rather 22 to be specific on ent which kept me staring at the screen for most of the time! I think, this happened, because both the quizmasters have a inclination towards western entertainment in particular and entertainment in general.So probably, for the next quizzes, people qith different areas of specialization or different special interests should pair up and set the quiz.
The finals indeed had some brilliant questions and overall the quiz was very enjoyable!

Finally it was great to be on stage at a bcqc open!!

@Yasho: As far as my wish goes, I want to win a bcqc open but that wont happen till guys like Ramanand etc. are up on stage. So my proposition for a specialised non-bcqc quiz still valid!

Yasho said...

@Dandekar Duuuude- Wrong facts again- 11 questions that can be fitted into ent- and that too with Billboard and Peter Norman being counted in it. Again, no issues with the view people have, but the facts need to be stated correctly.
And my apologies for a rather longish first session which probably resulted in us having to go a bit too fast in the next one.
Also, for winning quizzes, College quizzes are always there for us.

Yasho said...

Oh and sorry for the peters. Though they were unintended. We tried to keep elims also as peter free as possible. Though a few creep in. Apologies for that, as i have been in pune for much longer than Suraj and probably should have remembered a few of them.

@Dandekar again- pls do not defame us by saying we have western ent interests at heart, as hearts truly belong to the long line of unforgettable movies crapped out by the likes of mithunda and kanti shah.

Amit Dandekar said...

@Yasho:
If I was able to beat bcqc guys in college quizzes I wouldn't have made such a proposition in the first place. And it was all in jest including the plan to assassinate certain individuals!
Now,
Sorry, about wrong stats. Few are controversial. But it was definitely more than 11. (Billboards and Peter Norman not counted)
Here are questions I categorized as entertainment questions.
(Entertainment question= Any any any sort of music or movies related question.)
1. Californication
2. Terry Gilliam
3. Samurai and Ronin
4. Dylan talking about Hendrix
5. Camelot (considered in entertainment cuz answer slide shows pic of camelot musical)
6. Anthony Perkins
7. Daisy Bell
8. Q28. - I dont know the answer still - The scene in some old hindi movie where sambrani smoke was used
9. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (Pink Floyd)
10.Jesus christ Superstar
11.Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag dialogue
12.Italian Job
13.But It Rained
14.Heavy Metal
15.Bohemian Rhapsody
16.Buddy Holly
17.Life is Beautiful
18.License to Kill (controversial. can be considered in other categories)
19.Salma Sultan (Doordarshan considered in entertainment!)
Plus add two from differential marking written round.

But as I said, the quiz was very much enjoyable. Nothing against the quizmasters or intended to defame them. :D

Yash Sinha said...

@Amit ... the BCQC guys have experience on their side, but we've had quizzes where non BCQC regulars have also done well

@Yasho ... the questions had flavorings of western ent but thats not a bad thing since that's how most of the people prefer it

I thought the elims were really good though the finals could've been a bit shorter ... but the questions were great

One crib that I had was that in a long connect you expect the slides to progressively reveal more about the connect ... herein, one of the earlier slides made me think Odyssey ... especially with a picture almost lifted from the book ... but then the later slides distracted me away from that

Also, when it comes to ent/pop culture, imho you usually have to experience something to know about it ... and that's where some of the younger quizzers tend to have a disadvantage compared to the older ones ... the DD anchor made me go WTF

And it was good to finally be up on stage in a BCQC Open ... hopefully we'll have more opens where many B'bay teams will not be there so that the rest of us get a chance too

Yasho said...

@Dandekar- Not trying to be defensive :) , but come on, how does DD come under ent :P . And Camelot is myth and Californication is more etymology . And DUDE. seriously, just because the answer slide had the movie poster, Ronin and Samurai ent!!?

@Yash- I personally think we should be looking just to qualify at BC Opens, as that in itself takes a lot of effort and is commendable. The winning experience can be left for the numerous college quizzes that happen.

Yasho said...

@Amit and Yash and JR- BTW I really appreciate your views regarding the quiz (apart from Amit's list :P ) and will make sure that those grievences are taken care of next time I am doing a quiz, if there is anything else, please let me know.

Amit-
And Farhaneit 451 is a book !

(And by we in the above comment, i meant college quizzers :) )

SURAJ said...

I'm gonna put what i think should be the last few words on this subject...........

first and foremost i dont think the quiz was ent heavy....... jsut cos i put a pic of camelot on the answer slide or the answer was californication or ronin doesnt qualify as an ent question........ u need to look at the way the question was framed and then decide

Ill accept that the quiz could have been shorter....... but i remember there being a tremendous number of cribs abt the last open quiz being too short.....so it was a conscious decision on our part to make it a slightly long quiz..that said better time management and laptop related issues being worked out earlier wld have helped...so our apologies

thirdly the theme yes there was a big spread but then in such a big quiz we figured that gets evened out ...and to make it more fair we did modify the special round ka scoring to reduce any runaway advantages

@ gadre the idea of the time magazine covers was to 'just id ppl' as u put it...but again in our defense there was some amount of workability there...case in example springsteen dint look like springsteen .... or the joni mitchell pic wherein the year was too late for it to be janis joplin...she was dead by then!!!!!!!! at the same time we did put in sitters like yaeger and freud .......

and this thread just proves one thing u cant please em all

cheers

Amit Dandekar said...

I accept few of my listings are questionable. As Yash said, even if the quiz was thought to be as ent heavy, it is not a bad thing. I just felt it was ent heavy and so mentioned it in the comments section. Nothing against anyone.

But as I have repeatedly mentioned, the quiz had brilliant questions and was really very enjoyable!
cheers!

Maitreyi Gupta said...

@ Dandekar - Try to put together a full fledged open quiz and you'll realise that it is very very difficult to keep everyone happy. Even so, 95% of us liked the quiz and interest levels were high til the end. There were no wtf questions and even the entertainment questions were not esoteric.

Salil said...

@Dandekar: next time, team up with Ramanand ;-)

Amit Dandekar said...

@Maitreyi - I completely agree that is was very well set quiz. Even I am one those 95% who liked the quiz and my interest levels were also high till the end. I never said there were wtf questions or any esoteric ones. I just commented what I felt. I know it is very hard to set a quiz which would make everyone happy and I agree I should not criticize when I have no experience at setting a open or any bcqc associated quiz.

@All - I sincerely apologise to anyone who felt my comments are rude and uncalled for. I have no intention to defame yasho or suraj or undermine efforts they put in the making of this quiz and I apologise to both of you if my comments gave you such an impression. I have repeatedly said that the quiz was very enjoyable and had brilliant questions. I once again apologize to anyone who feels my comments insulting and request the moderators to delete any such comment.

Yasho said...

@Amit- you are completely misreading into what I said. You have not insulted me or Suraj . The only qualm was about wrongly stated fact. the views about questions are your own and that is fine. But saying that Ronin or Fahrenheit 451 is ent is not. that was the only thing :).
And one does not necessarily have to have set an open quiz to comment on one. Though it puts things in better perspective definitely.

Aniket Khasgiwale said...

@ Amit D & Yash S : Why do you insist on classifying yourself as non-bcqc while classifying almost everybody else as bcqc junta? As the benevolent dictator for life, J Ramanand, has previously said, because of the very loose definition of a bcqc 'membership', both of you are effectively bcqc members too. So what possible purpose does such classification serve?

Gaurav said...

Going through the finals, seems like a good quiz. The point about the elims being "quizzer friendly" is spot on. When I was sent the elims, I thought they were too easy. In hindsight, quizzer friendly seems apt, because quizzing veterans would know almost all the relevant info. Not Peters in the strictes sense, but conceptual Peters.

Oh, and some blood just shot out of my eyes as I saw the phrase "put fundae" on the slide of a Pune quiz. No! No! No! This will not do. It's worse than using SMS-ese on slides. Ban the phrase in Pune. Whoever uses it must be killed. Yasho, consider this your final warning.

Yash Sinha said...

Well we're more of infrequent bcqc quiz visiters ... hence a non-bcqc tag ... though while we were leaving Ramanand did remind us that now that we've been up on stage, we can't claim to be non-bcqc and use such tags in the future :P

Plus it always feels good to give yourself an outsider, underdog tag ... that way your ego gets a massive boost when you actually do perform well :P

Salil said...

Just finished seeing the finals ppt. Most comments regarding content have already been covered. My usual crib with the amount of text on a slide, often copy-paste jobs with answers substituted by X. My mind seems to switch off after the 4th line on a slide with 20 lines of text and there is a picture to connect to and a quizmaster breathing down your neck to answer in a few seconds.
Fervent prayer to future QMs to trim down the text, use simpler language, remove redundancy.

(Am I turning into Anand? ;-))

Salil said...

A pic of Raja Ram Mohan Roy to denote Chhatrapati Rajaram??

Duuuuude!!!

Yash Marathe said...

It's Rajaram Pul, which Rajaram is irrelevant, as it could be taken lexically...

@Yash S: Ramanand didn't "remind" you... That's just his way of giving you a warning... ;)

Salil said...

@Yash M: Its not really lexical - "Rajaram" as a lexeme is different from Ram Mohun's title Raja preceding his name. Well, chuck it - more effort could have been taken on that one. The chosen image of Roy is the first hit on a Google image search for "Rajaram".

Niranjan said...

A good quiz with nice variety. Some very well-formed questions, some with a lot of superfluous information. The material for most questions was very good, but more work on framing would have been better.

Any comments on Amnesia?

J Ramanand said...

(hope this is the last comment on this high-entropy thread!)

Despite all talk of "hum sab BCQC hai.n" (mainly from my side), we would be kidding ourselves if we didn't recognise that some are strongly affiliated, some are weakly affiliated, and some not at all. Hopefully, each of our QMs will be able to make their quizzes fair for all.

I must agree with Amit D: some qns like Ronin would have the ent tag, because you would hardly ask them if people had not heard of the film. Anyway, with ~90 qs, you did also touch on other topics.

GS: yes, 'even I' balked at throwing 'fundaes' - I refuse to do that.

NP: sorry, the Amnesia post will be up soon for comments.

anand s said...

Hi, lovely elims q's --will be back with some more data as usual, entropy or ectoplasm whatever.

"Weekly" affiliations, perhaps ?

Salil:At last signs of spiritual upliftment , eh ? Hic !

Abhinav Gudur said...

Hey the quiz competition was really cool. We almost made it to the top three spots. Next time we will definitely make it.

Rohit said...

Oh you are the same Abhinav Gudur? You sucked big time. top three? You were half the points of the toppers.