Interrobang

Inquizitive (FC) 2012 - Report

2012-01-25T10:08:00.001+05:30

Report by Avaneendra

What: Inquizitive General Quiz, Fergusson College
When: 24 Jan, 2012
QM: Suraj Prabhu
Questions set by: Suraj Prabhu and Ruchik More

Results
1st: Akshay Vaidya & Gautam Sondur : 177 (won on tie-breaker):Team 3
2nd: Ranajeet Soman & Rohan Jain : 177 : Team 5
3rd: Avaneendra Bhargav & Samir Deshpande : 170 : Team 2
4th: Rohan Danait & Siddhartha Phule : 145 : Team 6
5th: CVR Shastry & Tushar Jha : 103 : Team 1
6th: Rohit Sahasrabudhe & Satyavrat Wagle : 90 : Team 4

Results
Quiz started at 11.15 AM. Elimination round had 31 questions. Thirty first question was identifying the theme. Cut off was 12. It was a good college quiz biased towards pop culture. Quiz master intended to avoid tie break at the end hence he had random scoring system for lvcs and svcs. In all finals had 4 written rounds and 2 IR (with 3+3 pounces per team).

COEP Zest Sports Quiz 2012 - Results

2012-01-24T18:09:00.001+05:30

When: 15 Jan 2012
Where: COEP
What: Sports Quiz, part of COEP Zest
Conducted by: Rohan Danait and Vibhav Bhave

Results:
1st: Omkar Nene and his partner: 125
2nd: Ranajeet Soman and Sameer Deshpande: 90
3rd: Vikram Keskar and his partner: 80 pts
4th: Rohit Sahasrabudhe and Alok Kulkarni
5th: Rishi Deshpande and his partner
6th: Aniketh Rallabhandi and his partner

Got feedback or can fill up the missing info to complete this report? Use the comments for this post.

"Tum mein se J. Ramanand Kaun Hai?"

2012-01-15T23:40:00.001+05:30

It's rather strange to be one of those visiting a BC session from pastures of a greenish hue elsewhere, given the fond memories of welcoming the stalwarts every December while I was still an earnest COEP lad, clad occasionally in that surprisingly office-worthy grey and white uniform. But attend a BC session is exactly that I did, when I showed up on Sunday afternoon at the BC for the first time in two years.

I arrived 20 minutes after announced time, but tardiness standards seemed to have only gotten worse. Quorum of about 7-8 people was achieved only by 2:20 or so (I was the second person on the scene) and questions for the day were being set by Avaneendra, a face who I have gotten to know recently as someone whose enthusiasm for the sport is second only to the great Dada who many here will fondly remember (he finally graduated!). But apart from Suraj there was no really familiar faces -- and a few were completely new.

Part of the charm of these old visits would be the Old Stalwarts Still in Town (OSSiTs) telling us stories about Old Stalwarts Visiting Towns (OSViTs) and warning us of fantastical proclivities that these question bearing, quiz-starved fiendish OSViTs would bring. I would lap it up with relish. There was none of that here unfortunately, and while the group was a motley bunch, no of them seemed fledgling or in need of any particular instruction. They all seemed rather accomplished and sure. None of that old edgy class structure.

My initial queasiness was however soon put to bed. First was the mention of Tim TeBow. Pre-BC session banter is always a discussion to behold. Each person would come bearing stories of newspaper articles they had read, movies they had watched, British TV shows from the BCL they had borrowed and these stories and recommendations would then be swapped. There was a lot of that, albeit the sources were almost always some person's twitter feed or some facebook page, that erm, I'm ashamed to admit am "too busy" to peruse. I was happy however to be witness to this live social bookmarking / recommendation engine in action. Much fun was had. In particular, there was this hilarious recounting of jokes about the Chennai couple who published an ad asking for IIT sperm donors. (What's common between a sperm and an IITian? They have a one in a million chance of becoming a human being.) -- After more dissecting of Dhoni's ban, and commentary from the India-Australia series the session began in earnest.

I don't know if this is the normal standard these days, but Avaneendra's questions were really good. The actual quizzing was equally fun, though it would have been nicer to have more people. The guessing was fun and witty like in the old days.
The only aberration was when it struck me that no one was scoring! (my old job). I was aghast at this sudden friendliness amongst the quizzing fraternity in Pune, but I let it pass. There was also the usual peter where someone asked a question that everyone except the QM thought was obvious (this time, Led Zeppelin's logo/emblem thing). Ah, it was exactly like old times!

I missed JR and some of the old gang though. I was not alone. BC sessions at this time of the year often co-incide with training for Punt Formation, a program where COEP first years are trained to punt boats I presume but these fierce looking nazi-style commanders. One of these commander types walks up to me and asks quietly while the questions are in progress:

Authoritarian Leader : "Tum mein se J. Ramanand kaun hai?"
Me (a little surprised : "Woh aaj nahi aaya hai"
Authoritarian Leader : "Haan, main jaanta usko"

and quietly leaves. Clearly a few of us left an impression.

Despite my enthusiasm, there is stuff that has changed. At least as observed in my one session. Most strikingly, past low brow habits of misal-pav and chai at Shabree after sessions has been replaced by, hold-your-breath, beer at Bamboo House! I even hear of entire sessions being conducted at the Bamboo House with beer and food in tow. While this seems like a most pleasurable experience on paper, I must strongly protest this violation of tradition. I as a hazy eyed oldtimer am willing to put up with most changes but this one? It strikes at the very roots of the T-Shirt I had excavated for this very purpose.

It said, in white pretty embroidered letters along my breast pocket 4 distinct words:

"Boat Club Quiz Club"

COEP Zest Sports Quiz 2012

2012-01-12T09:43:00.001+05:30

Quoting from the BCQC Facebook Group:

CoEP is organising a inter-college sports quiz as a part of its sports fest Zest'12.
When: 15th Jan
Where: Room 6 (Seminar Hall 2),CoEP
Time: 10 am
More details at this link (you can disregard the team formation rules, which are a result of using the overall sports competition template).

Mindsweep 2012 quizzes - results

2012-01-08T15:35:00.000+05:30

When: 8th Jan, 2012
Where: SCIT, Pune (many thanks to the institute and Nikhil Motlag for arranging the venue)
What: a solo general written quiz by the KQA

Results: Debanjan Bose (SIMC) and Hari Nair (SIBM): 26, Joint winners in Open and College categories.

Please see this KQA page for results and the quiz (coming in a couple of days).

Mindsweep 2012 - Pune details

2012-01-06T07:14:00.002+05:30

Mindsweep 2012 is the first edition of the KQA's International Solo Championship.

When: 8th Jan, 2012 (Sunday)
Reporting Time: 9:30 am; must be seated by 9:45 am; Quiz will begin at 10:00 am sharp. The organisers have asked that no one be allowed into the hall after 10:00 am.

How long: ~2.5 hours (includes time for checking answers)
Where:

Symbiosis Centre for Information Technology (SCIT),
Plot 15, Rajiv Gandhi InfoTech Park, Hinjawadi, Phase 1
Nearby Landmarks: 1 km from Infosys Circle and next door to Cognizant Tech. Solutions and I2IT
Pune – 411057

Format: General Solo quiz. For details, please see this link.
Proctor: J Ramanand (contact: 9764258560)
Prizes:

For Best quizzers in the Open, College, School, and Ladies categories.

For Runners-up in the Open category. College and school students must carry valid ID to be considered for their respective categories.

Prizes sponsored by the BCQC.

Note for unregistered participants: you will be permitted to take the quiz depending on availability of question papers and seating. Preference will be given to registered participants. Please write to me asap if you plan to register on the spot so that I can try to ensure both.

Mindspark 2011 quizzes - results

2012-01-02T10:47:00.001+05:30

COEP's Mindspark 2011 saw three quizzes in the last week of December. Here're the results (compiled by Himanshu Panandikar). If you have any comments on the quizzes, please use the comments option.

Chakravyuh

Set by Himanshu Panandikar and Gaurav Keskar with inputs from Aditya Gadre, Mohit Karve, Neelima Jha, Mihir Khatwani, Amit Patil, Vibhav Bhave and Ashutosh Bokhare.

Questions reviewed and moderated by Aditya Gadre, Mohit Karve and Aadinath Harihar

Theme: General

Date/Venue: 28th December 2011, College of Engineering, Pune
Format: 30 Question Elims, 48 Question Finals (24 IR + 24 IR Rev)
Total Teams: 171

Results:
1st Place: Yash Marathe and Meghashyam Shirodkar (Team F) [Elims: 22.5 (4*) || Finals: 80]
2nd Place: Vinit Atel and Vikram Keskar (Team C) [Elims: 21.5 (3*) ||Finals: 75]
3rd Place: Hari S. Nair and Suraj Menon (Team B) [Elims: 22.5 (3*) || Finals: 70]
4th Place: Nandan Gokhle and Samit Sura (Team E) [Elims: 21 (3*) || Finals: 65]
5th Place: Kshtij Jyoti and Saikat Sarkar (Team A) [Elims: 22 (3*) || Finals: 55]
6th Place: Ranajeet Soman and Rohan Jain (Team D) [Elims: 22 (3*) || Finals: 40]

Best College Team 1(outside the finalists): Rahul Harapanahalli and Neel D’Souza
Best College Team 2(outside the finalists): Suraj Prabhu and Abhinav Pathak
Additional Credits: Himanshu Panandikar for developing the entire finals on Flash (template provided by Shravan Aras)

Qonnoisseur Report
Set by Neelima Jha, Himanshu Panandikar and Ashutosh Bokhare with inputs from Gaurav Keskar, Mihir Khatwani, Amit Patil and Rohit Patil.
Questions reviewed and moderated by Mohit Karve
Theme: Music, Entertainment, Literature, Arts (MELA)
Date/Venue: 29th December 2011, College of Engineering, Pune:
Format: 30 Question Elims, 37 Question Finals (18 IR + 19 IR Rev)
Total Teams: 52

Results:
1st Place: Suraj Menon (Team F) [Elims: 20.5 (4*) || Finals: 90]
2nd Place: Avaneendra Bhargav and Meghashyam Shirodkar (Team C) [Elims: 20 (5*) ||Finals: 45]
3rd Place: Sachin Ravi and Vikram Keskar (Team E) [Elims: 19.5 (4*) || Finals: 30]
4th Place: Ranajeet Soman and Rohan Jain (Team D) [Elims: 16 (3*) || Finals: 25]
5th Place: Kshtij Jyoti and Saikat Sarkar (Team B) [Elims: 14.5 (2*) || Finals: 25]
6th Place: Hari Nair and Nikhil Chitlangia (Team A) [Elims: 18 (3*) || Finals: 10]

Best College Team (outside the finalists): Rohan Danait

Torquest Report
Set by Mihir Khatwani and Amit Patil with inputs from Himanshu Panandikar and Gaurav Keskar.
Questions reviewed and moderated by Mohit Karve
Theme: Science and Technology (Sci-Tech)
Date/Venue: 27th December 2011, College of Engineering, Pune:
Format: 30 Question Elims, 36 Question Finals (18 IR + 18 IR Rev)
Total Teams: 63
Results:
1st Place: Sachin Ravi and Raghav N.C. (Team A) [Elims: 14 (1*) || Finals: 60]
2nd Place*: Abhishek Nagaraj (Team D) [Elims: 12 (0*) ||Finals: 60]
3rd Place: C.V.R Shastry and Vikram Keskar (Team E) [Elims: 18 (1*) || Finals: 55]
4th Place: Avaneendra Bhargav and Arnold (Team F) [Elims: 11.5 (0*) || Finals: 30]
5th Place: Sanket Bhilare and Rohan Danait (Team C) [Elims: 10.5 (2*) || Finals: 30]
6th Place: Nandan Gokhle and Samit Sura (Team B) [Elims: 12 (0*) || Finals: 25]

*Decided on the basis of elimination round score
Best College Team (outside the finalists): Harshal Sarda and Shantanu Hadgekar
Best School Team: Abhishek Gupta and Alok Gupta

V for Wikipedia - II

2011-12-28T12:40:00.002+05:30

Click the image for a larger view

Just like last year, the Boat Club Quiz Club is happy to announce that it has made a small donation to the Wikimedia Foundation. The reasons remain the same; perhaps we could add one more: what if you woke up tomorrow and found Wikipedia gone?

Happy quizzing, reading, encyclopaeding.

Mega-Whats 2011 Pune results

2011-12-27T10:04:00.000+05:30

When: 11 Dec, 2011
Where: COEP
Moderated by: Gaurav Keskar
No. of teams: 19

Winners:
OPEN winners: MEGA-WTFS (Ramanand J., Harish Kumar B.V., Salil Bijur, Kunal Sawardekar) - 57
OPEN runners-up: BARR CHAILA FC UNITED (Yash, Suraj, Atul, Anannya) - 52
COLLEGE winners: KILROY’S DOPPLEGANGERS (AFMC - Kshitij Jyoti, Kamesh Gupta, Mridul J., Saikat) - 33

A list of All India results.

COEP Mindspark 2011 quizzes (includes Chakravyuuh)

2011-12-21T09:51:00.001+05:30

Forwarding an announcement from COEP:

MindSpark is the annual Technical Festival of the College of Engineering, Pune.

This year MindSpark will play host to 4 quizzes from27th- 29th December 2011. Specifics Below. For any additional clarifications. visit http://www.mind-spark.org/chaanaksha.php

1. Chakravyuh- the Open General Quiz

Wednesday , 28th December 2011

Timing: 11:00 am to 4:30 pm.
Venue: The Auditorium, College of Engineering, Pune

Weblink: http://www.mind-spark.org/chakravyuh.php

Chakravyuh has been one of Pune's best known open quizzes for many years now. A general quiz that is literally based on anything and everything under the sun, the participants of this quiz can range from college students to software professionals. Chakravyuh has gone on to produce quizzers who would later perform exceptionally well at national level quizzes. Previous years have elicited fantastic participation and the prize money remains as sweet as ever.
Status: Open Quiz (Anyone can Participate)
Team size: 2
Registration fees: Rs. 30/- per team. Register on the Spot.

2. Torquest- The Scince and Technology quiz

Tuesday, 27th December, 2011

Weblink: http://mind-spark.org/torquest.php
We wouldn't really be an institute of excellence in technical education unless our students were sound in their technical knowledge and fundas. Pit your love for technology against ours. Brush up your theory and find out how much you could actually apply it when you go out into the mad, mad world. Science and technology are inseparable, and this is a quiz where the passion for both would find a home.
Status: Open Quiz (anyone can Participate)
Team size: 2
Registration fees: Rs. 30/- per team. Register on the Spot.

3. Qonnoisseur- The MELA Quiz

Thursday, 29th December, 2011

Weblink: http://www.mind-spark.org/qonnoisseur.php

There's not really much to introduce to this classic format. We're looking for people who read a lot of classics, watch a lot of movies and critique works of art in your spare time, then you're the kind of person who just might have a shot at winning this quiz. Prove yourself to be the ultimate savant in all things related to media and culture.

Status: Open Quiz (Anyone can Participate)
Team size: 2
Registration fees: Rs. 30/- per team. Register on the Spot.

4. 10^-9- The Nanotechnology Quiz
Tuesday, 27th December, 2011

Wednesday, 28th December, 2011

Weblink: http://www.mind-spark.org/nano.php

From nanotubes to colloids to powder technology. You need to know it all to crack this one. Dodge a volley of questions and advance in your quest to conquer the material world for this is the Nanotechnology quiz. The winner takes it all.

Status: College Quiz (I Cards required)
Team size: 2
Registration fees: Rs. 30/- per team. Register on the Spot.

Total Prize Money to be won : Rs 80, 000/-

Goodies for participants and Loads of Audience Prizes (Movie Tickets, Magazines, Anti Virus Packs, Developer Keys, T Shirts etc.)

For more details contact:

Himanshu Panandikar +91 90497 25707 (chakravyuh@mind-spark.org)
Mihir Khatwani +91 97647 707747 (torquest@mind-spark.org)

Neelima Jha +91 90283 59871(qonnoisseur@mind-spark.org)

Nilesh Adhav +91 96658 45872(nano@mind-spark.org)

Mega-Whats 2011 with Pune details

2011-12-03T15:39:00.001+05:30

Mega-Whats is the KQA's annual team competition. Full details are available at this link. Gist is as follows:

(upto) 4 member teams; a General quiz
On the 11th of Dec (Sunday) from 2:30 pm
Pune venue is: ~~Seminar Hall 2~~, Room no. 13, Mech Department, COEP . A full list of venues is here.
Prizes (sponsored by the BCQC in Pune) for Best City Team, Best School and College Teams.
Prior registration is advised to guarantee a seat and to help organisers figure out the logistics. A list of registered teams so far is here.

For the rest of the details, visit this link.

The 1st Annual Tender Leaves Inter-School Quiz - Results

2011-11-21T15:51:00.001+05:30

See prior announcement

Date: 19 Nov 2011

Set and Conducted by: Ramanand J, Suraj Menon

Turnout: ~70 teams

Format:
A General quiz with an emphasis on Books. Teams of 2 (classes 5-7) for elims. 23 questions written elims on slides. Top 6 teams in finals.
Finals: 22 questions on Infinite Rebounds clockwise, 3 written rounds on Book covers, Authors, and a Visual Connect.
Highest in elims: 18 (Bishop's), cut-off: 15 (4 stars).

Results
1st: Team 5 - Orchid School - 1
2nd: Team 6 - Panditrao Agashe School
3rd: Team 2 - Bishop's
Other Finalists: Orchid-2, Millennium International, Symbiosis

Best School (based on number of teams in top 10): Orchid school
Prizes and trophies sponsored by Tender Leaves.

Thanks to Yash Marathe and Ranajeet Soman for helping out with the quiz.

The 1st Annual Tender Leaves Inter-School Quiz

2011-11-15T20:53:00.002+05:30

As some of you know, veteran BCQC quizzer Harish's day job (and sometimes night) is being CEO of Tender Leaves, an online book library in Pune. Tender Leaves is organising its first ever Annual Inter School Quiz – a general quiz with a focus on books.

The details are as follows:

What: A General Quiz with a focus on books
Quizmaster: J. Ramanand
Who can participate: Students from Classes 5,6 and 7
Team Size: Two. Both members should belong to the same school
Format: Written prelims, followed by a Final with 6 teams of 2 members each
Entry Fees?: None
How to register?: : Call 020 32305063 or write to support@tenderleaves.com; On the spot registrations are also allowed

Date: 19th November (Saturday)
Timing: participants need to report by 9:15 AM; Elims: 9: 30 AM- 10:00 AM; Finals: 10:45 AM- 12:00 noon)
Venue: Nehru Memorial Hall, Camp, Pune.

Prizes: Prizes for each finalist, Trophies for winners and first runners-up and the Best School (school with the maximum teams in the top 10 in the elims). Lots of audience prizes.

Contact Details: Phone: B V Harish Kumar (020 32305063/ 9890454910) Email: support@tenderleaves.com

Please note that the prelims will be followed by the release of The Diary of a Puneri Kid – an anthology of fiction stories written by young writers from Pune. The Finals will follow the book release function.

General Lee Speaking (BCQC November 2011 Open Quiz)

2011-11-07T11:34:00.009+05:30

Date: 6 Nov 2011

Set and Conducted by: Aditya Gadre

Format:
Teams of 2 for elims. 25 teams participated. 35 questions written elims on slides.
Top 6 teams in finals. Participants from 7th-9th top teams joint finalist teams randomly. Teams of 3 for finals.
Finals: 21 questions on Infinite Pounce clockwise, 1 5-image Google Doodle written round, 1 7-question non-negative theme, 21 questions on Infinite Pounce anti-clockwise

Results
1st: Team F - Kunal Sawardekar, Maitreyi Gupta and Siddhesh Sarma (draft) - ~~210~~225pts
2nd: Team A - J. Ramanand, Niranjan Pedanekar and Yash Sathe (draft)- 125pts
3rd: Team E - Salil Bijur, Chintan Shah and Kamayani Sharma (draft) - 110pts
4th: Team C - Yash Marathe, Aditya Chandorkar and Satyavrat Wagle - 100pts
5th: Team D - Vikram Keskar, Sameer Deshpande and Rohit Sahasrabuddhe (draft) - 90pts
6th: Team B - Venkat Srinivasan, Amit Paranjape (substituted by Arjun Mohan) and Aniketh Rallabhandi (draft) - 35pts

Best College Team: Hitesh Mahato & Finehas Pinto (AFMC)
Best Newbie Team: Prateek Nagras & Rohan Dhamdhere

Prizes sponsored by Landmark and BCQC

Elims cutoff: 11.5

The full set of questions from the prelims and finals are available here, courtesy the QM.

Report (by Ramanand)
* Very simply framed, easy-paced and accessible prelims. Liked it.
* I'm not a fan of Infinite Pounce: I think it complicates the finals, makes it less entertaining for the audience (everyone scribbling away all the time), and elongates the quiz. I'll comment on that separately.
* Time management could have been a little better (it was better in the 2nd half)
* Liked the big connect, though I think the exhaustive-or-not part was confusing (to me)
* Slightly uneven pitch - with some easy ones and some tough ones. Perhaps it would help if the QM further explains the significance of the tough ones to counter the participants' sledging them as being too 'complicated' :)
* Some of the questions could have been less verbose
* What was not at all good was the confusion over scoring. I do think a non-participant should score (or there should be a visible scoring sheet/excel open). It's difficult for teams to keep scores accurately, esp. with Pounce-a-tantra in place.

* <in-joke>BTW, contrary to fears of extinction, some endangered vCats were once again spotted (or was it just the unspotted version? too dry to tell)</in-joke>

Please leave your opinions in the comments section.

"General Lee Speaking" - the BCQC Nov 2011 Open

2011-10-31T20:33:00.000+05:30

No, it's not yet another sign that the Chinese are taking over. It's just a general quiz, this time by COEP's own (partially loaned out to XLRI) Aditya Gadre. Details of this third edition of this season's BCQC Opens are:

Quizmaster: Aditya Gadre

Flavour: General

Format: Written prelims; Finals with 6 teams (but with the Draft Pick system: after prelim, top 6 teams to qualify for finals, members of next 3 teams will be distributed among them.) Up to two members per team; no prior registration needed; no entry fees

Date & Time

6th November (Sunday)

Timings: 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm (report by 1.15 pm) Written prelims: 1:30 pm to 2:15 pm Finals: 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Venue

Classroom 11/13, Mechanical Engineering Dept., College of Engineering, Pune

How to get to the venue

The College of Engineering, Pune (also known as COEP or just "Engineering College") is located very close to other landmarks such as Pune Station, Sancheti Flyover, and the RTO. The Mechanical Dept. is on the same side as the Boat Club (where our informal weekend sessions take place). It is on the opposite side of the Seminar Hall where last month's open was held.

Contact

Phone: Suraj (98903 59065), Aditya (98811 01291), Email: suraj.sk[at]gmail.com

Prizes

Prizes for each finalist, for the Best College Team, the Best School Team, and the Best Newbie Team. Lots of audience prizes.
Prizes are co-sponsored by Landmark (Pune) and BCQC

The BCQC is on Facebook and Twitter as well.

the questions from last month's quiz by Vikram Joshi are now available at the BCQC Questions Blog.

A cricketing theory of Indian quiz groups

2011-10-13T19:03:00.003+05:30

The great thing about analogies is that they seldom have to make sense. Often, the seed of such an exercise is in misplaced induction: you start with one element that coincides with another, and then you construct, induction step after step, a cathedral of pure imagination. Here is one such anal-logie, an attempt to equate Indian quizzing groups with Test cricketing nations.

Pune: this is where it began. One day, I realised that New Zealand cricket had much in common with us (the BCQC). In the quizzing map of India, we are a small but committed quizzing city. We tend to suffer from a very tiny pool of quizzers, but don't let that affect our creativity. We tend to be garrulous about our quizzing opinions, but are usually easy-going (and no one really pays much attention to us :-) ). Yes, we are (were?) a cold city; some of our quizzing happens outdoors and in picturesque settings (at least when we had the Dewang Mehta auditorium!). It can also be argued that the BC is a multi-purpose arena, where quizzing has to contend with other sports. And we have had reasonably good individual success at national events.

From now, everything is, as I put it, "illegitimate shoehorning":

Kolkata: This veteran quizzing city is the Olde English Test team. History records it as fostering quizzing in the country. The style is old-fashioned, and the rest of India seems to practice a different form these days.

Bombay: These guys are the New English Test team. Largely made up of talented expats (from South Africa? see below). Competitive like crazy. Have won some big quizzes recently.

Bangalore: My vote goes to Australia as their isomorphic peer. Why? The KQA sets the standard when it comes to quizzes, formats, and quizzers. Perhaps the Australian Test team of a few years ago ;-)

Chennai: Should they be Australia? Or should they be South Africa. I hope no one tries to "choke" me for this. Maybe they are Victoria and New South Wales; two sides of the same Face/Off coin.

Goa: The guys at the SEQC will throw theirs stereos at being typed as the Windies; both have great locations to quiz, drink, and relax, but certainly do some great quizzing. Makes me think: why take quizzing (and such analogies) all that seriously?

There are many more quiz clubs and cricketing nations; scope for more mad connections. Are the guys in Delhi the Pakistanis (unpredictable "Northies" with flair; not ageless, I hope)? And what about the Sri Lankans and the Zimbabweans?

And who are the India of quizzing? (or are we all?) Is it time to ask the Belgians?

Written as a companion piece to this video, recorded by Sarat Rao, who is making a documentary on Indian quizzing (shot on the sidelines of the last BCQC Open)

IIT Bombay Techfest National Open Quiz - Pune details

2011-10-10T10:02:00.001+05:30

Forwarding a message from the organisers:

Techfest 2011-12 shall host the largest inter-institutional quiz in India, The “Techfest National Open Quiz 2011-12”. With a prize money of INR 1,00,000 for the grand finale and much more interesting prizes this quiz aims to bring together the best quizzers from across the nation. The quiz will be held at Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Guwahati, Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai and the winners of all the cities will finally clash during Techfest 2011-12 to claim the title of the Techfest National Open Quiz Champions. Rest of the details are here.

Quizmaster: Rohit Nair

Format: Written prelims; Stage Finals with 6 teams. Winners to be invited to Techfest, IIT Bombay in January for the Grand Finale. Two members per team compulsary; No cross institutional teams strictly; Registrations on www.techfest.org/tnoq and also on the spot registrations; No entry fees

Date & Time: 15th October (Saturday); Timings: From 11 am
Venue: College of Engineering, Pune

How to get to the venue The College of Engineering, Pune (also known as COEP or just "Engineering College") is located very close to other landmarks such as Pune Station, Sancheti Flyover, and the RTO. The Seminar Hall is near the main building and is on the opposite side of the road from the Boat Club (which is the venue for the weekend sessions).

Contact: Phone: Rohan (98901 06884) Email: rohan.k[at]techfest.org, Arindam (97695 85892) Email: arindam[at]techfest.org

Stuff I've Come Across (BCQC September 2011 Open Quiz)

2011-09-26T16:26:00.005+05:30

Date: 25 Sep 2011

Set and Conducted by: Vikram Joshi

Format:
Teams of 2 for elims. 32 teams participated. 30 questions written elims on slides.
Top 6 teams in finals. Participants from 7th-9th top teams joint finalist teams randomly. Teams of 3 for finals.
Finals: 30 questions on IR. 1 10-image visual connect. 2nd round of IR with 30 questions in reverse passing order. 'Pick your poison' in 'Infinite Pounce' format where every team selects a topic, other teams can attempt in writing.

Results
1st: Team E - Aditya Gadre, Yash Marathe and Ayon Gupta (draft) - 150pts
2nd: Team C - Vibhendu Tewari, Sarat Rao and Swaminathan (draft)- 120pts
3rd: Team B - Anannya Deb, Anand Sivasankar and Salil Bijur (draft) - 115pts
4th: Team D - J. Ramanand and Suraj Menon - 110pts
5th: Team F - S. Balakrishnan, Sameer Deshpande and Arjun Mohan (draft) - 80pts
6th: Team A - Shubhankar Gokhale, Abhinav Dasgupta and Gaurav (draft) - 50pts

Elims cutoff: 11.5
Best school team: Maitreya Ghorpade and Shreedhar Kale (Symbiosis Secondary School)
Best college team: Abhinav and Suraj
Best newbie team: Arun Warrier and Vignesh J.

Report
Vikram Joshi of the Bombay Quiz Club conducted the second open quiz of the calendar year. This probably helped increase participation from his city. There were also many newcomers including school students.

Team B took an early lead in the first IR round at 70 points with teams C and D at 40. Team E suddenly pulled themselves up by cracking the long visual theme in the 1st set of images. All teams except B answered the theme at the end but B remained at the top. It was the 2nd IR round that saw team D in solid form answering almost everything that came their way. At the end of this round, teams E and D had stolen the lead from B. The Pick your Poison round which had negative marking brought changed the scoring order again, with team E finishing first and C second.

Vikram presented a graph of the distribution of topics the quiz covered: History, Geography, Literature, Sports, Culture, Entertainment and Current Affairs were distributed almost equally. A note on the part points policy: If a question had more than one answer, full points were awarded to only the team that had answered all.

The quiz ended in time with prizes from Landmark being distributed to all finalists.

Landmark, Pune kindly sponsored prizes for the quiz - we thank them for their support.

Please leave your opinions in the comments section.

Brand Equity Quiz 2011 - Pune Round results

2011-09-23T09:51:00.002+05:30

Date: 22 Sept, 2011
Conducted by: Derek O'Brien
Venue: Westin Hotel, Pune

Turnout: ~30 teams

Standings
1st: Infosys (C): Pratyush and Mehul
3rd: ZS Associates (D): Prabhakar and Jaipal
3rd: Advinus Therapeutics (A): Suraj & Shariq
Other finalists: ZS Associates (Bharat and Anand), Indira School of Business (names not announced), TCS (Abhishek and Suchir)

Got comments? Use the commenting form below.

Questions from the prelims here.

BCQC September 2011 Open Quiz

2011-09-17T11:31:00.011+05:30

In the second edition of this season's BCQC Opens, Vikram Joshi of Bombay Quiz Club will conduct his first quiz in Pune. Vikram is one of Mumbai's leading quizzers having won KQA's Mahaquizzer city round and Landmark Open Quiz national finals among several others. It will be a general themed quiz reflecting what he has been reading and watching lately. Details follow below:

'Stuff I've Been Reading'

Quizmaster: Vikram Joshi

Flavour: General

Date & Time

25th September (Sunday)

Timings: 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm (report by 1.15 pm) Written prelims: 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm Finals: 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm

Venue

Seminar Hall II, College of Engineering, Pune

How to get to the venue

The College of Engineering, Pune (also known as COEP or just "Engineering College") is located very close to other landmarks such as Pune Station, Sancheti Flyover, and the RTO. The Seminar Hall is near the main building and is on the opposite side of the road from the Boat Club (which is the venue for the weekend sessions).

Contact

Phone: Suraj (98903 59065) Email: suraj.sk[at]gmail.com

Prizes

Prizes for each finalist, for the Best College Team, the Best School Team, and the Best Newbie Team. Lots of audience prizes.
Prizes are co-sponsored by Landmark (Pune) and BCQC

Update: the questions from this quiz are now available at the BCQC Questions Blog

Oasis Quiz Lone Wolf Edition 2011 : Pune Chapter

2011-09-02T17:15:00.000+05:30

The Oasis Quiz Lone Wolf Edition is the annual lone wolf quiz conducted by ELAS, the quizzing club at BITS Pilani.

It will be a 90 minute 120 question written solo quiz, held simultaneously across various venues across the country. The quiz is open to all. The college-level winner in each venue will be invited to Pilani during Oasis, the annual cultural festival of BITS-Pilani to participate in a mega showdown. Prizes for college category and open category winners. The winner here will be crowned champion and, needless to say, will win lots of money and pride and honor.

4th Sept. 11 am onwards

Venue: Seminar Hall 2 is confirmed. It is adjacent to College Gymkhana & college library.

Pune Venue : College of Engineering, Pune

Contact : Amit Patil - 9970144577

The last year's question paper is here .

Announcing the BCQC Questions Blog

2011-08-11T20:29:00.000+05:30

If you read our sidebar or this post, you'll notice that we've not been much of a question posting gang. This has changed (at least for now!).

Thanks to the efforts of Yash Marathe and others, who in a Veda Vyasa-like fit have taken it upon themselves to upload some of the recent BC quizzes at the BCQC Questions Blog.

The first two sets are as follows:

1. The BC Cup 2011: Questions (Report).

2. The recently held BC August 2011 Open "Cineaste": Questions (Report).

Before we end, a caveat. Other quizzing associations who have enthusiastically put up their questions online have often reported that people have been lifting questions without even a semblance of credit, and thus have even opted to stop putting questions online. We understand these dangers, but right now, we plan to try sharing these questions and see what happens. Perhaps we shall naively invoke the laws of karma on those who will pull Pritams on us.

So if you use these questions as they are, please give the BCQC's quizmasters sufficient credit for their creativity and effort. It is only fair, as you will agree.

Cinéaste - The Movie Quiz (BCQC August Open Quiz)

2011-08-07T19:24:00.006+05:30

Date: 7 Aug 2011

Set and Conducted by: Avaneendra Bhargav and Rohan Jain

Format:
Teams of 2 for elims. 29 teams participated. 30 questions written elims.
Top 6 teams in finals. Participants from 7th-9th top teams chosen by finalist teams as draft picks. Teams of 3 for finals.
Finals: 48 questions IR with round reversal. 1 written theme.

Results
1st: Team C - J. Ramanand, Niranjan Pedanekar and Ranajeet Soman (draft) - 105pts
2nd: Team A - Padmanabhan Pillai, Akhil Singh and Ravi Handa (draft)- 75pts
3rd: Team B - Suraj Menon, Anubhav Chatterjee and B.V. Harishkumar (draft) - 70pts
4th: Team E - Yash Marathe, Debanjan Bose and Kaushik Koley (draft) - 65pts
5th: Team F - Salil Bijur, Amulya Sreekumar and Swapnil Pandit (draft) - 60pts
6th: Team D - Aditya Murarka, Saurabh Mishra and Rohit Iyer (draft) - 50pts

Best school team:
Best college team:
Best newbie team:

Report
Although late in the calendar year, BCQC's formal quizzes were revived by a movie-themed quiz by Avaneendra and Rohan. The questions were dominated by Hollywood-based questions but covered world movies, Indian movies, cinema technology and terms associated with film-making.

The quiz stuck to schedule without any unwarranted delays. Team C took an early lead which they maintained till the end of the quiz. The first round by Avaneendra was not very remunerative with many questions going unanswered. The written round featured 6 questions requiring identification of cameo appearances. This round balanced scores and brought the teams lagging behind closer to others. The second IR round by Rohan had comparatively more answerable questions resulting in close competition and teams A and B finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively. 2 extra questions were added to compensate for the questions that were scrapped.

Please leave your opinions in the comments section.

The BCQC - now on Facebook

2011-08-02T18:55:00.000+05:30

The BCQC's Facebook Page is here.

So now, if you want to join us and generally commingle, you have a variety of options:

1. The "inquizitive" Yahoogroup (get news)
2. The BCQC blog (read us, comment and rant)
3. The BCQC Twitter page (follow us, stalk us)
4. The bright new BCQC Facebook Page (join us, like us, get news)
5. ...and the BCQC site (which still remains out of commission due to some extreme makeovers underneath) (know all about us)

Of course, there is the option of just ignoring us, in response to which we will immediately turn the other cheek.

BCQC August 2011 Open - a Movie quiz

2011-07-31T12:01:00.013+05:30

After a hiatus of a year, the BCQC Open returns. Unlike in earlier times, the next set of Open Quiz days will only have one quiz per day. Here are the details:

'Cinéaste - The Movie Quiz'

Quizmasters: Avaneendra and Rohan

Flavour: Films

Date & Time

7th August(Sunday)

Timings: 10:30 am to 2:00 pm (report by 10:15 am)
Written prelims: 10:30 to 11
Finals: 11:30 to 2 pm

Venue

Seminar Hall II, College of Engineering, Pune

Contact

Phone: Suraj (98903 59065), Rohan (98811 60507), Avaneendra (90110 40388)
Email: suraj.sk[at]gmail.com

Prizes

Prizes for each finalist, for the Best College Team, the Best School Team, and the Best Newbie Team.
Lots of audience prizes.
Prizes are co-sponsored by Tender Leaves and the BCQC.

How to get to the venue

The College of Engineering, Pune (also known as COEP or just "Engineering College") is located very close to other landmarks such as Pune Station, Sancheti Flyover, and the RTO. The Seminar Hall is near the main building and is on the opposite side of the road from the Boat Club (which is the venue for the weekend sessions).

WQC Pune 2011 round - results

2011-06-05T09:05:00.001+05:30

Organised by: IQA
Conducted in Pune by: Amit Patil (many thanks!)
Venue: COEP

Number of participants: 17
Local Results - the 'worst' section score in brackets:
1st: Kunal Sawardekar: 101 (+7)
2nd: Ramanand: 98 (+6)
3rd: Suraj Menon: 89 (+5)
4th: Salil: 85 (+5)

Section winners:

Entertainment: Kunal, Mihir, Shivam Sharma (7 :-))
Culture: Kunal (11)
Lifestyle: Suraj (21)
Science: Kunal (16)
History: Kunal (21)
Media: Suraj, Ramanand (18)
Sports: Salil, Suraj (11)
World: Kunal (17)

For more: keep an eye on this link.
Bombay results here.
Bangalore results here.

World Quizzing Championships 2011 - Pune

2011-06-01T19:52:00.001+05:30

Important Update (posted 3 Jun)

The location has changed - it will be held at Room No.13, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering , COEP (It is close to the Boat Club, and not on the Seminar Hall side).

Reporting time remains 3:30 pm. The schedule is: Paper 1 from 4 to 5, then Paper one checking & scores, Paper 2 commences, followed by final scores.

This is a solo written competition consisting of 8 sections (of 30 qns each) to be solved in 2 hours.

Date: 4th June 2010 (Saturday)

Saturday, June 4 · 4:00pm - 6:00pm (Report by 3:30 pm)
Location: Room no. 6 , Seminar hall 2 , College Of Engineering , Pune [Near the Library and Gymkhana]
Local coordinator: Amit Patil
Registration: Free, but mandatory to ensure your seat. Since the no. of registrations will be used to print answer sheets, and only a handful of extra answer sheets will be available for "on the spot" registrations, book early to confirm your seat.
To register, write to Amit at amitpatil2020@gmail.com

For the quiz format, visit this link.

Important Note
An earlier registration notice had mistakenly pointed to a Google sheet meant only for Bombay participants. If you plan to take the quiz from Pune and have entered your name in that sheet, please write to Amit and let him know.

Mahaquizzer 2011 - Pune results

2011-05-29T20:17:00.000+05:30

Organised by: KQA
Conducted in Pune by: Vishwajeet Narvekar (many thanks as usual!)
Venue: COEP (thanks to Mihir, Gaurav and other students for the arrangements)
School Winner: Rohan
College Winner: Aniket Khasgiwale(39)
Open Category Winner: J. Ramanand (59)

Number of participants: ~30
Official final standings: keep an eye on this link. All scores are provisional pending adjudication. According to the KQA twitter feed, Arul Mani has won this year's Mahaquizzer with 87 points.

BC Cup 2011 - Results

2011-05-29T20:12:00.000+05:30

When: 22nd May, 2011
Where: BC, Pune
By: Aniket, Aditya Gadre, Yash Marathe

This year’s edition saw more major changes to the format. It has now moved away from the head-to-head knockout contests to a conventional quizzing IR format - a positive move IMO.

Format:
First, an elim determines 8 qualifiers. The qualifiers took part in a 60 qn format, after which 4 are eliminated. Scores are reset and another 36 qn semi takes place. The final is a one-to-one contest like last year's contest. The match consists of a home leg and an away leg. Home is basically direct questions. If one gets a direct question wrong and the opponent answers, it counts as an away goal and is used for tie breakers.

Group stages
The prelims cutoff was 12.5, with a top score of 19 by Anand. The 8 qualifiers in random order were:

Anand, Suraj, Annanya, Kaushik, Srinath, Ramanand, Pradeep, and Dipanjan. Pradeep took his spot after a tie-break decider (just the beginning of the day for him).

The Quarter Finals: Anand was in complete control of this, taking 9 points to emerge the leader. Suraj (7) was next in. Three of us (Annanya, Pradeep, and Ramanand) were tied on 6, necessitating a long drawn out tie-break threatening the reserves of the QMs before Ramanand was eliminated.

Semi Final The tables were turned - Anand, Annanya, and Suraj finished on 3 points each, as Pradeep decided to enjoy the view at the other end of the table with a comfortable 5 points. Another set of tie-breakers later, the defending champion squeezed into the final.

The Final
Pradeep v Annanya
Pradeep will never forget the Cooch-Behar Trophy, that much we can be sure of. That miss on a cricket question, a topic that Pradeep is considered a leading expert on, was to prove costly as Annanya put on a smooth performance to win 5-4. Once again, his breadth of knowledge across sports helped him win the cup (and even ensured a point or two for fellow quizzers, as I can testify in the Quarters.)
Final score 5-4, Annanya Deb wins on aggregate

The winner for BC Cup 2011 is Annanya Deb

Previous winners:
2009: Suraj and Sameer
2010, 2011: Annanya Deb

Once again, congratulations to the three quiz-masters for a very interesting and wide variety of questions on sport. Comments and suggestions? Leave it in the comments section for this post.

Mahaquizzer 2011

2011-05-19T10:42:00.000+05:30

"Mahaquizzer" is India's biggest solo quiz. This year's edition will be held on the 29th of May (Sunday) from 10 am. Prior registrations are recommended as different venues have different seating capacities, and on-the-spot registrations cannot be guaranteed. Plus, this helps the organisers plan better.

In Pune, the Quiz will be held at:

Seminar Hall II (Next to main Auditorium),
College of Engineering,
Pune (COEP),
Shivajinagar,
Pune-5
Coordinator & KQA Proctor: Vishwajeeth Narvekar (98201-09984)

The quiz is open to all and there are prizes for local winners in categories such as School, College, Open and Lady entrant. In Pune, we will be sponsoring additional prizes for schools and colleges.

The rest of the details can be found at this KQA link.
To check if you are registered, visit this link.

* Previous results and reports from Pune
* Questions from earlier editions.

The BC Cup 2011

2011-05-17T10:23:00.006+05:30

This is the BCQC's annual individual, open quiz to crown the Best Sports Quizzer. This is the third edition. ( Reports for 2009 and 2010 editions)

Format: "This is vastly, hugely mindbogglingly big quiz - if you thought Anand's lit quiz was long, that's just peanuts compared to this" - Douglas Adams
First, a 30 question elim determines 8 qualifiers . These 8 people take part in a 60 question quarter final. The top four go through to the semi final. The semi-final will consist of 34 questions with scoring reset to zero. This is to keep the 'winning three consecutive matches' concept constant from last year's edition. The top two then go to the final.
The finalists will then face off one-on one for a 24 question final. The match consists of a home leg and an away leg. Homeleg is basically direct questions. If one gets a direct question wrong wich the opponent answers, it counts as an away goal and is used for tie breakers (as per UEFA rules:) )

So that's a total of 148 questions + tie breakers.

Administrivia QMs: Yash Marathe, Aniket Khasgiwale and Aditya Gadre
Theme: Sports
Teams: Individual
Restrictions: (or the lack of one) Open quiz. Everyone is welcome

When? 12:30 pm, Sunday, 22nd May, 2011
Where? The Boat Club, College of Engineering Pune
Registration: Free registration. You can register by :
1. Mailing yashcmarathe[at]gmail.com
2. Calling or SMSing Aditya at 9881101291
3. Confirming your attendance on the facebook event.

This is required as we need to get elim sheets printed.

Prizes: Landmark Vouchers

Landmark Quiz - Mumbai 2011

2011-05-10T18:43:00.003+05:30

QM: Navin Jayakumar

Results:
1st: The Dukes of Cambridge, .... - Shubhankar Gokhale, Srinath and Abhinav Dasgupta : 64 pts
2nd: The Travelling Pillsburys - Vibhendu Tiwari, Sumant Srivathsan and Anil Kothuri: 49 pts
3rd: Sigh Babas of Put-a-party - Salil Bijur, Yash Marathe and Aditya Gadre: 44 pts
4th: Ani Uris - Taking the 'p' out of pani puris - Anand Sivashankar, Amit Garde and Meghashyam Shirodkar : 44 pts*

Other Finalists
Your guess is as good as mine - Prasann Potdar, Amit Pandeya and Francis R
Swami and friends - Alagarsamy, Nitish Khadiya and J Krishnamurthy
Hazare Khwaeishen Aisi - Subhashish, Navin Sharma and [one more person]
Born Losers Aniruddha Dutta and two more gentlemen (TCS)

* Lost on tie breaker

This year's Landmark open had a rather simple elim set which arguably led to a few surprises with regard to the finalists. A tougher elims would perhaps been a bit more fair and ensured that the best 8 teams in the auditorium qualified for the final.

The final itself, in my opinion, was interesting and had a good mix of new, current events and 'static' fundas. About the quality of the questions, I felt a bit of workability was compromised in trying to make the questions tougher. A lot of the questions seemed too heavy on the 'funda' and largely involved fitting situations to questions instead of working out the answer.

I felt a few questions were put in just for the gimmick or rather were asked just so that the audience would have heard of the answer, which hurt a couple of teams (particularly us and Swami and friends) as they went not go for answers they knew could not possibly feature in an open quiz final (which turned out to be the right answers!)

That said, it is indeed very difficult to balance a quiz such that you hold the interest of a largely newbie audience and hardened quizzers, and Navin Jayakumar certainly does this job better than most.

Please post your opinions in the comments.

PS: I have forgotten the names of a few finalists. Please post the names in the comments. Thanks.

The Annual BCQC College Quizzer of the Year - for The Yash Marathe Prize

2011-03-17T20:21:00.003+05:30

For the Yash Marathe Prize (the prize is named after the best college quizzer of the previous year!)

Who can participate: Any (full time) college student from a Pune college. 11th standard onwards. Please carry a college identity card if you are not a BCQC regular (we will be polite in case we challenge your presence)

When: 27th March (Sunday). Reporting Time: To be announced

What: A general quiz. Written eliminations (Please get a pen), 8 qualifiers in the final. This is a solo quiz.

Venue: BC Lawns, COEP

Prizes: for all finalists; also for best first year participant & junior college participant

Registration: Mail yashcmarathe@gmail.com or adityadgadre@gmail.com to register. This is largely to make sure we have elim sheets for everyone.

Alternatively you can also call Yash Marathe (9890102888) Aditya Gadre (9881101291)

Note: The quiz is strictly for college quizzers from Pune, so we aren't inviting entries from outside. Also, the quiz is meant for student quizzers, so we will not be able to accommodate part-time students or professional quizzers with suspicious identity cards!

BCQC website down for refurbishment

2011-03-17T09:42:00.000+05:30

Our website, http://bcqc.org is undergoing change, so it won't be available for the next few days. Mails sent to @bcqc.org addresses are also likely to be affected for some time, so in case you need anything, please leave a comment here on this blog.

The BQC - IIT Bombay Quizzes - Review

2011-03-15T17:03:00.000+05:30

Sumant reviews the newly launched and recently conducted BQC-IIT Bombay quizzes here.

Prahelika 2011

2011-03-14T21:15:00.002+05:30

Pune Institute of Computer Technology will be organizing their annual quiz Prahelika. The details are as follows:
Date: 24th March 2011 (Thursday)
Time: Elims 10:15 am and Finals 12:00 pm
Venue: Pune Institute Of Computer Technology, Sr. No 27, Pune-Satara Road, Dhankawadi, Pune 411043
Eligibilty: College Teams only
Team size: 2 per team, Top 6 teams to qualify for the finals.
Registration: Rs.50/- per team, on the spot registrations allowed. Register online or contact 9762123762
Prizes: Worth Rs 10,000/-, Special prizes for the Audience, Best Team Name & Best team Slogan
Contact details: Sumaer Bahl (9762123762)

Sinhagad Quiz

2011-03-03T09:22:00.003+05:30

Sinhagad College of Engineering will be organizing their annual Sinhagad Open quiz. The details are as follows:
Date: 5th March 2011
Time: 11am
Venue: IT seminar hall, Sinhgad college of engineering, Pune
Team size: Maximum of 2 per team
Registration: Fee of Rs 80, on the spot registrations allowed.
Prizes: 1st Rs 9000, 2nd Rs 3000
Hosted by: Sameer Jagdale
Contact details: Sameer Jagdale 9923072228

TrizQuiz - Cummins College of Engineering, Pune

2011-03-03T09:13:00.004+05:30

Cummins College of Engineering for Women (Mech Dept.) will be organizing a quiz titledTrizQuiz as a part of its inaugural edition of a technical event - Triz 2011.

The details are as follows,

Date: March 13, 2011 (Sunday)

Theme: General

Time: 10:30am

Team size: 2 (for UG college students with valid I-cards, on-the-spot registrations are allowed)

Prizes: Cash prizes worth ` 5k

Conducted by: Avaneendra Bhargav and Nikhil Motlag

Registration fee: ` 50 per team

Venue: MKSSS's Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Karvenagar, Pune - 411052 (get directions to the college here)

For more details, contact:
Nikhil - 98608 04350
Avaneendra - 90110 40388
else check the event website

AIT's Gen. B.C.Joshi Quiz 2011 - Report

2011-02-20T11:19:00.000+05:30

Date: 19 Feb, 2011
Venue: Army Institute of Technology, Pune
Set and conducted by: Meghashyam Shirodkar
Theme: General

Quiz Final Results
Format: 35 qns in the prelims; 45 questions (IR) + Cluenatic round

1st: Anand Sivashankar + Anannya Deb (F) - 90* (tiebreak: 2)
2nd: Suraj Menon + Yash Marathe (B) - 90 (tiebreak: 1.5)
3rd: Niranjan Pedanekar + J. Ramanand (C) - 78
4th: Vikram Joshi + Srinath (E) - 72
5th: Sumant Srivathsan + Vibhendu Tewari (A) - 67.5
6th: Sachin Ravi + George Mathew (D) - 35

Report
The "General B.C.Joshi" quiz is back. The quiz from AIT that had set high standards of organisation in the 'days of yore' began in 1998, stumbled a little in the early years of the last decade, and then ran out of steam after 2005. So, for those of us with fond memories of AIT's quizzing history, it was great to see the quiz being 'rebooted' (as the QM mentioned more than once).

For the record, with all the pedantry befitting a quiz, the B.C.Joshi quiz began in 1998, and not in 2000 as numerous speakers mentioned yesterday. I'd written about the BCJ quiz a long while ago - the post is here. Incidentally, it was fitting that Anand, part of the BVP team to have won the inaugural edition, was again the winner, in a close quiz and tight tie-break finish.

Here's brief, bulleted summary of facts and opinions:
* The time management was poor, with the quiz (esp. finals) beginning very late. This also meant we had to lose a round at the end; given the placings, it could have made a lot of difference to the top 5 positions. To their credit, the organisers did solicit feedback on this issue and have promised for better things last year.

* The entry fee, at 200/- for corporate teams at least, was very steep. Outside of the Brand Equity Quiz, this must be the most that I've paid to enter a quiz prelims! IMO, the entry fee only adds to another barrier to attending this quiz; the distance to the venue, and thus relative lack of transportation being the main problems.

* I did not like the prelims very much. Yes they were tough, but that's not the complaint. There were quite a few questions that were on very unattractive topics; even if the aim is to appeal to populist subjects, there are many topics that are both interesting and mainstream. In addition, the rolling visuals, the commentary in the middle, etc. was very distracting. It would have been better if the visuals had been bunched together in the prelims paper. I thoroughly disagree with the scheme of having more than 1 pt per question! Three points for simply identifying the people behind Intel was unfair, esp. if someone got just one point for much better answers. (I'll confess: perhaps the only reason my team qualified was because we managed to pick up some of these 2 or 3 pointers)

* The finals were a lot better in comparison. But there was a clear current affairs (2009-2011) bias. Multiple questions on topics such as the census, FaceBook etc. could have been avoided.

* Too many questions had too many partial points at stake; perhaps the questions could have been smaller/tighter, which would have avoided the problem. The addition of 3 qns in the end made a difference to the top 5 standings. Perhaps the QM could have just stopped at the end of the 2nd last round, having come to the end of the allotted time.

* Some of the questions in the finals were quite good. The teams on-stage were well-matched, and there were some fine answers. Almost everyone was in the hunt for most of the quiz, which made for good viewing.

* Thanks to the organisers for the bus transport, the fine food, and their hospitality.

AIT has promised to ensure future editions of the quiz continue to happen, so until next year.

Got something to say? Write it in the 'comments' section here.

Shyam Bhatt Memorial Quiz 2011 - Report

2011-02-15T01:55:00.003+05:30

Date: 13 Feb, 2011
Venue: Armed Forces Medical College, Pune
Set and conducted by: Lt. Col. Nikhil Moorchung (Finals)
Theme: General

Quiz Final Results
Format: 30 qns in the prelims; 40 questions in IR with a round reversal halfway

1st: Meghashyam Shirodkar + Salil Bijur (A) - 110
2nd: Suraj Menon + Avaneendra Bhargav (B) - 80
Jt 3rd: Kshitij Jyoti + Saikat Sarkar (C) - 50
Jt 3rd: Gaurav Parab + Amneet Sodhi (E) - 50
5th: Yash Marathe + Aditya Chandorkar (D) - 40
6th: Salil Jena + Arjun Kurup (F) - 30

Heritage India Quiz 2011 - Report

2011-02-12T20:28:00.003+05:30

Date: 11 Feb, 2010
Venue: MES Auditorium, Bal Shikshan Mandir, Pune
Set by: Ramanand, Salil Bijur, Yash Marathe
Conducted by: Ramanand
Theme: Indian Heritage

Quiz Final Results
Format: 20 qns in the prelims; Finals: 27 questions (2 rounds of 9 each in IR; 2 written rounds on stamps (4 qns) and geographical indications (5 qns))

1st: Orchid School (Shantanu, Ameya, Gaurav) (D) - 90
2nd: Sevasadan (Omkar, Onkar, Anumit) (A) - 65
3rd: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Sulochana Natu Vidya Mandir (Prajwal, Harish, Shiva) (B)- 60
4th: Dr. Kalmadi Shamrao (Rugved, Vishnu, Janhavi) (C) - 55

Notes:

Brief comments:
* Quiz was organised by the makers of the Heritage India magazine; the participants were from Pune schools in the age-group of 5th to 7th standards
* About 20-25 teams from about 8-10 schools participated
* Though tight at the beginning, Orchid pulled away from the rest in the second IR round and maintained their lead throughout
* As is always the case with school children, lots of enthusiastic kids, some of them very-well informed, and already showing the ability to guess and work-out. Only a handful of questions went unanswered, and not one was 'pass'-ed.
* Sevasadan topped the prelims with 16 out of 30. The cut-off was 14.
* Prizes sponsored by Heritage India, a local publisher (Saraswati Publishers, I think), and BCQC sponsored the 4th prize (because there was none).

Heritage India Quiz for Pune schools

2011-02-05T18:53:00.000+05:30

Heritage India Magazine is organising a quiz for Pune schools (in partnership with the BCQC). The gist:

Date : 11th February 2011
Time : 11 am – 2 pm
Venue : MES Balshikshan Auditorium, Mayur Colony, Kothrud, Pune
Theme: India's culture and heritage
For: school children in 5th, 6th, and 7th standards
Teams: of up to 3 per team
Quiz to be set and conducted by: BCQC

Registration and all other details in this link (word document)

Quiz-O-Mania 2011 - report

2011-02-05T11:17:00.001+05:30

Date: 2 Feb, 2010
Venue: Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT), Pune
Set and conducted by: Salil Bijur
Theme: General

Quiz Final Results
Format: 31 qns in the prelims; 42 questions in IR with a round reversal halfway

1st: Niranjan Pedanekar + J. Ramanand (E) - 100
2nd: Meghashyam Shirodkar + Rohan Jain (C) - 70
Jt 3rd: Venkat Srinivasan + Suraj Menon (F) - 55
Jt 3rd: Dr. and Aditya Chandorkar (B) - 55
5th: Kshitij Jyoti + Saikat Sarkar of AFMC (A) - 20
6th: Kamesh Gupta + Mridul Janweja of AFMC (D) - 15

Notes:

Brief comments: * liked the elims v much - good mix of gettable and tough ones
* finals: were mostly good; occasional involved and 'nefarious' connect that could have been better, simplified or avoided
* simple format, length of quiz was good, quizmastering was good, audience prizes were adequate
* was nice to see two AFMC teams (all first years) on stage in an open quiz after a long while; a mini-revival is in store?

General B.C.Joshi Memorial Quiz 2011

2011-02-04T08:24:00.000+05:30

Date: 19th February
Venue: Army Institute of Technology, Dighi Hills, Alandi Rd., Pune-411015
Open General Quiz; 2-member Teams
Cross-college/Cross-corporate Teams allowed
Attractive Cash Prizes: Rs. 10,000/-, Rs. 7,000/- & Rs. 5,000/-
Special Prizes worth Rs. 3,000/- for the Audience, Best Team Name, etc.
QuizMeister - Meghashyam Shirodkar | Research - QuizCorp

(Transport to-from venue available on prior request)
For more details: http://www.aitsolutions.in/p/bc-joshi-quiz_24.html

Extentia Company Quiz XI

2011-02-03T20:52:00.002+05:30

When: Friday, January 28, 2011
Where: Extentia ITT, Kalyani Nagar
QM: Bobby Moothedan. Quiz set by Yash Marathe/BCQC
Theme: General

Email Quiz:
As always an email quiz was sent to Extentians earlier in the week. Winners determined by # of correct answers and timestamp on email.

Answers and winner ( Farah N and Pankaj Sontakke ) announced ahead of the Fri afternoon's quiz.

Finals:
Medium turnout at the ITT office this time – about 15 in all. Teams from the Extentia houses
Most number of participants from Team Parikrama
Difficult questions for Extentians this time. However, some great pickup on clues by most teams.
The QM helmed the quiz really well for a first timer, and kept the momentum going.
Good to see several new participants again
Good to see no fights break out again

Winners - Royal Brigade (Surbhi, Rahul D, Gaurav C, Vcat)
Runners Up - Constant Variables (Farah, Pankaj S, Eva, Pankaj S)

Shyam Bhatt Memorial and other AFMC quizzes

2011-02-03T11:39:00.003+05:30

The Shyam Bhatt Trophy
Date: 13 Feb Sunday
Flavour: Open General
Team size: 2 member teams, cross teams allowed
Time: Reporting time: 1430hrs; Elims begin at: 1445hrs
Prizes: Cash prizes worth Rs. 10,000
Venue:New Lecture Hall Complex of AFMC(known as NLH)
Reg. fee: Rs.150

Quiz-Friends and How I Met Your Mother
Date- 14 Feb
Reg. Fee: Rs.100
Time, Venue same as above

Sports Quiz
Date:16 Feb
Reg. Fee: Rs.100
Time, Venue same as above

Bollywood Quiz
Date-17 Feb
Reg. Fee:Rs.100
Time,Venue same as above
NOTE: Finals for the Bollywood Quiz is an Antakshari

:: Krishna, AFMC (9545046062)

COEP's Quiztronomy 2011 - Announcement

2011-02-03T11:36:00.000+05:30

The CoEP AstroClub is hosting a one-of-a-kind event on the quizzing calendar. Quiztronomy is an astronomy themed quiz- the trivia being workable everyone and not aimed specifically at astronomy enthusiasts. The quiz will consist of written prelims, followed by a six team final.

All finalists will receive prizes and certificates; Winners will also receive a trophy each The school/college contingent with the best performance will receive a "Best Contingent" trophy. This year, we will be awarding prizes worth a total of Rs.15,000/- (inclusive of vouchers)

Date: 5th February, 2011 (Saturday)
Time: 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (reporting time: 9:30 a.m.)
Venue: Main Auditorium, College of Engineering, Pune – 5
Flavour: Astronomy- for everyone
Team: Two members per team; Teammates can be from different classes and cross school/ college. There is no registration fee. All participants must carry valid institute I-Cards.
Email: quiztronomy@gmail.com

Other Activities:
Telescope familiarization session will immediately follow the quiz. We also conduct workshops in introductory Sky Observations and Astronomy.

::Mohit from The Quiztronomy Team

Quiz-O-Mania 2011

2011-01-29T13:15:00.003+05:30

The annual open quiz at Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT) Pune, Quiz-O-Mania, will be conducted on 2nd Feb 2011 as a part of the cultural fest Melange. Details are as follows:

Date: 2nd Feb, Wednesday
Flavour: General
Time: 10:30am (Reporting Time), Elims Begin at 10.45 sharp
Venue: "Sharad Arena" (VIT Auditorium)
Team size: 2
Teams that qualify for the finals: 6
Prizes: Cash prizes worth Rs 12,000

QM: Salil Bijur

Location: Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, 666, Upper Indiranagar, Bibwewadi, Pune-37.

For more details, check the event website

COEP Zest Sports Quiz - Report

2011-01-25T07:03:00.000+05:30

When: Jan 23, 2011; Sunday
Where: COEP
Turnout: Only 11 teams showed up
Conducted by: Gaurav, Mihir and Vaibhav

Results:
1st: Yash Marathe (Modern) & Omkar Nene (IIT-B) [95 pts]
2nd: Sameer Deshpande (VIT) & Bharat Marathe (MIT) [65 pts]
3rd: Tarun Sharma & Aditya Pawar (AIT) [60 pts]
4th: Shekhar Mehta & Neeraj Paradkar (DJ Sanghvi College of Engineering, Bombay) [50 pts]

Low turnout didn't justify the quality of the quiz, could've been publicized better. As expected, there were quite a few repeats from 3 inexperienced quiz setters, but there were some very good questions all the same. Certainly better than the farce last year.

Report by Yash Marathe

2011 Landmark Quiz Pune - Results

2011-01-24T08:20:00.003+05:30

What: Landmark Quiz, Pune Round
When: 22 Jan, 2011
Where: Nehru Memorial Hall, Pune
Conducted by: Dr. Navin Jayakumar

Results
1st: The Nawabs of Mahabs [Rajiv, Gopal, Sumo] (88)
2nd: Audio Killed the Radia Star [Vikram, Pradeep, Mukund] (70)
3rd: Travelling Pillsburies [Sumant, Anil, Vibhendu] (63)
4th: Also Known as QED [Samanth, Ramanan, Swami] (61)
5th: Pyaaz Hamein Kis Mod Pe Le Aaya [Suraj, Harish, Ramanand] (53)
6th: Nanachi Tang [Salil, Yash Marathe, Kunal Sawardekar] (42)
7th: Feni, Beedi, Wiki [Anand, Amit, Meghashyam] (40)
8th: Immaculate Misconceptions [Team from SAP] (39)

Other Results
Best Corporate Team: SAP
Best School Team: Delhi Public School; Runners Up: Army Public School
Best College: SIBM [Jai, Jai, Vikram]
Best Team Name: "Wish Wiki would have leaked this quiz" [Arjun, Gyanendra, Baruni]
Playstation Buzz challenge: Yash, St. Vincents

Review comments can be posted in the comments section for this blog

V for Wikipedia

2011-01-20T14:17:00.007+05:30

Those who have been quizzing for a little over a decade may remember how difficult it once was to set questions for a quiz. One had to go digging into books, re-establish friendships with newspapers (even the Times of India), interrogate every multimedia frequency to pass through your TV's cathode ray tube, and generally mope around looking for visuals and audio and ideas.

Then came the full wonders of the World Wide Web, and in particular the fourth and most important W: Wikipedia. Random Articles, Featured Articles, and Did You Know... came to our collective aid. Thousands of encyclopaedic minions, eager to show off their deep knowledge of the infinitesmal, rescued quizzes from lapsing into questions about George Bernard Shaw, The Beatles and (sometimes) Heisenberg's grave(s). (As Niranjan would put it, they left us 'encyclo-piidith'.)

But like atomic weapons in the hands of Harry S or 24x7 TV in the hands of Rakhi S, some of us knew not what to do with the power at our mouse-tips. We began filling up powerpoint slides (another technology aid given fresh meaning and purpose by trivia-nerds) with lengthy wikipedia article pages, sometimes omitting to even remove every "citation needed" and reference superscript^{[citation needed]}. But still, we could do a quiz the next day.

We also began asking extensive questions about Wikipedia itself: its name, its logo, its mis-rendered devanaagarii 'vi', and in recent times, the number of hairs on Jimmy Wales's donation banner. These questions elicited tremendous applause and envy from participants, and thus the vicious cycle prospered.

It's been 10 years and Wikipedia has enriched our life immeasurably. Now everyone could ask a question, however bad, and everyone had knowledge at their fingertips. You didn't need to go to a neighbour's house and meet the Eureka-Forbes-esque friendly travelling World Book set salesman, or pore deep into volumes I-K of the Encyclopedia Britannica just to get to an encyclopaedia or even scramble to hide your beloved Manorama Yearbook.

These are some of the things we love about Wikipedia. That it represents an alternative spend of our cognitive surplus (as Clay Shirky puts it), a net positive addition to the world, to let us show off our most beloved pieces of knowledge, to read and learn and discover in an instant. We also think this is something worth supporting, in gratitude to everything that we've taken.

Which is why the BCQC is happy to have made a small donation to Wikipedia late last year, as part of its fund-raising campaign (or, perhaps we just wanted mugshots of large, sad, Americans with British provincial names removed from the top of our browsers at the earliest). The gesture is perhaps more token than substantial, but as a group whose principal aim is to promote quizzing in the world around us, it was among the nicest (and easiest) ways to say thank you.

Thank you, Wikipedia.

Extentia Year-Ender Quiz X, Dec 2010 - quiz report

2010-12-28T19:20:00.003+05:30

Date: Dec 24 2010, at Extentia, KP, Pune
Set and conducted by Suraj Menon/BCQC
Theme: General

Event held a week earlier on account of New Year’s weekend next week.

As always an email quiz was sent to Extentians earlier in the week. Answers and winners announced ahead of Fri's quiz.
Winners determined by # of correct answers and timestamp of email. Winner: Vcat

Finals:
Decent turnout. Teams were again formed from the Extentia houses. Five in all.

Teams: Spartans, Royal Brigade, Parikrama, Constant Variables and Infinity.
Format: IR with 25 questions.

* Keenly contested quiz with all the usual shrill sledging between teams
* The Royal Brigade led from the beginning, and the Spartans ran them close.
* Most questions (22/25) were answered and all teams had points on the board mid-quiz.
* Several connect questions were worked out by the top three teams
* Topics currently in the news featured in many questions
* Several new faces among participants!

Winners: Royal Brigade (Surbhi, Soumava, Rahul D, Vcat...)
Runners Up: Spartans (Chetan, Sandip, Sarang, Aditi...)
Prizes: Crossword gift certificates, and chocolate bars for team members

At the end: Note of appreciation for BCQC from the teams and Chetan Shetty, EVP, Operations, Extentia.

Report by Vcat

Bubbling with ideas : Fancy question formats from a pub quiz far, far away

2010-12-14T12:27:00.000+05:30

OK, so this is the deal. I used to quiz with same folks who bore you with all the inane details of their latest mercenary exploits at some gender-confused engineering college in town -- hell, I even used to go to those quizzes. Religiously. And lose. But, hey, that's not the point. I was one of the cool folk, the creator of the Centaurian Scoring System rivaled in length of existence only by the sperm whale and the bowl of petunias.

So that's by way of introduction. Since having quit my self-carpentered chair of crazy-new-quizzing-ideas (Chief Innovation Officer?) at the BCQC, I have to moved on, to frankly more useful endeavors. In an effort to distance myself from the effluvial delights of the boat club and its charmingly green waters, I have drained myself and my brain to the US. To MIT, Cambridge, USA more specifically.

Old habits die hard, so my Wednesday nights are spent quizzing. Or trying to quiz. You see, a hankering for mind numbingly pointless convoluted-ness is hard to satisfy, or so I am finding out. But I try. How you ask? Well Boston, in all its efforts to act Irish, has a number of bars that do the whole "pub trivia" thing and I attend one of these gigs. In fact the bar is on campus -- "The Thirsty Ear" is the name and a fairly passable evening can be had quizzing at that waterhole among fellow nerds who will happily argue about escape velocities of imaginary planets and match imaginary guns to first-person-shooters (we got a full 10/10 on that question I think). Anyway, the point is, give the hosts a chance, and add some beer and tasty tacos and you should be fairly set for the evening.

Some evenings are more passable than others, and in particular there is this British trivia host who will go that extra mile to add that wonderful word we all love to associate with quizzes -- "workability"! Now, not all questions are workable and not all the workable questions are good -- but there are a couple of innovations that the Indian quizzing scene would do well to copy. These would fit in perfectly with our scheme of things!

I was first alerted when the guy did the old guess the Google Doodle round that we all love so much. I mean, when everyone else is asking "who was the first person to achieve a .300 batting average" or something of the sort, this guy independently discovered one of our beloved question formats. Ever the able scout, I was seeing some talent here. Then he puts on the Google Trends type question, another format that I like a lot -- and which I saw used for the first time in India by Google's very own Suhel Bannerjee. This QM will not just put up Google trends and ask us to guess events, he will often have a "match the google trends line" to a list of proper nouns. Again something that we've done -- but not enough. A recent one asked us to match a bunch of google trend lines to "GMail", "Google Wave", "Google Earth" and so on, something that was worked out by people following the ups and downs of these products.

A really cool innovation is his usage of the Joseph Decruex meme. The meme essentially involves imposing the lyrics to current songs in old english and pasting them on a picture of this old french philosopher, lolcat style. So for example the song "Fuck Bitches Get Money" becomes, well see for yourself:

More such joy can be found here, and what's more there is no limiting the number of songs, english or hindi that can undergo Decreux-ization all under the name of workability! I dream of the day when I can stand up on stage and ask someone what song is referred to in "I CRAVE THY MATRIARCHAL STARE, YOUR OFFSPRING WITHERS" [1]

The second innovation that I particularly like is about listing pictures that have something in common and simply asking people to identify the reference (instead of long unwieldy "connects" which can occasionally get tiresome). So one recent example was this question that had famous make-outs in movie history, where you could only barely identify the protagonists of the lip-locks and we were asked to identify the actors and the movie in question. I mean, this was fairly entertaining, could be worked out and required quizzing acumen without being excruciatingly obtuse at the same time. There is something about the pub-trivia format that forces QMs to err on the side of the inane, and this is definitely one instance when this bias probably leads to a nice entertaining question format. Another example lists pictures of places that have a famous monument, and there was an interesting round where we were shown street pictures of the neighbourhood we live in and were asked to mark them on a map we were provided. This could potentially be done for a number of types of maps of various sizes, even perhaps a map on screen where teams choose to place a marker much like in the game Traveler IQ.

Last example innovation for the day is similar in spirit to innovation two. This is the "odd one out" format. What the QM will do is compile an often amusing list of things and ask you to pick the odd one out. This includes stuff like -- "Which of these is a not a real movie?" and there will be a list of titles you would hardly think were movies ("The Conquest of the Silken Beaver") and insert a fake one in there. Again, the possibilities are endless -- are there not lots of towns, people and food items with random names? Granted that this is not the most cerebral of question formats, and will probably appeal more to Derek and his ilk rather than us, but there is something to be said about making questions fun, even to the idiot who tunes in to watch Bigg Boss everyday! (wait, that's me. or at least was)

Anyway, that was me and my worthless gyaan from this part of the globe. I have not written a blog piece in a while -- let alone one about quizzing! If this is interesting do chime in on the comments and I'll try and write more about the quizzing scene at the bars (and questions even!) -- but given my extremely "light" academic schedule that might be hard to do, just yet.

Thanks for the attention, and keep quizzing!

Abhishek

The author was a quizzer who has passed on, who has ceased to be, who bereft of life lies in peace. An ex-quizzer if there ever was. Within his little cubby cage of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he tries to mould himself into a social scientist who studies technology, all while trying to spell "mold" in the american way and trying not to think of the green stuff that reminds him of the BCQC so much. You can pay condolences at abhishek.mit.edu

[1] That was this song for those unwilling to think.

KQA Mega-Whats 2010 - Pune results

2010-12-14T09:14:00.002+05:30

Date: 12 Dec, 2010
Venue: COEP
Conducted by: Vishwajeet Narvekar for the KQA

No. of Teams: 10

Results:
Open Category winners: Suraj, Ramanand, Harish, Suvajit: 32 points
College winners: Rohan Prabhu, Omkar Moghe, Shreevallabh Gharote, Sameer Patil (COEP): 12 points

Thanks to Aadinath and Mohit of COEP for making the arrangements.

Prizes
sponsored by Tender Leaves (Pune's newest Book Service++) and BCQC.

Update: 30 Dec 2010
The overall results and the questions+answers are available at the KQA site here.

KQA Mega-Whats 2010 - Pune details

2010-12-01T15:41:00.001+05:30

* Team of (upto) 4 people

* Venue: Seminar Hall II (Next to main Auditorium), College of Engineering, Pune (COEP), Shivajinagar, Pune-5 College coordinator: Mohit Karve (9890777964 ; mohit@bcqc.org)

* Timing: 2:30 to 5:30 on 12th December (Sunday)

* General Written Quiz* Prizes for the top 2 best teams, college teams, school teams (sponsored by BCQC)

* Entries received so far will appear on http://bit.ly/ezwhDq

Please read below for the details. Since the venue can only accommodate about 30 teams, you are advised to register in advance by writing to the organisers as given below.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Arul Mani <arul.mani@gmail.com>

This is to announce the second edition of Mega-Whats, our National Open Quizzing Championship.

The quiz will be held across nine cities simultaneously. Apart from Bangalore, we have venue confirmations from Chennai, Hyderabad, Goa, Thrissur, Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi and Kolkata. More information on venues soon.

The details:

Date: Sunday, 12 December 2010

QMs: Kiran Vijayakumar and Arul Mani

   1. General quiz, open to all.
   2. Teams of FOUR members (or less).
   3. Prior registration is essential.
   4. To register, please email Mahaquizzer@gmail.com with Mega-Whats 2010 and the city you are competing from in the subject-header.
   5. Please provide the names of the four people who comprise your team in the email–also indicate whether you are taking part in the school, college or open categories
   6. Email registrations will close on Tuesday 7th December 2010. Centre coordinators will allow entries after the cut-off date at their discretion.
   7. Please note that the quizzing community in your city may charge an entry fee to meet venue and equipment hire expenses.
   8. The school category is open only to teams comprising students from Std. VIII-X .
   9. School teams ( Std. VIII-X) are allowed free entry. A school may field ONE team.
10. Please report by 1430hrs at the venue in your city. Since we need to ensure a coordinated start nationwide, the quiz will start at 1500hrs sharp. The doors will be closed five minutes before we begin.
11. Contesting teams will answer in writing a quiz of six sections and about sixty questions, inclusive of audios, videos and visuals.
12. Answers and scores will be announced immediately after the event–prizes will be given out for Best School Team, Best College Team, and Best Open Team.
13. The prizes aren't small--they are insignificant.
14. We will rank the top 100 teams across the country–this list will go up by the 25th of December.
15. The rankings will be announced after adjudication. The decision of the quiz-masters will be final and binding on all participants.
16. The city-winners will face off in June 2011 as part of the KQA 28th Anniversary.

For more details, please call 97312-14519

Article by Arul Mani

2010-11-13T16:07:00.003+05:30

Arul Mani of Karnataka Quizzing Association has a very nice article on quizzing in general and his personal experiences. Do read and share.

Extentia Company Quiz VIII

2010-11-01T16:33:00.002+05:30

Fri, October 29, 2010 at Extentia KPO/Umkaz, Koregaon Park
QM: Venkat Srinivasan. Quiz set by Suraj Menon/BCQC
Theme: Festivals & Sport

Email Quiz:
The usual email quiz was sent to Extentians earlier in the week. Winners determined by # of correct answers and timestamp on email. Some eager-beavers started to badger Vcat with questions on the questions mid-week.

Answers and winners announced at the end of Fri afternoon's main quiz. The winner's usually a skilled Googler.
Finals:
Among the highest turnouts for an Extentia quiz. The event coincided with the company's traditional attire day for the upcoming Diwali festival. Teams were formed from the Extentia houses for the first time. Six in all. Several new faces. (And very traditionally dressed teams!)
Teams: Unicorns, Spartans, Royal Brigade, Parikrama, Constant Variables and Infinity. Format: IR with 25 questions. Questions alternated between festivals and sport/sports scams.
The Unicorns took an early lead and were soon matched by the Spartans.
Non scoring teams such as RB and Infinity started to get points on the board mid-quiz.
The Constant Variables overtook all the others by the 15th question.
21/25 questions answered. Good pickup on clues by most teams.

Immediate demands for points to be posted, soon as a correct answer was given.The usual intense competitiveness was on display, never mind the 'festive spirit'.

Everyone knew but didn't answer: 'Allan Donald' ('Whatever you do, don't bet on number 10. He doesn't run.')

Winners: Constant Variables (Farah, UZK, Bobby......)
Runners Up: Spartans (Chetan, Sandip, Dhiraj.....)

Extentia Company Quiz VII

2010-10-28T15:48:00.000+05:30

When: Fri, September 24, 2010 at Extentia ITT, Kalyani Nagar
QM: Prakash Kamath. Quiz set by Suraj Menon/BCQC
Theme: General

Email Quiz:
As always a 'warm up' email quiz was sent to Extentians earlier in the week. Winners determined by # of correct answers and timestamp on email.

Answers and winner: (Vcat) announced ahead of Fri afternoon's quiz. He won 'cos he got Mehrauli for the exact location of the Iron Pillar [Q: Where is this (pic) located?]

Finals:
* Good turnout at ITT. A full house for this Extentia location.
* IR with participants split into four teams as always.
* Team 1 started to lead from the 4th question. Competitive quiz where all teams scored over 30 points each.
* Most questions were worked out and answered by teams
* Teams were given a minute for each direct - to read long questions and work out answers. An actual stopwatch was used.
* Cordial atmosphere despite intensity of competition. No fights between teams and with the QM.

Winners: Team 1 by 30 points(Jaya, Soumava, Vcat......)
Runners Up: Team 2 on the last question (Farah, Rohan, Deepak, Zyfn, ...

Mindspark quizzing - Chakravyuuh Report

2010-10-14T08:39:00.001+05:30

Set by Gaurav Keskar, Aadinath Harihar, Mohit Karve with inputs from Amit Patil and Gaurav Mehta
Questions reviewed and moderated by Aditya Gadre and Aniket Khasgiwale
Theme: General
Date/Venue: 10th October 2010, College of Engineering, Pune:

Format: 35 Question Elims, 54 Question Finals (29 IR + 6 Written + 19 IR Rev)

Results:

1st Place: J Ramanand and B V Harish Kumar (Team E) [Elims: 20 (4*) || Finals: 120]
2nd Place*: Anand Sivasankar and Prasanna Potdar (Team C) [Elims: 25 (2*) ||Finals: 90]
3rd Place: Meghashyam Shirodkar and Amit Garde (Team F) [Elims: 26 (2*) || Finals: 90]
4th Place: Mayur Srinivasan and Abhishek Padmanabhan (Team D)- IIT Bombay [Elims: 22 (4*) || Finals: 70]
5th Place: Ganesh Hegde and Shivaji Marella (Team A) [Elims: 25 (6*) || Finals: 50]
6th Place: Suraj Menon and Yashovardhan Tamaskar (Team B) [Elims: 23 (4*) || Finals: 50]
(*2nd place decided on Elims scores)

Best College Team (outside the finalists): Akhil Srivatsan and Mukund Verma (IIT Bombay) Additional Credits: Himanshu Panandikar for developing the entire finals on Flash (template provided by Shravan Aras)

Report
When I reached the venue, I was surprised to hear from the slightly hapless registration desk that registrations had closed as they had a large turnout. Though soon it became apparent that all the 500-odd teams that had paid money had not shown up, the actual number of teams to attempt the prelims (297 to be precise) was quite staggering for an open quiz in Pune. Admittedly, most of them were spillovers from colleges taking part in other Mindspark events - still, for a change, it was good to see organisers worried about managing that kind of scale.

The prelims for such an audience was decent - the answers to many a question would have been familiar to them. The elims referred to interesting bits of trivia, but lacked quality in the framing. The same would be true of the finals.

Our team struggled to qualify - in fact, we qualified 2nd last. Only to find out that Messrs. Vinay and Yash Marathe, who had been announced to have just sneaked in, had to leave the stage because the paper from the team from IIT Bombay had been incorrectly scored. We were left teetering on the edge, and it was a pity for Vinay and Yash. But I thought the right thing had been done, even though there was minor egg-on-the-organisers face - with so many teams and people, it's hard to keep the errors to zero, and it was good of the organisers to allow for protests.

The finals never went below a certain threshold of quality, which was good, but quite a few questions had the touch of inexperience in presentation. Hopefully, the young college students behind the quiz will keep getting better. Many of the teams gave good answers, even when they wrong - thus there were many claimants to the Samrat Sir prize for good guesses.

The written round, IMO, was a little unnecessary - there was nothing in the format that merited it. There were a few recriminations too, but quelled by Aadinath's impression of a young Mussolini, keen to enforce order and discipline among the restless masses.

We (team E) made a strong start along with team F, but found ourselves trailing after the 2/3rd mark. Team C had made a strong push by then, challenging the clear leaders, F. However, we found ourselves in a fortunate position soon, and a couple of misses by others saw us surge and open a margin that was comfortable in the end.

For a team that has finished in 2nd place at Chakravyuuh, a record four times, we'll surely take another first place. There was a reasonably good audience turnout for the finals as well, which witnessed a competent 11th edition of Chakravyuuh.

Winners list so far
2001: Shrirang Raddi and Amalesh Mishra
2002: Shrirang Raddi and Amalesh Mishra
2003: Niranjan Pedanekar and Samrat Sengupta
2004: Gaurav Sabnis and Neeraj Sane
2005: Sudarshan Purohit and Amit Garde
2006: Gaurav Sabnis & Shamanth Rao
2007 (Apr): Kunal Sawardekar and Shamanth Rao
2007 (Oct): Avinash Mudaliar and Harikrishnan Menon
2008: J. Ramanand and B.V.Harish Kumar
2009: Anand Sivashankar and Amit Garde
2010: J. Ramanand and B.V.Harish Kumar

And Gaurav's recounting of the genesis of Chakravyuuh in 2001.

Mindspark quizzing - Full Throttle Report

2010-10-13T16:54:00.002+05:30

Set by Himanshu Panandikar, Mohit Karve with inputs from Aadinath Harihar
Questions reviewed and moderated by Aditya Gadre and Aniket Khasgiwale
Theme: Automobiles
Date/Venue: 10th October 2010, College of Engineering, Pune:

Format: 30 Question Elims, 42 Question Finals

Results:

1st Place: Suraj Menon and Yashovardhan Tamaskar (Team E) [Elims: 19 (4*) || Finals: 85]
2nd Place: Kunal Sawardekar (Team D) [Elims: 20 (4*) || Finals: 70]
3rd Place*: Chinmay Pande and Gautam Unni (Team C) (Elims: 17.5 (4*) || Finals: 60]
4th Place: Chaitanya Pise and Ninad Alurkar (Team B) [Elims: 16.5 (4*) || Finals: 60]
5th Place: Vinay N and Yash Marathe (Team F) [Elims: 20 (4*) || Finals: 30]
6th Place: Jaipal Dhupar and Saransh Verma (Team A) [Elims: 17.5 (4*) || Finals: 30]
*3rd place decided on Elims scores

Best College Team (outside the finalists): Bharat Marathe and Aditya Ramachandran (MIT)

Please provide comments if you attended the quiz.

Report by Aadinath Harihar

Mindspark quizzing - Torquest Report

2010-10-13T16:47:00.001+05:30

Set by Mohit Karve, Mihir Khatwani with inputs from Gaurav Keskar, Himanshu Panandikar, Amit Patil and Aadinath Harihar
Questions reviewed and moderated by Aditya Gadre and Aniket Khasgiwale
Theme: Science and Technology
Date/Venue: 8th October 2010, College of Engineering, Pune:

Results:

1st Place*: Sachin Ravi and Raghav NC (Symbiosis Law School) (Elims: 18 || Finals: 105)
2nd Place: Nikhil Motlag and Avaneendra Bhargav (Elims: 16 || Finals: 105)
3rd Place: Jaypal Dhupar and Saransh Verma (Elims: 22 || Finals: 80)
*1st place decided on Elims scores after Tie Breaker also ended in a tie

Unlike previous years, Torquest was an open quiz this time making it extremely competitive. The number of teams participating in a "SciTech" quiz was also high this year. The elims started with excellent set of 30 questions, spreading across various domains of Science and Technology. It had a perfect mix of questions for a regular as well as a non-regular quizzer.

The finals had seamless 48 Questions in IR fashion (24+24). This was just perfect for a Scitech Quiz making it neither too short nor too long. Right from the beginning, teams B,C and F were locked in a fierce battle for the top spot. In the end we had a tie between teams B and F for the top spot. The tie-breaker questions again led to a tie between the two teams and hence finally team B was declared winner on the basis of elims score. The finals however made the quiz look more like a business quiz than a SciTech one. There was more focus on tech companies than technology. The partial points distribution decisions invited protests by teams for a few questions. Overall it was a well set and an enjoyable quiz. Comments are most welcome.

Report by Amit Dandekar

4 Quizzes at COEP's Mindspark, including Chakravyuuh

2010-10-01T09:33:00.000+05:30

MindSpark is the annual Technical Festival of the College of Engineering, Pune.

This year MindSpark will play host to 4 quizzes from 8th- 10th October 2010. Specifics Below. For any additional clarifications. visit http://mind-spark.org/eureka.php.

1. Chakravyuh- the Open General Quiz

Sponsors: Atlas Copco

Saturday, 9th October 2010

Timing: 11:00 am to 4:30 pm.
Venue: The Auditorium, College of Engineering, Pune

Weblink: http://mind-spark.org/events/chakravyuh.php
Chakravyuh has been one of Pune's best known open quizzes for many years now. A general quiz that is literally based on anything and everything under the sun, the participants of this quiz can range from college students to software professionals. Chakravyuh has gone on to produce quizzers who would later perform exceptionally well at national level quizzes. Previous years have elicited fantastic participation and the prize money remains as sweet as ever.
Status: Open Quiz (Anyone can Participate)
Team size: 2
Registration fees: Rs. 30/- per team. Register on the Spot.

2. Torquest- The Scince and Technology quiz

Friday, 8th October 2010p

Weblink: http://mind-spark.org/events/torquest.php
We wouldn't really be an institute of excellence in technical education unless our students were sound in their technical knowledge and fundas. Pit your love for technology against ours. Brush up your theory and find out how much you could actually apply it when you go out into the mad, mad world. Science and technology are inseparable, and this is a quiz where the passion for both would find a home.
Status: Open Quiz (anyone can Participate)
Team size: 2
Registration fees: Rs. 30/- per team. Register on the Spot.

3. Full Throttle- The Automobile Quiz
(in association with the COEP SAE Collegiate Club)

Sunday, 10th October, 2010

Weblink: http://mind-spark.org/events/fullthrottle.php

Have your fingers always itched to pull apart an engine to pieces and check how it works than just admiring the beauty of the bike and riding it? Then test your automobile wisdom in this adrenaline pumping quiz. Cars, bikes, and everything capable of clocking some serious revs- get ready to experience the rush! Turn up your collars, and roll up your sleeves, for only the sharpest can keep pace with Full Throttle.

Status: Open Quiz (Anyone can Participate)
Team size: 2
Registration fees: Rs. 30/- per team. Register on the Spot.

4. 10^-9- The Nanotechnology Quiz
Sunday, 10th October, 2010

Weblink: http://mind-spark.org/events/10%5E9.php

From nanotubes to colloids to powder technology. You need to know it all to crack this one. Dodge a volley of questions and advance in your quest to conquer the material world for this is the Nanotechnology quiz. The winner takes it all.

Status: College Quiz (I Cards required)
Team size: 2
Registration fees: Rs. 30/- per team. Register on the Spot.
***************************************************************************************

Total Prize Money to be won : Rs 60, 000/-

Goodies for participants and Loads of Audience Prizes (Movie Tickets, Magazines, Anti Virus Packs, T Shirts etc.)

***************************************************************************************
For more details contact:

Aadinath Harihar +91 98224 31348 (chakravyuh@mind-saprk.org)
Mohit Karve +91 98907 77964 (torquest@mind-spark.org)
Himanshu Panandikar +91 90497 25707 (fullthrottle@mind-spark.org)

Extentia Company Quiz VI

2010-08-27T16:19:00.000+05:30

Extentia Company Quiz VI - Fri, August 27, 2010 at Extentia KP

QMs: Mukul Vyas and Soumava Chatterjee. Quiz set by Suraj Menon/BCQC
Theme: General

Email quiz sent to Extentians earlier in the week. Answers and winners announced ahead of Fri's quiz. Winners determined by # of correct answers and timestamp of email.
About 20 Extentians in all - the now familiar in-company quiz folks.
IR with participants split into four teams as always.
Team 1 established an early lead that it held through the quiz
Tie for 2nd between teams 3 and 4. Tiebreaker won by Team 4
Interesting, workable questions, and most were answered by teams.
QMs had a good sense of humor and helmed the quiz well
Minor fight between team 3,4 and a QM at tiebreak
Demands for Vcat to be excluded from next event (or distribute prizes first and then have the quiz!)

Winners: Team 1 (Melanie, Rahul D, Vcat......)
Runners Up: Team 4 (Farah, Jaya, Surbhi, Louis...)

Extentia Quiz V

2010-07-31T18:16:00.002+05:30

Extentia Quiz V - Fri, July 30 at Extentia ITT
QMs:Rohan Ambasta and Vishnuprasad Verma. Quiz set by Suraj Menon/BCQC
Theme: General

Email quiz sent to Extentians earlier in the week. Answers and winners announced ahead of Fri's quiz.

* Well attended quiz with participation that increased after the first few questions.
* Participants split into four teams.
* Clear early lead established by Team III. Several last second correct answers by teams.
* Accusations of (un)fairplay traded between Team I and everyone.
* Great questions - lots of applause for both questions and answers.

Winners: Team III (Jaya, Farah, Mukul, Rahul D, Soumava, Zyfn, Vcat)
Runners Up: Team I (Naazneen, Umeed, + 4 others)

Report by Vcat

BC Cup 2010 Report

2010-06-15T15:47:00.003+05:30

This year’s edition saw one major change in terms of format of the quiz : The quiz was entirely individual this time, even in the later stages.

Format:
First, an elim determines the seeds and the 8 qualifiers. The qualifiers then face off one-on one according to seeds. Every match consists of a home leg and an away leg. Homeleg is basically direct questions. If one gets a direct question wrong wich the opponent answers, it counts as an away goal and is used for tie breakers (as per UEFA rules)

Group stages
The quiz started with a 20 question reasonably simple elim. The top 8 scorers qualified for the knockout stages. The elims were a lot closer than last year and also a bit more high scoring with the cut off at 7.5 /20. The seeds were as follows:

1.Bikash Mahapatra 2. Srinath Satyanaryanan 3. J Ramanand 4. Suraj Menon 5. Annanya Deb 6. Omkar Nene 7. Sameer Deshpande 8. Suvojit Chakraborty

The Quarter Finals:

QF1
Bikash v Suvojit ,
Bikash started very well taking a quick lead. The score was at 3-1 with 2 questions to go and Suvojit pulled off a great comeback to get both to tie 3-3. In the sudden death tie-breaker Bikash correctly identified a tearful Australian captain while Suvojit misplaced him by about 20 years.
Final score: 3-3, Away goals 1-1 Bikash Wins on Tiebreaker

QF2
Srinath v Sameer
Srinath continued his sublime form from the elims and took this match quite comfortably. He lost the away leg 2-1 but made up with a 3-1 home win to take the match on aggregate.
Final Score:5 -3 Srinath wins on aggregate

QF3
Ramanand v Omkar Nene
Ramanand won this one quite comfortably with good performances in both legs
Final Score: 5-2 Ramanand wins on aggregate

QF4
Suraj v Annanya
This turned out to be the toughest set of the quarter finals perhaps fitting in retrospect as the match was between last year’s winner and this years winner. Annanya got out of this one with a hard fought 1-0 victory.
Final Score: 1-0 Annanya wins on aggregate

The Semi Finals

SF1
Bikash v Annanya
Yet another very hard fought match. The match ended in a tie on aggregate and on away goals. Annanya clinched it in the tiebreaker.
Final score: 4-4 Away goals 1-1 Annanya wins on tiebreaker

SF2
Srinath v Ramanand
Srinath hit top form for this match and won it with a few questions to spare. Luck in terms of questions was a major factor, but Srinath did have some cracking answers.
Final score: 6-2 Srinath wins on aggregate

The Final
Srinath v Annanya
This was match where the lead was exchanged so many times, that we’ve lost count. The score after several lead changes was poised at 4-4, away goals 1-1 going into the final 9 questions for Srinath. Annanya had a couple of great cracks to hit 2 away goals, while Srinath managed to crack a very tough question on obscure chess. In the end, the match ended with Annanya winning on aggregate 6-5.
Final score 6-5, Annanya Deb wins on aggregate

The winner for BC Cup 2010 is Annanya Deb
Runner up: Srinath Satyanarayanan

Please leave your opinions in the comments section.

The BC Cup 2010

2010-06-07T19:03:00.005+05:30

An individual, knock out, FA Cup inspired quiz to crown the Best Sports quizzer. It is by far the biggest sports quiz we have heard of.*

QMs: Yash Marathe, Aniket Khasgiwale and Aditya Gadre
Theme: Sports
Teams: Individual
Restrictions: (or the lack of one) Open quiz. Everyone is welcome

When? 12:30 pm, Saturday, 12th June 2010
Where? The Boat Club, College of Engineering Pune
Registration: Free registration. You need to register by mailing aditya[at]bcqc.org or yashcmarathe[at]gmail.com or call Aditya at 9881101291. This is required as we need to get elim sheets printed.
Prizes: Landmark Vouchers

* We have not heard of too many sports quizzes :)

Report on the inaugural BC Cup last year is here.

WQC Pune round - results

2010-06-06T16:18:00.003+05:30

Organised by: IQA
Conducted in Pune by: Suvajit (many thanks!)
Venue: Symbiosis Law School, Pune

Local Results (from memory & Aditya Gadre) - the 'worst' section score in brackets:
1st: Kunal Sawardekar: 92 (+4)
2nd: Ramanand: 82 (+8)
3rd: Suraj Menon: 76
4th: Salil/Akhil/Aditya G: 59

Number of participants: ~30
For more: keep an eye on this link.
Bombay results here.

Extentia intra-company quiz IV - report

2010-06-01T15:13:00.001+05:30

Date: Fri, May 28, 2010. Location: Extentia, Lane 5, KP
QM: Dinesh Paripatyadar. Questions set by Rohan Nakar of Extentia and BCQC.

First round: Email quiz sent to everyone last Tuesday.
Toppers got 15/15 correct (ranked in order of email time-stamp for answers sent)

Theme: General tending toward India-centric
Participants split into 4 teams of about 6 each. Turnout was higher than previous events.
Format: IR with 25 questions. Quiz ended at 20 on account of time.
17/20 questions answered by teams.

Notes:

Competitive event among 3 teams, with one team not scoring.
Some teams were misled by the ‘discuss the wrong answer’ strategy employed by neighboring teams.
No violence reported

Winners: Team B with Chetan, Umeed, Vcat, Zyfn, Manuela, Prashant M among others.
Runners up: Team D with Jaya, Melanie and several others. They went past Farah/Louis/others’ Team A by 0.5 pts.

Report by 'Vcat'

Mahaquizzer 2010 - Pune results

2010-05-30T18:34:00.005+05:30

Organised by: KQA
Conducted in Pune by: Vishwajeet Narvekar (many thanks as usual!)
Venue: Landmark, Pune (thanks to the staff for turning up so early and for the arrangements)
School Winner: Roopak Karalkar (22)
College Winner: Sukrit Munjal(32)
Ladies Winner: Meghna Sreenivasan (11)
Open Category Winner: J. Ramanand (69)

Number of participants: ~40 to 50
Official final standings: keep an eye on this link.

Updated on 6 Jun
* Links to Top 100 results, local winners, and rankings in the ladies, college & school categories.
* Link to the Mahaquizzer 2010 Q & A.
* Four people from Pune were in the top 100 (Ramanand, Kunal S, Suraj, and Salil), with a few more BCQC members from other centres. Roopak K was ranked 11th in the list of school students.

The Landmark In-Store Movie Quiz - Report

2010-05-23T09:23:00.002+05:30

The Landmark In-Store Movie Quiz was successfully concluded on Saturday evening. Quizmasters Niranjan and Suraj conducted the proceedings with great (and dare I say, Dereksian) flair, while Harish and I provided logistical and moral support. The quizmasters asked about 60-70 regular questions to the audience at large, followed by a final round of about 5-6 questions to four teams of the top scorers in the regular round. The audience for the quiz consisted of about 50-60 Landmark patrons (all adults, and thankfully so, seeing as Niranjan took the time to speculate on the strip club-visiting habits of the participants) with a core of about 20 staying through the quiz.

In sum, fun was had by all. Sadly, I did not note the names of the finalists, so perhaps Niranjan can let us know when he sees this.

Report by Kunal Sawardekar

This was the 3rd Landmark in-store BCQC quiz. The earlier ones were on the themes of Comics and the Books of Harry Potter.

Quiz Show - an informal Movie quiz at Landmark

2010-05-20T08:17:00.002+05:30

We're going plane-crazy on Saturday evening. With a quiz on movies. If you're a quizzing enthusiast (read 'drooling geek') show up. If you're a movie buff, we'll be waiting for you. If you are both, then come on right in. If you are neither, then this quiz is tailor-made for you!

maajraa kyaa hai?: an informal movie quiz by the BCQC and Landmark, particularly for non-quizzers.
main kahaan huun?: Landmark, SGS Mall, Pune
maal kab pahunchegaa?: between 5 and 7 pm, Saturday (22nd May)
kitne aadmi hai?: there are no teams, no formalities, no registrations. Just show up, take a seat or stand by, and participate.

That's about it, really. See you on Saturday.

Private rumblings from the Pune Brand Equity 2010 quiz

2010-05-16T11:25:00.006+05:30

Niranjan and I teamed up for the Pune round of Brand Equity 2010 quiz where we finished 3rd. Neither of us is any good at biz-quizzing, and so admittedly, a mercenary attitude fueled the decision to travel the entire diameter of Pune. Despite the middle-level placing (not bad, given the presence and three-blade-close-shave elimination of some very good teams), we can't help a couple of rants.

On the difference between data mining and data compression

Or, to compress the question, the various differences between data compression. I hate having to answering such school-type questions¹, but I guess we're always ready to pawn our soul for 10 points :-). So we defined it as being techniques "for reducing the size of data for transmission/storage etc" (paraphrasing), but were ruled wrong. I'm not sure what the correct answer was, but I think it was to the effect of "extracting only that info from data that is needed" (memory fails me, as I was still reeling from the surprise). Without going deeply into data compression, there are different kinds: lossy (like in MP3s where you say that some data/info is unimportant enough to be thrown away) or lossless (such as in file compression, where you have a different, smaller form of your data to cheaply store or transmit). I'm not sure what was needed here.

The quizmaster did assert that he knew what he was looking for, he knew it would be one of this tricky ones, and he had sources who helped him "nail this one". He also did apologise a couple of times later, saying that he knew it was one of those borderline ones (i.e. for the inherent ambiguity, not that he was wrong about it), which was kind of him, I suppose. However:

It's a terrible kind of question to ask - school homework-ish at best. Neither was it entertaining.
If a quiz-setter knows a question/answer is inherently vague or prone to misinterpretation, then he'd be better off not asking it
If it's not a domain you are familiar with, then you are dependent on hearing keywords in such answers - not a good idea
Don't ask for 'layman' interpretations of technical questions - my layman lives in Shivajinagar, yours may live in Salt Lake.

On yet another case study of the demerits of Direct-and-Pass

I don't have much of a problem with big quizzes being designed to appeal to non-quizzing audiences, but why must they mess with the fairness of the rounds? The use of D&P over Infinite Rebounds (Infinite Bounce to non-Pune quizzers) is a menace that everyone in the game knows about. Most (and all good) quizzes use the IR system for their regular rounds because it guarantees one thing : between two shots at questions for any team, all other teams will have had a chance to attempt a question. IR does not smooth the fairness of the content or the fortune of receiving an easy question. But unlike D&P, you can be assured that your team will not twiddle its thumbs while the rest get to answer. Think of it as all teams receiving (almost) the same number of deliveries to bat to, at any given interval in time.

Yet another illustration of this from the other day: after 2 rounds of passing (one forward, one reverse), the number of attempts (out of 12 questions): two: A, B, F; three: E; five: C, D. Five vs. Two - that kind of imbalance would never happen in IR.

(This is no reflection on the qualities of the other teams, esp. the winners - just a commentary on why a quiz format shouldn't be so uneven. Let luck of the draw play its role in the content and team placement, but not the number of attempts.)

So why do big quizzes still employ an outdated and inferior system? Makes no sense at all.

1. read up for the future: the difference between ink pens and fountain pens; between MP3s and MP4s; between first slip and third slip (about a feet?)

Brand Equity Quiz - Pune round results

2010-05-16T11:00:00.006+05:30

Date: 14 May, 2010
Conducted by: Derek O'Brien
Venue: Ishanya , Pune

Turnoutt: 23 teams

Standings
1st: Infosys (C): Ajay & Jayakumar (95)
2nd: Advinus Therapeutics (A): Suraj & Siddharth (58)
3rd: Cognizant (B): Niranjan & Ramanand (55)
4th: Neo Green (D): Shubhodeep & Sandeep (40)
5th: RBI (F): Mohana & Priyam Bhattacharya (35)
6th: QED Baton (E): Nikhil & Tejas (10)
(IBM - Vishwajeet & Ramanathan just missed out)

Report
The theme of the year was 'social networking', so much so that it also was the answer to a question. This was one of the few really good questions in an otherwise routine Brand Equity quiz round. The finals began with a round of direct multiple-choice questions (no passing), went on to a round of 'dry' questions, followed by a 'identify' visual round (reversed passing) and another 'dry' round. The fifth round was an audio-video round, at the end of which the last team dropped out (there was a two-way tie for the 5th place). In the final buzzer round, 3 teams left the stage after 4 questions, and 2 questions later, the quiz ended as Infosys took an unassailable lead. However, the quiz had been decided in the 'identify' round thanks to a hat-trick of answers from the winners, who scooped up 35 points to leapfrog to the top, which they never relinquished since.

The questions zig-zagged from the immensely ordinary (such as identifying the poster of 'Kati Patang') to the slightly controversial ("the difference between data compression and data mining") and a couple of excellent ones (especially well-answered by Advinus). Last year's venue (the amphitheatre in the same location) had a better ambience than the banquet hall thingy for this time. For the quizzing geek, there was yet more evidence of the iniquities of not using Infinite Rebounds (Bounce), but quizzing philosophy has always been secondary in such events. The idea of asking audience members to ask prelims questions was more than off-putting. However, overall, the quiz was a lot less annoying than some other business quizzes, and the audience seemed to enjoy the show.

Questions from the prelims here.

World Championship of Quizzing - Pune details

2010-05-15T17:00:00.003+05:30

We have an announcement on the World Quizzing Championships, and the details of the Pune venue:

This is a solo written competition consisting of 8 sections (of 30 qns each) to be solved in 2 hours.

Date: 5th June 2010 (Saturday)

Time: Report by 3:30 pm. Quiz starts sharp at 4 pm, ends at 6 pm. Answers & Scoring will follow immediately.

Venue: Symbiosis Law School Auditorium, Symbiosis Law School, Senapati Bapat Road, Pune - 411004

Registration: Prior registration is mandatory to ensure your seat. Only very few extra answer sheets will be available for "on the spot" registrations, so confirmation is necessary.

Registration is free & open to all. To register, please contact the local coordinator as follows:

Pune Coordinator: Suvajit Chakraborty (+919370124365,chakrabortysuvajit at gmail dot com)

For the quiz format, visit this link.

Mahaquizzer 2010 (with Pune details)

2010-05-15T16:40:00.006+05:30

The announcement for this year's Mahaquizzer follows. A short summary (with Pune venue details) is as follows:

When: 30 May (Sunday), 9 am onwards (timing to be confirmed)

Where in Pune: Landmark, SGS Mall, Moledina Road, Pune

To register: write to mahaquizzer@gmail.com with Pune in the subject line (since the venue may only has limited seating, it is recommended that you register in advance, by 23rd May).

Prizes: for the best quizzer, lady quizzer, school quizzer, college quizzer; as usual, the BCQC will sponsor additional prizes in some of these categories.

Note: the venue will not have desks, so you may want to get a writing pad along with your pen.

The full announcement from the KQA:

We will hold the sixth edition of Mahaquizzer across 14 cities on Sunday, 30 May 2010. The cities where centres are being offered are Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Pune, Guwahati, Panaji, Thrissur, Mysore and Coimbatore. If we are able to obtain permission, Singapore will also figure among the venues.

The Quiz

Mahaquizzer is the National Quizzing Championship. It is open to individual entrants, irrespective of age or other affiliations (though we do suggest that the taker is at least 12 years old). There is no entry fee--except in Kolkata where hall-hire expenses will be met thus.

As always, contestants are required to answer 150 questions over 90 minutes.

Four prizes will be given out in each city: Best Quizzer, Best Woman Quizzer, Best College Quizzer and Best School Quizzer.

The person recording the highest score across all centres will hold the title of Mahaquizzer for 2010. She/he will also be awarded the Wing Commander G.R. Mulky Trophy for Quizzing Excellence. This trophy will be presented during ASKQANCE, the KQA 27th Anniversary Open Quiz Festival scheduled for 19th and 20th June 2010.

The Question-setters

Mahaquizzer 2010 has been set by Arun Hiregange, Dibyendu Das, Thejaswi Udupa, Mitesh Agarwal and Ochintya Sharma. Mitesh Agarwal will coordinate the event across all centres.

How to register

Participants interested in registering should mail Mahaquizzer@gmail.com (Mahaquizzer at gmail dot com)
Please mention the city where you would like to appear from in the subject-header.
Please do mention age and institutional affiliations if you are a student.
Since seating is limited in many centres, local coordinators will work on a first-come first-served basis. Please register by Sunday 23 May 2010 to avoid disappointment.
No entries will be accepted by email after the 23^rd. However city coordinators may allow entries on the spot if there is adequate seating.
You will receive a mail confirming your entry latest by 28^th May 2010. If you fail to receive your confirmation, please text the details to either Mitesh Agarwal (98452-59423) or your city coordinator (see http://kqaquizzes.org for details).

Previous Editions

You can have a look at previous editions of the quiz (2005-2009) here: http://kqaquizzes.org/quizzes/

Venues

We are working on finalising the venues--a list with full addresses will be put up at http://kqaquizzes.org in a few days.

Baar Baar Deco (BCQC May Open Afternoon Quiz) - Results

2010-05-11T22:13:00.010+05:30

Date: 9 May 2010

Set and Conducted by: Suraj Menon

Format:
Teams of 2 for elims. About 20 teams participated. 30 questions written elims.
Top 6 teams in finals. Participants from 7th-9th top teams chosen by finalist teams as draft picks. Teams of 3 for finals.
Finals: 1 written theme for free hit. 48 questions IR with round reversal

Results
1st: Team E - Salil Bijur, Aniket Khasgiwale and Nikhil Kumar Verma (draft) - 150pts
2nd: Team C - Niranjan Pedanekar, Aditya Gadre and Sameer Deshpande (subst. Arnold D'Souza) (draft)- 130pts
3rd: Team D - Kunal Sawardekar, Venkat Srinivasan and Gurudatt Bhobe (draft) - 120pts
4th: Team B - J. Ramanand, Yasho Tamaskar and Subhashish Das (draft) - 110pts
5th: Team F - Aditya Chandorkar + 1 + Vaibhav Bajpai (draft) - 95pts
6th: Team A - Prasanna Kumar, Rahul Nayak and Vikram Keskar(draft) - 80pts

Please leave your opinions in the comments section.

Dosvidaniya (BCQC May Open Morning Quiz) - Results

2010-05-11T22:11:00.003+05:30

Date: 9 May 2010

Set and Conducted by: Aniket Khasgiwale

Format:
Teams of 2 for elims. About 20 teams participated. 25 questions written elims.
Top 6 teams in finals. Participants from 7th-9th top teams chosen by finalist teams as draft picks. Teams of 3 for finals.
Finals: 48 questions IR with round reversal

Results
1st: Team F - Kunal Sawardekar, Yasho Tamaskar and Subhashish Das (draft) - 125pts
2nd: Team A - Prasanna Kumar, Rahul Nayak and Anand Viswanathan (draft)- 65pts
3rd: Team B - Salil Bijur, Suvojit Chakraborty and Vikram Keskar (draft) - 65pts
4th: Team C - J. Ramanand, B.V. Harishkumar and Gurudatt Bhobe (draft) - 60pts
5th: Team D - Aditya Gadre, Suraj Menon and Sameer Deshpande (draft) - 60pts
6th: Team E - Rashmi Machado, Jaspreet Rikhraj and Bharath S (draft) - 35pts

Please leave your opinions in the comments section.

Extentia Company Quizzes - III

2010-05-03T20:00:00.002+05:30

When: Fri, Apr 30, 2010.
Location: Extentia ITT, Rd 12, Kalyani Nagar
QM: Venkat Srinivasan

First round: BCQC set email quiz sent to all employees Monday. Rohan Nakar a regular topper got all 14.5/15 correct. 4 way tie for 2nd at 14.

Theme: General
Participants split into 4 teams of about 4 each
IR with 25 questions
21/25 questions answered by teams

Notes: Competitive quiz where all teams scored above 3 points each. Loads of applause for several questions. Several 'difficult' questions solved by all teams.

Winners: Team 1 led by Chetan Shetty, VP, Operations
Runners up: Team 3 led by Prashant Main, SEO Coordinator
Prizes: Crossword vouchers in various denominations for all winners.

Report by Venkat
Earlier Extentia quizzes here

BCQC May Open Quizzes

2010-04-28T15:44:00.002+05:30

The BCQC presents two open quizzes in May 2010. Here are the details:

Administrivia

Date: 9th May (Sunday)

Venue: Dewang Mehta Auditorium, Persistent Systems Ltd., Senapati Bapat Road, Pune
(The nearest landmarks: The location is behind Domino's Pizza, near the new ICC Towers complex in which are situated shops such as Mainland China. The place is about 2 km from Pune University. This is a wikimapia map to the location.)

Contact: Phone: Suraj (98903 59065), Ramanand (97642 58560) Email: contact(at)bcqc(dot)org

'How to's: Up to two members per team; no prior registration needed; no entry fees

Prizes

(the same for each quiz)
Prizes for each finalist, for the Best College Team, the Best School Team, and the Best Newbie Team.
Lots of audience prizes.
Prizes are co-sponsored by Landmark (Pune) and the BCQC.

Morning: 'Dasvidaniya'

Quizmaster: Aniket Khasgiwale
Timings: 10:00 am to 12:30 pm (report by 9:45 am)
Flavour: General
Finals: Top six teams in the final, next 3 teams join the finalists after draft picks

Afternoon: 'Baar Baar Deco'

Quizmaster: Suraj Menon
Timings: 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm (report by 2:15 pm)
Flavour: Audio-Visual
Finals: Top six teams in the final, next 3 teams join the finalists after draft picks

A complete list of BC Opens

Srujan 2010 - Quiz at TATA Motors

2010-04-21T20:16:00.001+05:30

Set by : Aditya Gadre and Gaurav Singh Conducted by : Gaurav Singh

Standings

1st place: Suraj Menon and Vinay N : 85 pts

2nd place: Aniket Khasgiwale and Suvojit Chakraborty: 80 pts

3rd place: Meghashyam Shirodkar and J Ramanand : 75 pts 4th place : Salil and Venkat : 70 pts 5ht place: Kunal Sawardekar (solo) : 65 pts 6th place : PUMBA : 0 pts

The quiz started on a grim note as the MCQ pattern of the quiz was not appreciated by everyone. Further, there were some discrepencies in some questions. The audio-visual round was well appreciated. Yasho Tamaskar and Yash Marathe narrowly missed a final birth. The only non-BCQC team in the final was a team from PUMBA. The finals were well recieved. There were problems regarding uniformity of distribution of the questions. Some difficult questions were followed by relatively easier ones. Considering the audience and the setting, some of the questions were diluted to make them easier. Overall though, the competition was good, with a close call between the first five places . In the end Suraj defended his crown. Report by Gaurav Singh

Abhimanyu 2010

2010-04-16T19:36:00.000+05:30

Nischay Mhatre, a third year student of IT at COEP, became the latest winner of Abhimanyu, COEP's intra-college solo quizzing champion. The quiz was organised by last year's winner (and only double champion so far) Aniket Khasgiwale. After a preliminary (written) round, 6 finalists were shortlisted. The finals were conducted in two parts: a common 15 question general round (again, written), followed by a Mastermind-style specialities round. Nischay's topic was The History of Computing.

The details as follows:

Winner: Nischay Mhatre - The History of Computing - 16.5 (9.5 gen + 7 in specialisation) - topic setters: Abhishek Nagaraj & Siddharth Dani
2nd: Gaurav Keskar - The Harry Potter Series of Books - 15 (3+12) - set by Meghashyam
3rd: Aadinath Harihar - The Hindi Film Music of A.R. Rahman - 14 (5+9) - set by Ramanand

Other finalists:
Mohit Karve (The Big Bang Theory TV series, set by Nikhil Kundargi), Gautam Akiwate (Free Software Movement, set by Abhishek), and Vishal Yadav (Indian Politics after Independence, set by Gaurav Sabnis).

List of winners so far
2001 - Rahul Srinivas - Asterix Comics
2002 - Sumeet Kulkarni - Formula-One
2003 - Siddharth Natarajan - Archie Comics
2005 - Akshay Palve - The Mahabharata
2006 - Gaurav Singh - The Harry Potter series
2007 - Aniket Khasgiwale - World Cup Cricket
2008 - Abhishek Nagaraj - XKCD Comics
2009 - Aniket Khasgiwale - Sherlock Holmes
2010 - Nischay Mhatre - The History of Computing

(Thanks to Suvajit for inputs on scores)

Quiztronomy 2010

2010-04-14T23:21:00.002+05:30

Date: Saturday, 10th April.
Venue: College of Engineering, Pune.

Set by :Aadinath Harihar, Mohit Karve, Aditya Gadre, Nishchay Mhatre,Kaustubh Bhat and Gautam Akiwate

Conducred by Aadinath Harihar and Mohit Karve

Final Standings

1st : Omkar Bedarkar & Swapnil Bokade - 70 points
2nd : Anirudh Bapat & Abhsihek Oswal- 70 points
3rd : Mihir Rege & Vikram Keskar- 60 points
4th : Rohan Danait & Sanket Bhilare- 55 points
5th : Yash Sinha & Rohan Jain- 40 points
6th : Omkar Moghe & Rohan Ghige- 25 points

Best School Team: Santosh Ranawane & Prabhat Sarode
Best College Team: Suraj Dhiwar & Sanket Sen

The COEP Astronomy Club and the BCQC had organised the second edition of Quiztronomy on Saturday, 10th April. The number of teams were less in number, since most schools had their vacations going on. However, there was a good response from college teams all over Pune as well as a few junior college students.

The elims were fairly straightforward, with most of the questions being of a flavour such that even the general quizzers could get a good score. Hardly 3-4 questions were based on hard-core Astronomy. The cut-off was 12 questions on 25.

The finals was a very close affair right from the start. The finalists were of a good caliber and they managed to come up with some amazing answers. A lot of the finalists even explained the Astronomy concepts involved in the questions, which made the quiz a lot more fun. Even the Quizmasters did the same, thus making sure that they kept the audience involved. This year there were a lot more hard-core Astronomy questions as compared to last year, thus making it more of a true Astronomy quiz. There was also a final double long connect which was cracked by most of the teams and a few members of the audience as well.

Quiztronomy 2010 - Announcement

2010-04-06T19:13:00.004+05:30

Last year, in the International Year of Astronomy, an intersection of the COEP Astronomy Club and the BCQC organised "Quiztronomy", an astronomy quiz aimed at popularising the subject among students, particularly school children. Details of the second edition of this well-received quiz are as follows:

Quiztronomy is an astronomy themed quiz- the trivia being workable by everyone and not aimed specifically at astronomy enthusiasts. After the grand success of last year's event, we would like to invite you to participate in this year’s edition of Quiztronomy . The quiz will consist of written prelims, followed by a six team final.

Prizes

All finalists will receive prizes and certificates; Winners will also receive a trophy each
The school/college contingent with the best performance will receive a “Best Contingent” trophy.
This year, we will be awarding prizes worth a total of Rs.15,000/- (inclusive of vouchers)

Details:

Date	10th April, 2010 (Saturday)
Time	10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (reporting time: 10:00 a.m.)
Venue	Main Auditorium, College of Engineering, Pune – 5
Flavour	Astronomy- for everyone
Team	Two members per team; Teammates can be from different classes and cross school/ college

Registrations:

Registrations can be done by email (quiztronomy@gmail.com) Spot registrations will also be accepted.
Entry is free

Contact: Aadinath (aadinathharihar@gmail.com) or Mohit (lxq.ikrana@gmail.com) for additional information.

Extentia Company Quizzes - Report

2010-04-06T19:07:00.006+05:30

Extentia is a software development firm with offices in Pune. A few months ago, the BCQC was approached to conduct quizzes at the company in a package of entertaining quizzing. The quiz was conducted by Yash Marathe on our behalf. Here's a report by Vcat:

Extentia Intra-company quiz I
Fri, Feb 5, 2010. Location: Extentia HQ, Lane E, Koregaon Pk.
QM: Yash Marathe.

First round: BCQC set email quiz sent to all employees earlier in the week to generate enthusiasm for the Friday event. Topper got all answers right.

Theme: General
Participants split into 5 teams of about 4 each
IR with 25 questions
21/25 questions answered by teams

Winners: Team 2 led by Chetan Shetty, VP, Operations
Runners up through a tie break: Team 1 led by Farah Nesargi, Project Manager

Extentia Intra-company quiz II
Fri, Mar 26, 2010. Location: Extentia ITT, Rd 12, Kalyani Nagar
QM: Yash Marathe.

First round: BCQC set email quiz sent to all employees on the previous Tuesday.

Theme: Sports
Participants split into 5 teams of about 5 each
IR with 25 questions
22/25 questions answered by teams

Winners: Team 2 led by Farah Nesargi
Runners up: Team 1 led by Chetan Shetty

If you'd like the BCQC to host similar events in your company, write to us at contact - at - bcqc - period - org or leave a comment on this post

X-Quiz-Me at MIT COE

2010-03-30T16:59:00.000+05:30

MIT College of Engineering (MIT COE) are conducting 3 quizzes as part of their college fest Tesla. The event is called X-Quiz-Me and it has a general, sports and a Bollywood quiz.

Date: 3rd April, 2010 (Saturday)

Time:
General quiz: 9.45 am
Sports quiz: 1 pm
Bollywood quiz: 4 pm

Venue: MIT College of Engineering, Paud Rd.

Eligibility: College students only. Cross college teams allowed.
Registration: Rs. 50 per team

Contact:
Keyur: 9823081719

Prizes:
For each of the 3 quizzes:
1st prize Rs. 3000 + vouchers
2nd prize Rs. 2000 + vouchers

The Big Bang Theory (BCQC March Open Afternoon Quiz) - Results

2010-03-22T13:52:00.003+05:30

Date: 21 Mar 2010

Set and Conducted by:: Vinay N.

Format:
Teams of 2 for elims. 30 teams participated. 30 questions written elims.
Top 6 teams in finals. Participants from 7th-9th top teams chosen by finalist teams as draft picks. Teams of 3 for finals.
Finals: 1 written theme. 48 questions IR with round reversal

Results
1st: Team A - J. Ramanand, Meghashyam Shirodkar and Suraj Menon (draft) - 135pts
2nd: Team B - Anand Sivashankar, Amit Garde and Venkat Srinivasan (draft) - 95pts
3rd: Team D - Suvojit Chakraborty, Yash Marathe and Rohan Jain (draft) - 85pts
4th: Team C - Anannya Deb, S. Balakrishnan and Karan Pande (draft) - 60pts
5th: Team E - Salil Bijur, Yasho Tamaskar and Siddharth (draft) - 50pts
6th: Team F - Aditya Chandorkar, Aadinath Harihar and Jaipal (draft) - 40pts
Please leave your opinions in the comments section.

Reading Between The Lines... (BCQC March Open Morning Quiz) - Results

2010-03-22T13:34:00.010+05:30

Date: 21 Mar 2010

Set and Conducted by: Anand Sivashankar

Format:
Teams of 2. 8 teams in finals
30 questions written elims
3 written themes (only 2 were conducted due to shortage of time) and 75-odd questions IR

Results:
1st: Team C - Anannya Deb and S. Balakrishnan - 207.5pts
2nd: Team D - Amit Garde and Meghashyam Shirodkar - 157.5pts
3rd: Team E - J. Ramanand and Suraj Menon - 120pts
4th: Team G - Rashmi Machado and Bharat - 77.5pts
5th: Team A - Shaibal Chakravarty and Ritwik - 47.5pts
6th: Team F - Salil Bijur and Sameer Deshpande - 42.5pts
7th: Team H - Yash Marathe and Vinay N. - 30pts
8th: Team B - Saransh Verma and Avanindra Bhargav - 25pts

QM's notes:
A turnout of 17 teams for the 30 question elims with 8 teams on stage meant that most participants had a fair chance of qualifying. Most of the questions were answered with facile ease and since the purpose was to broaden mass coverage and encourage working out, that lofty objective was achieved albeit with some mild-mannered carping from the regulars on the wildly populist nature of some answers.

The teams did very well using the clues provided with Amit & Meghashyam topping with a stratospheric 26 followed by an equally impressive 24 from Ramanand & Suraj. With the cut-off falling to 13, Niranjan & Vikram must have missed out on the sudden death rule though garnering the Best College team prize.

Beginning with a vanilla opening round on Opening Lines, most teams did get into their groove gradually. Till about half-way into the 37q first round, most newcomers had more than held their own with some fine inferences and educated guesses. Amidst all this, the eventual winners, Bala & Anannya had kept lapping up a fair share of great answers aided by a fairly high Lit Quotient. A Statistically-Improbable-Phrases round again saw some newcomers upstage other veterans although not altering position status overmuch! Amit & Meghashyam got in some crackers and for some time, I was lured into thinking that they'd caught up. The second round was protractedly long and overwhelming for some teams and the performance levels dipped markedly again signalling an inordinately stretched final. Ramamand & Suraj did well too to claim third, and Bharath & Rashmi could not really make it count in the anti-clockwise round slipping to fourth though not without some neat gets earlier.

And so it goes.. While the endeavour (Morse?) was to cover geographies and genres, a lot of mentionables didn't find their way. Two framing glitches and some which could have been articulated better as questions too! The audience was conspicuously silent for most of the quiz and some members of the audience told me that the level was pegged unattainably high. Point taken!

Please leave your opinions in the comments section.

Prahelika 2010

2010-03-14T16:50:00.002+05:30

Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT) is conducting its annual tech extravaganza Impetus and Concepts from 23rd to 28th March. Prahelika The Quiz will be one of the events.

Date: 25th March, 2010 (Thursday)

Time: Elims start at 11. Please report by 10:45 am so that you may be directed to the proper venue for elims. Elims will be a written round of 30-40 minutes duration. Finals will start approximately at 1:30 pm. Approximate duration of the quiz is 2 hours.

Venue: Pune Institute of Computer Technology, near Bharti Vidyapeeth campus

Eligibility: College students with valid id. Teams of one or two.
Flavor: General

Registration: You can register at the desk set up in your college or on the spot. In case you're registering on the spot, please be there half an hour prior to the event for logistical reasons.

Contact:
Event Heads: Akshay Baheti - 9975130348 and Pratik Sikchi - 9422958833
Quizmaster: Yash Sinha - 9970137651

Excelsior 2k10 - Results

2010-03-14T16:41:00.003+05:30

These are results for the General Quiz called 'Quiz-O-Mania'

Date: 13 Mar 2010

Conducted by:: Jayraj Bajaj and Sameer Jagdale

Results
1st: Team E - Meghashyam Shirodkar and Amit Garde - 125pts
2nd: Team B - Suraj Menon and Suvajit Chakraborty - 110pts
3rd: Team A - Salil Bijur and Yasho Tamaskar - 100pts
4th: Team D - Nikhil Motlag and Tejas Kulkarni - 40pts
5th: Team C - Venkat Srinavasan and Rohan Jain - 20pts

Format:
25 questions elims on slides
40 questions Finals: 10 clockwise IR, 10 anti-clockwise IR, 10 clockwise IR with negatives, 10 anti-clockwise with double or negative

BCQC March Open Quizzes

2010-03-09T22:58:00.003+05:30

The BCQC begins its 2010 season with a set of two open quizzes this month. Here are the details:

Administrivia

Date: 21st March (Sunday)

Venue: Dewang Mehta Auditorium, Persistent Systems Ltd., Senapati Bapat Road, Pune
(The nearest landmarks: The location is behind Domino's Pizza, near the new ICC Towers complex in which are situated shops such as Mainland China. The place is about 2 km from Pune University. This is a wikimapia map to the location.)

Contact: Phone: Suraj (98903 59065), Ramanand (97642 58560) Email: contact(at)bcqc(dot)org

'How to's: Up to two members per team; no prior registration needed; no entry fees

Prizes

Morning: 'Reading between the lines...'

(a Literature Quiz)

Quizmaster: Anand Sivashankar
Timings: 10:00 am to 12:30 pm (report by 9:45 am)
Flavour: Literature
Finals: Eight teams in the final

Afternoon: 'The Big Bang Theory'

Quizmaster: Vinay N.
Timings: 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm (report by 2:15 pm)
Flavour: General
Finals: Top six teams in the final, next 3 teams join the finalists after draft picks

A complete list of BC Opens

Quizzes at Excelsior 2k10

2010-03-09T20:28:00.005+05:30

Students of Sinhgad College of Engineering are organising a national technical event Excelsior 2k10 from 11th to 13th March and have 2 quizzes as a part of the fest.

Eligibility:Open for all

Adroit - Technical quiz

Elims: 11th March 11am to 11.30am
Finals: 12th March 11am to 1pm
Format: Teams of 2 members. 4 teams in finals

Flavour: This quiz is primarily on 4 topics: bridges, tower crains, natural calamities and global warming

Cash prizes: 1st: 30,000/- 2nd: Rs. 20,000/-

Quizmasters: Ravindra Aile and Anurav Jain (9960712083)

Quiz-O-Mania - General quiz

Not to be confused with VIT's annual open quiz

Date: 13th March
Time: 11.00 am to 3.00 pm. Eliminations followed by finals. On the spot registration is also available.
Format: Teams of 2 members. 6 teams in finals

Flavour: General

Cash prizes: 1st: 9,000/- 2nd: Rs. 3,000/-

Quizmasters: Jayraj Bajaj (9860602727) and Sameer (9923072228)

AIT General Quiz

2010-02-21T02:34:00.003+05:30

A general quiz is being organized on 13th March (Saturday) at the Army Institute of Technology, Dighi Hills, Alandi Road, Pune.

Registration: Rs 60 for a team of two. On spot registrations available on confirmation by sms or email.
Directions to get to AIT: Catch a direct bus to Alandi from Pune railway station or Mahanagar Palika or from anywhere. It drops you directly in front of the college gate.
Eligibility: This is a college students only quiz. Intercollege teams allowed.
Prizes: 4000 for the first, 2000 for the second and for third its 1000. These may increase in the future but surely wont decrease.
Timing: 10-30 a.m. onwards
Contact: Prashant Tomar (9823694984) and Ayush Agarwal (9823438132)

Shyam Bhatt Memorial Quiz 2010

2010-02-20T02:23:00.002+05:30

Date: 16 Feb 2010

Set & Conducted by:: Hitesh Mahato (Elims) and Lt. Col. Nikhil Moorchung (Finals)

Results
1st: Team C - Meghashyam Shirodkar and Salil Bijur - 130pts
2nd: Team F - Venkat Srinavasan and Rohan Jain - 90pts
3rd: Team E - Suvajit Chakraborty and Yash Marathe - 85pts
Joint 4th: Team A - Abhinav Raina and Salil Jena (AFMC) - 80pts
Joint 4th: Team B - Abhishek and Krishna (AFMC) - 80pts
6th: Team D - Abhilash and Anirudh (Kasturba Medical College, Manipal)

Format: 25 questions elims on slides; 60 questions Finals (IR with round reversal after 30)

Report
The quiz began on time with an alumnus of AFMC paying a small tribute to his batchmate Shyam Bhatt whom the annual quiz is named after. Elims were set and conducted completely by students while the finals were by an AFMC faculty member Lt. Col. Moorchung. Questions were nice although the finals seemed to be on the easier side with many chestnuts.

Most teams were neck-to-neck half way through. After the round reversal, Team C surged ahead above others. Towards the end, Team F (Venkat and Rohan) made a stunning comeback from 5th place to 2nd cracking all 4 questions that came their way. The 2 AFMC teams A and B were found to be tied at 3rd place at 80 points. Just before the tie-breaker, it was found that the last finals question was yet to be asked. Team F had answered the last one, so it was a direct for Team E which cracked it and joined A and B at 80 points. A close tie-breaker round of 3 questions happened and Team E won ending at 3rd place.

Please comment for any corrections and opinions below.

Axlerate - Open Quiz at MIT, Pune

2010-02-10T21:49:00.003+05:30

Axelerate - a general quiz is to be held on the 20th of Feb at Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune.

Team of 2
Registration on the spot will be available
Time: 11.00 am

1st Prize Rs 10,000.
2nd Prize Rs 6,000.
3rd Prize Rs 4,000.

Quizmasters:
Rohan Jain - +91 98811 60507
Bharat Marathe - +91 98608 22888

Landmark Quiz Pune 2010 - Report

2010-01-31T13:04:00.007+05:30

Date: 30 Jan, 2010
Venue: Nehru Memorial Hall, Pune
Conducted by: Dr. Navin Jayakumar
Turnout: ~280 teams

Results
1st: Travelling Pillsburies (Rajiv Rai, Sumant Srivathsan, Vibhendu Tiwari) 62 pts
2nd: QED (Samanth Subramanian, G. Swaminathan, Ramana) 58 pts
3rd: 3 Paajis in a Shaniwar Wada Pav (Meghashyam Shirodkar, Amit Garde, Anand Sivashankar) 50 pts
4th: Inglorious Kaminey (Rajen Prabhu, Gopal Kidao, Ravi Mundoli) 40 pts
5th: 3 Mistakes of our parents' lives (Pradeep Ramarathnam, Vikram Joshi, Mukund) 33 pts
6th: No Enthu Da (Aadisht Khanna, Aishwarya, Aswath) 25 pts
7th: Grouchy Marxists (Deviprasad Viswanathan, TK Balaji, Vikram Rajan) 19 pts
8th: GDS System of Measurement (Govind Grewal, Dhananjay Shettigar, Sauvik) 15 pts

Best Corporate Team: ZS Associates
Best College Team: SCMHRD
Best School Teams: 1st: Army Public School; 2nd: Abhinava Vidyalaya

Format:
40 Question Prelims
Cutoff was 26 with some stars
Finals - Two rounds of IR - 15 each. 10 points for each question.
9 Questions on the buzzer which revealed part of a larger image(the theme) on screen. Points ranged from +20 to +4 for cracking the theme.
One more buzzer round at the end.

Please leave opinions, corrections and names that have been missed out in the comments

Quiz-O-Mania 2010 - Report

2010-01-31T12:45:00.003+05:30

Date: 30 Jan, 2010
Venue: Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune
Conducted by: Salil Bijur
Turnout: ~75 teams

Format : 32 questions written elims followed by 42 questions on seamless IR.

Results:
Joint 1st: Suraj Menon and Yash Marathe : 80 pts
Joint 1st: Priyambad Pattanayak and Krishnamurti Ganesh : 80 pts
Joint 3rd: Annanya Deb and Suresh Ramasubramanian : 60 pts
Joint 3rd: Meghashyam Shirodkar and Anand Sivashankar: 60 pts
5th: Pradeep Ramarathnam and Vikram Joshi: 40 pts
6th : Srinath and Roshith: 20 pts

Leave your opinions in the comments section.

Landmark Pune Quiz 2010

2010-01-15T14:48:00.003+05:30

Details:

* Teams of upto 3 members.
* Venue: Nehru Memorial Hall, Camp, Pune
* 30th of Jan 2010, 3.30pm.
* Quizmaster: Dr. Navin Jayakumar

* Registration needs to be done in advance. The organizers will be assigning seats, and so it is recommended that you register early so as to avoid last minute crowding.

* To register, walk into Landmark, SGS Magnum Mall, Moledina Road, Camp, Pune anytime before the 30th of Jan. You can register for your friends just as well. You could call 40068888 for details.

Quiz-o-Mania 2010

2010-01-15T12:06:00.003+05:30

The annual open quiz at Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT) Pune, Quiz-O-Mania, is happening on 30th Jan 2010 as a part of the cultural fest Melange. Details are as follows:

Date: 30th Jan, Saturday
Flavour: General
Time: 9:30am (Reporting Time)
10am sharp (Elims Begin)
Venue: VIT Auditorium
Team size: 2
Teams that qualify for the finals: 6
Prize money: Rs 12,000

QM: Salil Bijur

Location: Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, 666, Upper Indiranagar, Bibwewadi, Pune-37.

Contact: Parth (9860608442) or Gaurav (9763313354)

Clairvoyance 2010

2010-01-07T22:57:00.002+05:30

~~The Symbiosis Institute of International Business (SIIB), Pune is organizing its annual national level management event “IGNISENSE ’10” on 16th and 17th January, 2010.~~

Update: This event has been cancelled.
From a mail sent by the SIIB team:

Dear All,
We are sorry to inform that Clairvoiyance 2010, the Corporate Quiz being organised on 17th Jan 2010 at SIIB,Hinjewadi is not being held due to a pull out from our sponsers.
We are very sorry for the inconvinience caused and we sincerely apologise for the same.
Regards
Team Ignisense
SIIB,Pune.

Winter InFest 2009 aka bcqc.orgy

2009-12-25T20:02:00.002+05:30

The BCQC will be holding its annual Winter InFest this weekend.

What its all about: well, (mostly) random people come along and conduct quizzes on (mostly) random topics of their choosing and (mostly) torture people.

Venue: The Boat Club, College of Engineering Pune

Time: The mayhem starts at 1:30 pm on both days

Quizzes:
Saturday:The legendary George Thomas will be doing his much awaited quiz on whatever the hell he feels like , Suvajit Chakraborty will be doing a general quiz, Yasho will be doing his trademarked Stones quiz (i.e. the WTF Pop culture quiz) and Suraj will be doing an Entertainment quiz
Sunday: Aniket will be doing a quiz on his favourite topics (Cricket wil surely be involved) , Aditya will be doing a quiz on topics yet to be decided and if time permits Suraj will be doing a Business quiz.

There is no registration required. Everyone is invited and we hope a lot of you show up and join in the fun.