Quiztronomy 2017 Report

Date: 12-03- 2017

Quiz: Quiztronomy
Venue: COEP
Organized by/Fest: COEP Astronomy Club
QM: Vinod Ganesh 

Result: (Out of 300 Points (30Q*10 Points)) 

1st: 205 Points, Prachetas Nayse (Open, Lone Wolf) 

2nd: 175 Points, Rohit Dhanorkar (Open, Lone Wolf) 

3rd: 135 Points, Parshuram and Yogesh (FC+Open) 

4th: 120 Points, Omkar and Pranav (Open) 

5th: 70 Points Anirudh and Hrithvik (AFMC) 

6th: 25 Points Shomik and Rahul (IISER) 

Report:

The quiz was scheduled to start at 9:30 but started around 10:15 (standard delay). The venue was Seminar Hall 2, and I was apprehensive due to the abysmal projector performance during Chakravyuh last year. However the projector did not give any problems. The laptop did. Some VGA port problem and the laptop that was chosen had a version of ppt which would crash after every question. Luckily they got a replacement by the 7th/8th question of the 25 Q prelims. The prelims was a standard written format with scattered stars about. Overall, the prelims was not bad. I would it rate it higher than the finals. This is because well, it was shorter and hence it had less scope to ask hardcore Astronomy questions ("which any astronomy enthusiast would definitely know", which I was clearly not). These include things like V808 Monoclitoris and Arcturus and stuff which was KID (Know-It- or-Die). However other questions which were derivable were well-framed and there were plenty of oblique hints in the framing. 

The prelims results were the exact same as the final results. Cut-off was 13. Prachetas got 22/25, Pranav and I qualified fourth with 15 (to give you an idea of the spread). 

Because it was Sunday, the canteens were closed. Hence we had to walk a considerable distance for wada-pav. Perhaps next time they could increase the registration to 100 and provide us snacks? In the finals, we were made to seat according to our prelims position; which surprisingly, nobody argued about. The QM was a first-timer and so was his team. This was clear from their inexperience. There were at least three score-keepers. The fifteen seconds for the pounce was timed. The pounce-checkers often consulted each-other and the QM. Many-a- times the answer expected on the ppt was much more in details than what people showed while pouncing. 

The finals had 30 Qs was divided into five 'rounds' of six questions each. The rounds were not different but just sets of six questions. Except the last which were Google Doodles. In between there seemed an abandoned slide of a proposed Astronomy in Pop-Culture Round but that was just one question. Moreover it was a not in IR format but Direct style. Which meant that Q1 was for team 1 and Q30 for team 6, irrespective of any team answering it on pass. Points were +10 for direct, +10/-10 for pounce and +5 for passing. Which also meant that after a question was debarred due to a person answering before pounce closed, they had to use the tie-breaker to substitute it. This would not have been a problem if it was just a normal IR. 

The positions of the teams did not change throughout the quiz except when Team 3 crossed Team 4 sometime in the fourth set after the latter took a negative. A majority of the questions were names of scientists, specific and scientific names of phenomena or stellar bodies. There is always the justification that after all it IS an astronomy quiz, but I disagree to the extent at which it should only be for astronomy enthusiasts. Or even if it is, fundae can be found around them or what they did. There were some which were derivable, and were nicely framed and not 100% astronomy, but they were too far and too few. Many questions were too long and latter parts contained information which would only confirm your answer if you already knew it from the first part. 

The questions were ok. The ones we did not get did not rouse curiosity. Except sungrazers. Team 1 and 2 however liked the quiz, and I felt not only because they won it, but also because they were astronomy enthusiasts. Personally, I have attended better Quiztronomies. 

One thing that was later brought to notice was the complete lack of any India question especially post the ISRO awesomeness. The take-away of the day was the Russian tradition of urinating on the wheel of the truck before lifting off got us the astronaut Yurine Gagarin. 

Report by: Omkar Dhakephalkar