Re: About ACF

matt_reece · Mon, 16 Apr 2001 16:50:09 -0700

Given the number of posts over the past days that
seem to suggest that ACF is too difficult or
discouraging, I wanted to express my opinion to the contrary. I
am a first-year; I suppose I have more experience
than some, since I competed in quiz bowl tournaments
in both middle and high school. Still, this is my
first year of college competition and I know that a
number of other college bowl participants competed in
high school, so I don't think my experiences are too
unrepresentative. I like ACF. In fact, I prefer it to NAQT and to
CBI. At ACF regionals, I was on the weakest Chicago
team, composed almost entirely of first-years. If
memory serves, there was one third-year on the team. We
were able to win several matches, and although we lost
some matches by wide margins, I don't recall ever
feeling discouraged or thinking that the format was too
difficult. Enough answers were recognizable to me that I
could answer some toss-ups now and then, and many other
answers I may have been able to get from the easiest clue
or two, but not from the more obscure ones. I did
not feel completely lost; the questions were
sometimes difficult, but it was interesting to learn new
things about familiar subjects that in high school would
always have had the same giveaway clues. I think that
ACF has a definite potential to motivate people to
learn about subjects that they have little familiarity
with. The other formats may do this as well, but not to
the same extent. At NAQT I felt that the primary
thing I could have done to play better would be to pay
more attention to the news. While there's nothing
wrong with current events questions on occasion,
personally I prefer the more academic subject matter of ACF.
I think playing against experienced teams at
regionals is a good experience for players who would be
able to play in a "div 2." It shows that it is
possible to learn the material in the questions, and being
able to score some points against very good teams can
give younger players confidence that it is possible to
become good at ACF through study. I'm glad that I wasn't
on a division 2 team at regionals. On the other
hand, I would have liked to have an ACF division 2
national competition this year. I realize that that might
be a difficult thing to organize, and I'm not
complaining about the lack of such a competition, but I think
it could have been interesting. Younger teams are
unlikely to get to play at ACF nationals, or if they do
play, to have a chance of placing near the top, so a
div 2 would be a nice opportunity. I'm glad it wasn't
there at regionals, though, and I definitely don't want
to see questions "dumbed down" for division
two.

Matt Reece