Darwinian Rules for Scholars’ Bowl Survival

1.  Play to your strengths.  If you are serious, you will drill in your subject area(s).  Don’t waste time with language arts if your strength is math.  If your right arm is withered, you can spend time and effort exercising it until you make it twitch, but all that effort would be better spent on your left arm.

2.  Read a book.  While Scholars’ Bowl questions are typically repetitive and skim the surface, you will be rewarded if you delve deeper into something that interests you, particularly in areas neglected in school, such as world history, mythology, art history, and music history.  If your strength is Social Studies, and you read an interesting book on US Presidents, you will be able to answer at least two more questions at every meet than you could before.  Guaranteed.

3.  Pay attention in school.  Yes, this subject matter will crop up again.

4.  While playing a round, concentrate on the now.  If you are concentrating on the question you just screwed up, or on whether or not you will break into quarterfinals, you aren’t concentrating on the current question.

5.  Lose five points.  That means you are playing hard.  If you never get a question wrong, never buzz in early, never miss, you aren’t playing.  The team will not win over the long term if its members can’t make a mistake.

6.  Caution kills.  If nobody knows the answer, the team has talked about it, and you have an inkling, you have absolutely nothing to lose by buzzing in and taking a stab.  If the captain is worth his salt, he will buzz in if you won’t.

7.  Come to practice.  It helps.  Really.  And it’s fun.

8.  It’s not about you.  Ego just gets in your way.  If you are so busy beating yourself up because you think you made a mistake or congratulating yourself because you are the smartest person in the universe, you aren’t thinking about the questions. 

9.  Well, maybe it is about you.  Treat yourself right.  Sleep the night before a meet.  Eat properly.  Exercise.  At all costs, stay away from Little Debbie Strawberry Shortcakes and Starbucks coffee.

10.  Ultimately, it IS about the food (and, incidentally, the cool people on the team.) Whether you are drowning your sorrows or celebrating your victory, having fun is a top priority.  If it’s not fun, it’s not worth it.