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Personal Reflections

Muck in the Delhi quizzing scene

These days I get to hear about more incidents of rigging happening in school quizzes in Delhi. And it’s a really sad situation. Some of the best quizzes which were there (like the Agnel Talent Fest Quiz) are either no longer being held because of sponsorship issues, or their standards have declined drastically (like so many computer symposium quizzes – and I’m talking about ones like Dynamix). It seems that more of these quizzes are being leaked by the organizers to favor either the host school, or some friend they have in other schools. What these people don’t see is how it hurts their own reputation, the reputation of their quiz and their school.

Take for example the Tagore International School (Vasant Vihar) Commties Quiz 2008 held today. Prateek Vijayavargia was telling me how it was rigged to such an extent that his team’s correct answers were marked wrong (it was shown to them) and still the organizers refused to mend their error. All of this just to ensure that the host school made it to the final round. They manipulated to the extent of increasing the host school’s scores to make them qualify.

Events don’t earn respect by giving Lenovo laptops as prizes or Domino’s Pizza for lunch – they earn it by having a fair competition of all teams with high standards. At Code Wars 2007 for instance we went to great lengths to ensure that a tight lid was kept on all information. Even when our members were participating and I made the papers for some events, utmost care was taken to see that nothing leaked out. And these days we have events where the organizers are actually leaking out things to other schools too! This sort of malfeasance hurts everyone.

BTW, Prateek’s put up a few posts on some recent quizzes he’s gone to. You might want to check them out for some quiz papers.

PS (off topic) – ln (2π)…LMAO!!!

PPS – Prashanth wanted me to add here that he was not involved in Dynamix 2008, but he was involved in Dynamix 2007.

39 replies on “Muck in the Delhi quizzing scene”

@Chirag: What happened was that a few VK teams were in one batch, and the later VK teams were in the later batch. So the guys from the later batch got bored, and went to the canteen. Now the entry to the audi is generally through only one door, but the second door (the one towards the canteen side) was open. The folks in the later batch didn’t know that they weren’t allowed in, and there was nobody at the second door to tell them that. They wanted to watch the quiz so they went in. When their turn came, they went up to ask the organizers where their team would be seated – that guy disqualified them since they had been sitting inside. I completely agree that it was the VK teams which were at fault – they should have asked someone before going in to watch the quiz. But do get the word across that it would be nice if some sort of notice is put at the second door, you know, so that nobody inadvertently strays in and gets disqualified.

@Chirag: I also like COQ for its amazingly quick AND accurate checking of papers. Kudos to you guys for that – generally, most quizzes screw up accuracy when trying to get results out quickly.

@Espera: They do allow school students to participate in the open events at college fests. Apart from that, you can also join Kutub Quizzers to stay updated on upcoming quizzes. I got the h2g2 game file from some link I found on the Frotz (Z language interpreter) website. They, of course, got it from the Douglas Adams official site which used to allow downloads of the actual game file before switching over to using a Java applet based version.

I believe the solutions for Techathlon (and all the other events) ARE included in that ZIP file, aren’t they? And do try out the quiz / crossword when you get time and gimme your feedback on them.

Dooood. I noticed. It goes without saying that I solved them WITHOUT looking at the answers.
Okay, Kutub Quizzers: check.
H2G2 game: cool. So ever reached the big four-oh-oh?

@ Ankur – Thats a pretty strange incident with the DPSVK Teams.

@ Espera – Yes, as Ankur said, school students are allowed. I even went for one Quiz this year at Jamia Malia. But I wud not recommend Kutub Quizzers at the moment for anyone because…..well, their sessions are really bad and the questions are too damn difficult!

@Espera: Nope, haven’t completed it. Always get frustrated at the point towards the end of the game where it randomly takes you to some place – but I always end up at the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal’s cave. I escape, and then again reach the same point. So bloody agonizing.

You solved the quiz and crossword (most of them) WITHOUT looking at the solutions? :O Really?!

No. No, you got me wrong. What didn’t you understand?

Me: I liked Techathlon, couldn’t do the Da Vinci problem though.
You: I believe the solutions for Techathlon (and all the other events) ARE included in that ZIP file, aren’t they?
Me: Dooood. I noticed. It goes without saying that I solved them WITHOUT looking at the answers.

We (or me at least) are talking about Techathlon. Not the quiz

=]

@Prateek: Go to the Code Wars 2007 downloads page (link given earlier in comments) and download the file for Babel Fish event. Has the game along with instructions on how to get started.

@Espera: My interpretation-

Me – And do try out the quiz / crossword when you get time and gimme your feedback on them.
You – Dooood. I noticed. It goes without saying that I solved them WITHOUT looking at the answers.
Me – WTF!!!

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