Nice memories of the Quiz Competition!

Hi Guys,

In my last post, I mentioned that I’ll be writing about my memories of the Quiz competition. A mixture of good fortune and misfortune yielded us the 3rd prize.

The competition occurred last Wednesday (11-2-10). There were 7 teams (1 from each department). Each team consisted of 3 members.  In our department myself, Raja and a junior (whom I didn’t know before) participated.

We didn’t prepare anything before the event. The event was by 3.30 pm in the seminar hall. We went by 3 pm. Some EEE boys were standing there reading some huge books. Naanga jollya ninnu kadha pesitu irundhom! Namakum mathavangalukum oru difference vendama?

We were called by 3.30 pm. The HOD of English department was the Quiz Master. We were team 5. There were 5 rounds in all, namely General, Science & Tech, Sports, Rapid fire and Visuals. A correct answer yields 2 points for a direct question and 1 point in case of a passing question. This applied for all the rounds except the 4th.

We didn’t score any points by the end of 1st round. In the 2nd round we scored 1 point. The question was “When Graham Bell discovered Telephone, what did he speak in the phone?” It came to us as a pass question. I remembered that he called his assistant.  I said “Please come here”. He was expecting the exact answer.  But other teams also failed to give the exact answer. So, he awarded us with the point. The actual answer was “Mr. Watson, come here! I need you”.

The next round was Sports round. We had a lot of luck in this round. A question was “When and where did India win its 1^st Olympic hockey gold medal?” I remembered it was in 1928, but I forgot where. The next team answered it was at Amsterdam. So we got .5 marks each.  Another question was “In a golf match if a ball is lost, how long will they search?” Team 6 answered “10 minutes” I guessed it was 5 and it ended as the right answer.  Another question was “In which game, the term Long and Short Corner is used?” We knew it is Hockey. Finally our direct question was “In a game of Tug of War, what is the maximum number of players?” Raja told me it was either 7 or 8. I told him to go ahead with the answer. He said 8 and it was the right answer. By the end of this round 4.5 points were added to our table. Scores of Significant teams at the end of this round were as follows

Team 1 (EC)-5… Team 2 (CS)-2… Team 5 (Mech)-5.5… Team 6 (MCA)-5.5… Team 7 (MBA)-7…

The next round was Rapid Fire. The rules were: there will be 10 questions. The answers should be in yes/no format. The team leader must answer the questions. A correct answer meant +1 and a wrong answer meant -1, whereas a pass meant 0. In this round Team 1 scored 2 points (4-2), team 2 scored 7 points (8-1).

In our turn I made blunders. The 1st question was right, 2nd one was “New York was once known as New Amsterdam”. I should have passed, but I answered yes. It was wrong. The 3rd one was right. 4th one was “Atlantic ocean is the largest ocean in the world”. It was very clear that Pacific Ocean is the largest. I was going to answer No, my junior team mate said yes to me and I blurted yes. The 5th question was “James Cook discovered Australia” I was quite sure he did, but I was not dead sure. So, I passed, but the answer was yes. We were 0. My mind was clouded by then. I was not even able to listen to the questions. Raja told me the answer and I repeated them. We scored 4points (6-2). Team 6 confused more than us. They finished with 0 points (4-4). Team 7 scored 9 points (9-0). The scores were

Team 1 (EC)-7… Team 2 (CS)-9… Team 5 (Mech)-9.5… Team 6 (MCA)-5.5… Team 7 (MBA)-16…

It was clear Team 7 was the winner. The competition was for the 2nd prize. The 5th round was visuals. A photo will be displayed and we needed to identify who it was. We identified it correctly getting 2 points.  But team 2 got a pass question and also answered their direct question scoring 3 points. So the result was

1st: Team 7 with 18 points

2nd: Team 2 with 12 points

3rd: Team 5 with 11.5 points.

We could have got the 2nd place with a little effort. But it was all mind game. You need to be cool. A good lesson learnt at the end of the day.

Anyway it was good to win the 3rd prize. There were appreciations from my classmates. Even the faculty members appreciated us and it was quite unexpected!

Happy Reading!!!

P.S: Some Interesting information from the Quiz:

• The animal that sleeps standing is horse.
• Albert Einstein got his Nobel Prize for Photoelectric effect, not for the Relativity Theory.
• Nobel Prizes are given from 1901.
• India got a chance to participate in the 1950 Brazilian football world cup. But they didn’t participate since they didn’t know to play with football boots.
• 1 Nautical Mile= 1.115 kms.