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Published April 19, 2004; Category: STUDENTS
Students drill in history, literature, science, other topics
Advertised as "the varsity sport of the mind," the 2004 College Bowl
National Championship will be held April 23-25 at the Montgomery campus of
Alabama's Auburn University. The qualifying students are busy honing their
knowledge of high art and low art, of classic literature and pop literature -
and it couldn't hurt to know which alkali metal is the lightest of the solid
elements.
Scott Schwartz '06 (left) and Ben Taylor '07 think about a sample question as
they practice for the upcoming national College Bowl competition, in Alabama.
(photo by Rob Strong '04)
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"It's lithium," said Ben Taylor '07, a member of the Dartmouth College Bowl competitive
team. The team members know lithium's weight; and that it was discovered by
Johan August Arfvedson in Sweden in 1817; and that it can be used for battery
anodes, high strength ceramics, high-temperature lubricants, and in treatments
for manic-depressive disorders. It's something they now know by heart.
For the first time in 10 years, the Dartmouth College Bowl team is on the
list of contenders for the national title. The four-player squad - consisting
of Taylor, Tyson Kubota '07, Ting Lu '05 and David Hankins '05 - won first
place at the 2004 Northeast Regional Tournament held at Providence College in
Providence, R.I., beating out teams from Boston University and Williams
College, among others. At the national tournament in April, the qualifying
students will compete against teams including those from Cornell University,
Georgetown University, the University of Chicago and University of California-,
Los Angeles.
Thanks to a strong performance at the Providence regionals, Taylor, who
finished second in overall individual score, gained a spot on the four-player
squad that will be representing Dartmouth at nationals. Due to College Bowl
rules, each school can send only one team; the Dartmouth students chose their
team based on tournament attendance, individual performance, and overall "group
chemistry," Taylor said.
Although he said he remains assured of the team's capacity for success at
nationals, Taylor acknowledges that students are often blindsided by the Bowl's
twofold approach: students must answer both tossup questions and bonus
questions. Both deal largely with popular culture and current events, but with
one key difference: conferring among teammates is allowed on bonus questions,
which are often multi-part, but not on tossups, which, given the timed nature
of the competition, are brief.
"You'd be surprised how different sets of questions can be," Taylor
said. "We expect some pretty tough competition, especially from the University
of Chicago, the defending champion."
"I think that we have a good chance of making the playoffs at nationals. If
we can do that, we definitely could win the tournament, though it won't be
easy."
- Ben Taylor '07
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According to the team, a typical tossup question runs something like this:
"Which substances, first discovered in 1935, are 20-carbon fatty acid
derivatives containing a 5-carbon ring? They can affect blood pressure, blood
clotting, ion transport, and muscle contraction. Aspirin works by preventing
the synthesis of these chemicals because they also sensitize nerve endings."
The answer? Prostaglandins.
"I think that we have a good chance of making the playoffs at nationals,"
said Taylor. "If we can do that, we definitely could win the tournament, though
it won't be easy."
In the meantime, the students practice two nights a week for about two
hours, focusing as much on teamwork as on trivia - and learning how to ring the
contest buzzer quickly but not prematurely is a chief concern.
The website for College Bowl, Inc., provides a series of sample questions,
both tossups and bonuses. According to the Dartmouth team, this is a good place
to start.
"Some teams like to study for the tournaments by memorizing the vice
presidents or something like that, but for us it's much more fun," said
Hankins. "We learn what we can in practice, and don't worry so much about
trivia."
Learning as much as possible often means talking as much as possible. At a
typical study session, no one student holds the floor, and the explosion of
voices - students chatting about popular culture, presidents, and poisons -
heightens their chances of success at nationals, the students say, because it
ensures a diversity of topics.
"As a group, we're unpredictable, but we all get along and have fun," Taylor
said. "We've also been working through sets of questions from previous national
tournaments to get a feel for the type of questions we'll run up against."
Although they remain confident, Taylor and others cite the unpredictability
of all team competitions, however organized, as the sole factor tempering such
assurance. Indeed, the Dartmouth team has already had its share of shakeups.
Hankins, a leading scorer, is in the northern African country of Tunisia on an
internship, and will be replaced at nationals by alternate Matt Fujisawa
'06.
Even the team's leading scorers, Hankins and Taylor, say that College Bowl
is a group effort. Team president Art Vilassakdanont '06 said he expects each
active member of the 20-player squad to be at practice sessions, where the
participation of all is vital to the process.
No excuse exempts team members from the stress of preparation, even an
off-term in Africa. Hankins, 5,000 miles away in Tunisia, is making the travel
arrangements for his teammates.
"I've been coordinating all of this over Blitz, and it's been quite an
undertaking," he said in an e-mail from Tunisia. "Both Hanover and Montgomery
are at least an hour from a major airport, so logistical planning has been the
toughest part."
Taylor said his only real fear is getting the team to Alabama intact. This
anxiety is not without justification. In the winter of 1994, en route to the
Pennsylvania nationals, Grant Bosse '94 hit a patch of ice on I-91 in Vermont,
his car skidding into a snow bank. No students were harmed in the accident, but
waiting for a tow truck cost them valuable time; they arrived late, and they
took three forfeit losses. As a result, they faced eventual champs the
University of Chicago, already sated with a number of tossup and bonus points,
during their first round of competition.
Avoiding such mishaps is central in the minds of this year's contenders, by
now brimming with more weighty matters, like the following: "Which
Austrian-born composer was legendary for his fear of the number 13? He died at
age 76 (7 + 6 = 13) on Friday, July 13, 1951, at 13 minutes to midnight."
The answer? Arnold Schoenberg.
By NOAH TSIKA '05
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