Question Writer's Tips

Championship Division by Solomon Stevens

As a former quizzer, I’ve had experiences where you’ve studied something to the point where you know it by heart, but when it comes up in a meet, you get burned by how the question is worded. So this year, I plan on trying to avoid that by being as predictable and transparent as possible.

The questions this upcoming season are designed to be hit quickly. The exceptions are Scripture Text Questions (as with most writers) and questions that start with “According to”. **The more word-perfect quizzers know the material, the better chance they have at getting questions right. **This not only applies to Quotation / Essence Questions, but it also increases the chances of finding the key word(s) used in the question itself. To get ahead in studying, quizzers should also note the following:

“of” phrases
Adjectives
Unique words

Throughout this entire season, 10-point questions will be pretty much the same. The answer length should hover around seven words or fewer.

League Meets 1-4

League Meets help lay a firm foundation in studying the material. Knowing the chapters when they are due will allow quizzers to better understand what questions are being asked and practice accordingly. For every League Meet (1-5), all the answers to questions will come from one verse. For league meets 1-4, two Application Questions are included: one 10-point question and one 20/30-point question.

League Meet 5

I am aware that some districts don’t quiz over League Meet 5. They just use it as practice questions. With this in mind, these sets have more of an emphasis on quoting as well as the questions listed above that quizzers should take note. These questions can be beneficial to help quizzers solidify the material they have learned up to this point.

Districts, Regionals, Nationals

For Districts, Regionals, and Nationals (DRN), the question difficulty gradually increases as there are more multiple-part questions and more scripture text questions scattered throughout. They are still designed to be direct, but quizzers may have to use a bit more critical thinking. These sets also introduce consecutive and separate verses. As the season moves on, more questions will expand beyond one verse and more verses will be required as answers.

Districts

We begin to see the use of separate and consecutive verses at Districts as answers to questions can now come from two (or even three) verses. Throughout these sets, some concordance-based questions will be asked. Some of these may not require studying beforehand, but doing so will benefit quizzers.

Regionals

The difficulty takes a step up from District-level questions. Quizzers can expect a large portion of questions to come from multiple verses (two to three for 20-pointers, three to four for 30-pointers) and concordance questions to be less obvious than those at Districts. So quoting the material and studying the concordance will be very helpful in preparation for Regionals and beyond.

Nationals

To have success at Nationals, one must know the material and know it well. Questions will constantly come from multiple verses and can require quizzers to say up to five verses (or more if they’re short). Concordance questions will be at their most difficult and thus will require studying ahead of time.

Contender/XP5 Divisions by Cole Abbott

General style

I like writing thought provoking questions as often as I can. The majority of questions will follow simple progression through the verse, like “this person did what”, or “this person went where.” There will also be some set up questions such as, “when this person went there, what happened?” Scripture text questions are often longer and will take some patience from quizzers. I will often use locaters (Section title or chapter) to make the difference between difficulties, so a section title could be a 10 while a chapter locator could be a 20 on the same question.

Difficulty

At league level, 10’s will normally be between 1-5 word answers and normally no more than 7. 20’s could range anywhere from a word, depending on difficulty, up to half of a long verse. 30’s will often be the majority of a verse and often times will include quotes, essence questions, and some chapter analysis lists. The difficulty of questions will remain the same for league matches through league finals.

Please be aware of the following requirements for the league level questions for the Contender and XP5 divisions:

All Quotation Questions throughout the year will come from the marked primary verses in the Scripture portion.
2 Application questions will appear in each set for League 1 through League 4
- For XP5 rounds, these will appear between questions 13-18
- For Contender rounds, these will appear after question 10
Contender Study Questions will appear:
- As 10 of the first 12 questions for all XP5 matches
- As 10 questions per set for Contender League 1
- As 5 questions per set for Contender Leagues 2 through 4
- Not at all in League 5 and beyond