Difference between revisions of "Difficulty cliff"

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A '''difficulty cliff''' results when a tossup instantly transitions from "difficult" to "easy" without any intervening middle clues.  A difficulty cliff is particularly frustrating to players who use the [[McKenzie Method]], as the first clue that a player knows is also extremely likely to be the first clue that most players know, resulting in a [[buzzer race]].
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A '''difficulty cliff''' results when a tossup instantly transitions from "difficult" to "easy" without any intervening middle clues.
  
Difficulty cliffs are occasionally seen in even the most well-crafted [[ACF]] sets, the shorter nature of [[NAQT]] questions makes them more common in that format, and they are ubiquitous in [[CBI]] and speed tossup formats.
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Difficulty cliffs are found more commonly in [[NAQT]] than [[ACF]] due to its shorter questions. While difficulty cliffs are almost always present in [[bad quizbowl]], these mistakes are typically viewed as less egregious than [[transparency]] or the use of [[Clue#Bad clues|bad clues]].
 
 
While difficulty cliffs are almost always present in [[bad quizbowl]], these mistakes are typically viewed as less egregious than [[transparency]] or the use of [[Clue#Bad clues|bad clues]].
 
  
 
[[Category: Bad quizbowl]]
 
[[Category: Bad quizbowl]]

Revision as of 00:43, 10 December 2020

A difficulty cliff results when a tossup instantly transitions from "difficult" to "easy" without any intervening middle clues.

Difficulty cliffs are found more commonly in NAQT than ACF due to its shorter questions. While difficulty cliffs are almost always present in bad quizbowl, these mistakes are typically viewed as less egregious than transparency or the use of bad clues.