Dear Editor
Heartiest congratulations to the entire Ardenne Team for an exciting victory in the recent Schools' Challenge Quiz. However, I detected a flaw on the judging system of the competition which had the potential of creating immeasurable hardship on the Titchfield team.
The system of judging is that the quizmaster is provided with a list of questions and answers, and unless the answers given are exactly what he/she has before him, the answers are disallowed by him. The judges, however, may override his ruling and, at the end of the segment, allow the answer given.
On at least three occasions — two in the vital final session — three answers given by Titchfield, and disallowed by the invigilator, were subsequently allowed by the judges. So that at the end of the competition Titchfield initially lost by six points. That score was revised by the judges and two of these answers were allowed; so Titchfield finally lost by two points or one answer.
The effect of this process is that Titchfield had given three answers which they knew to be correct, and which were ruled to be incorrect. Now, in a competition in which self-confidence is critical, only a psychologist could convey what those three rejections of their answers could have done to the Titchfield team's self-confidence, and to tell them afterwards that they were correct was very cold comfort.
Therefore, I respectfully wish to suggest that judges be required to make their acceptance of answers known then and there, and that the clock be stopped — similar to that of a basketball game — and the judges make their decision and award the points before the next question is asked. Also, that the coaches of both teams be equipped with mechanisms to request a ruling of the judges on an answer, before the next question is asked. We will never know what would have been the Titchfield mind frame if they knew that in the final stage only two (2) points separated them from Ardenne.
Let their loss be the catalyst for a future change to these rules.
Howard Hamilton
Duke Street
Kingston
After the dust of Schools' Challenge
-->
Heartiest congratulations to the entire Ardenne Team for an exciting victory in the recent Schools' Challenge Quiz. However, I detected a flaw on the judging system of the competition which had the potential of creating immeasurable hardship on the Titchfield team.
The system of judging is that the quizmaster is provided with a list of questions and answers, and unless the answers given are exactly what he/she has before him, the answers are disallowed by him. The judges, however, may override his ruling and, at the end of the segment, allow the answer given.
On at least three occasions — two in the vital final session — three answers given by Titchfield, and disallowed by the invigilator, were subsequently allowed by the judges. So that at the end of the competition Titchfield initially lost by six points. That score was revised by the judges and two of these answers were allowed; so Titchfield finally lost by two points or one answer.
The effect of this process is that Titchfield had given three answers which they knew to be correct, and which were ruled to be incorrect. Now, in a competition in which self-confidence is critical, only a psychologist could convey what those three rejections of their answers could have done to the Titchfield team's self-confidence, and to tell them afterwards that they were correct was very cold comfort.
Therefore, I respectfully wish to suggest that judges be required to make their acceptance of answers known then and there, and that the clock be stopped — similar to that of a basketball game — and the judges make their decision and award the points before the next question is asked. Also, that the coaches of both teams be equipped with mechanisms to request a ruling of the judges on an answer, before the next question is asked. We will never know what would have been the Titchfield mind frame if they knew that in the final stage only two (2) points separated them from Ardenne.
Let their loss be the catalyst for a future change to these rules.
Howard Hamilton
Duke Street
Kingston
After the dust of Schools' Challenge
-->