<<I think we might be unique (or spoiled?) in Illinois in that we allow 30 seconds to answer a math tossup. I've also observed--and am thus curious as to why there are so few math questions at the college level and at many national tournaments (Panasonic is the exception, VERY difficult math and science calculation questions are the norm there)--that many quiz bowlers consider math and science the "aristocracy" of subjects: an incorrect, printed answer in the humanities will barely receive any mention, whereas an incorrect math answer can ignite a small war. . .>> Two reasons, as far as I can make out: 1) Math questions tend to be brute calculation, which is not necessarily as common to be good at in HS as in college. For instance, while relatively few HS students do calculus (is it higher for QBers? I didn't, BTW...), intro calculus is a pretty standard freshman course. 2) Uni students (ahh, shoot me!) tend to either be way good, or way bad at math. Take me-- I can just barely do derivatives, despite having done calc. All the knowledge got pushed out by history. OTOH, a math grad student knows WAY more about math than just calculation, and tends to be bad at it as a result. College level math questions tend to be more theory or concept based. How often do they come up, mathmos? Patty
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