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”
hey! we give dominos. or used to
and i think exun has a great standard. we go to great lengths as well. to the extent that there is no interaction between the judges and the organisers. its a good thing to have external judges
and yes ive been to such quizzes
dps mathura road 2006 was one such example
agreed
the judges room during Exun is out of bounds for all members
Exactly the point I was making, Gursartaj. 🙂 It’s fair competition that gives an event its reputation, and not the bells and whistles that come along with it. Exun is another brilliant example of how even when alumni conduct the quiz, the participants from the host school don’t know about the answers in a quiz.
Increasingly however, in Delhi, a lot of quizzes which are being held are being rigged. And that’s a sad turn of events.
PS – It was us who gave Lenovo laptops as prizes.
Eureka — tagore international
Whatever it be, we Columbans won the quiz and the overall trophy!!
Yes I was there and saw it all – clearly answers of Prateek had been marked wrong (host team phenomenon)!!
Most schools, like ours(DPS Mrd) for example, as Gursartaj quite blatantly mentions, did indulge in leaking the papers to the host teams, I believe.
Nevertheless, we did mend and quit the concept of self-participation altogether. Which, I believe is the way to go forward.
@Chirag: I wasn’t taking any credit away from the Columbans, and – as you did – you deserved to win. However, the event was mismanaged and rigged. The prelims. This kind of stuff is really on the rise, and it’s bad for the quizzing atmosphere in Delhi.
@Ramit: Wow, that’s a candid ‘confession’. 😉
Lol. Correction though, it was 2005 not 2006. And the person in question who leaked the papers in 05(to some girls from Barakhamba, I think) was then removed.
The 06 comment from Gudi is just a case of sour grapes 😛
@Ramit: Hmm, wonder what the guy got in return for leaking the papers to those girls. LOL. I guess you’re right, it was 2005, because if I remember correctly, Gudi WON the quiz at Warp in 2006.
I don’t suppose Codewars is open, is it?