The second instalment of Mahaquizzer, the Karnataka Quiz Association’s All-India Written Quiz is just two days away. I was in Bangalore the last year when it happened, and was made the coordinator of the Hyderabad segment of the quiz. The day of that quiz was one of the worst Sundays ever. there was some political rally going on, so all roads to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, in King Koti were blocked by policemen. I could reach the venue myself only because I knew some of the gullies that led from Liberty circle. The turnout was pretty decent. But I cannot but help wondering if more people would have arrived had it not been for those road-blocks.
This year, the Hyderabad venue is St Francis College, just a stone’s throw away from my regular haunts. I used to stay very close to this esteemed ladies’ college two years ago, and the K-Circle would hold their monthly league quizzes in the classrooms of St Francis. One fine Sunday, it was found out that there was, of all things, a recruitment thingie going on, because of which we people weren’t allowed to enter the college. Instead of scuppering a well-made quiz, we ended up doing it in my flat. Yeah, it was a fairly big house, with a huge hall, and all of the participating members could squeeze in somehow and lounge on the somewhat-dusty floor answering questions. I remember the flat watchman getting rather nervous as a number of nattily dressed young (and middle-aged) people strolled into my house, with much enthusiasm – later he told me he thought I was about to be beaten up or something.
Well, I digress. Like I was saying, St Francis is hosting Mahaquizzer this year, and I hope participation is good. I won’t be here, though – I am supposed to be coordinating the Delhi chapter of the quiz, but bsing, I wish you all the best. I hope you buy a cellphone by the time you’re here, you lazy dog, because I’ve been taking calls from Delhi AND Hyderabad, pah.
And as for you quizzers/quiz-dabblers reading this, in case you’re wondering if it’s a good idea to wake up early on a Sunday morning and waste your beauty-sleep for some shady written test-thingie, here are a couple of words of advice. Because I am a coordinator, I’ve had a Sneak Preview of the question paper ( If you’re about to ask me a question, the answer is “No, I shan’t. You will see them on Sunday morning.”), and tried it out under stringent Mahaquizzer conditions. Well, I had more fun last year, when Arul had gotten all the coordinators together to Koshy’s and read out the questions one by one, and we had made a combined score that would have beaten the Mahaquizzer Maximum by quite a few points, heh. I attempted this last night, having taken a copy of the questions home from the office. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a print-out of the key, so had to come verify the answers and scores at the office. I scored quite average, let me assure you, about 44 or 45. I would give myself 45, as I didn’t write the name of a TV series when I was supposed to, inspite of going “A-HA! This is what it should be!”. The line that came to mind immediately after this was “Oh, bummer, but it can’t be this, can it?”, and yeah, I didn’t write it down. But still….)
It’s a brilliant quiz. I am not saying this because I know all of the people who set it and because two of them are on LJ ( take a bow, al_lude and kvk. The other two quizmasters are Dibyendu Das and Ochintya Sharma), but because, seriously, this quiz totally, totally made me sit and pull out my hair when I read the answers. NOT a bad thing. Every question I didn’t get made me feel like I should have gotten the answer, IF ONLY I had thought for ten seconds instead of dismissing it as something too obscure or obfuscated. This in itself makes it a perfect quiz in my opinion. A crib I had with last year’s instalment of Mahaquizzer was that some answers left me completely clueless even after knowing them, and that crib no longer applies this year. The weight given to various topics, at first glance, appears really balanced – I need to take a careful look at it later if I have the time, though, so don’t quote me on that. Some of the topical questions seem clustered on one page ( especially the Hindi movie questions on page 6, pah! )
Right. So if I have managed to pique your interest, here’s one more tip for you. When you have the paper with you, make sure READ the questions carefully. Don’t just hop, skip and jump around, go through them in order. Each of these questions have been framed really well, with just the correct amount of information that could trigger an answer from the depths of your tormented quiz-memories. Oh, tormented you will be, for sure. 150 questions in an hour and a half is no joke!
Will the questions be posted online too?
Second that, I think posted them the last time around, a repeat would be much appreciated..
Yup: http://asimha.tripod.com/Mahaquizzer_QPaper.pdf
The key’s also on the same site: http://asimha.tripod.com/Mahaquizzer_Key.pdf
Yes, questions + answers will be posted Monday or so (just like we did last year).
I’m looking forward to this. Didn’t attempt it last year, but I saw the questions. I thought most of them were beautifully constructed. Anywa, my personal target is a modest 34. I’ve been quizzing in Pune recently, and having the most atrocious run of getting fundas but not answering. I’ll be carrying my flamethrower with me to Sophia College (Mumbai Mahaquizzer) because I expect more teeth-grinding, hair-pulling frustration.
All the best! I’m sure you’ll need the flame-thrower this year :-)
I thought it was an extremely mixed bag. Some questions were outright brilliant, a few were extremely random, and some not so well-framed. But overall, excellent and pitched to a much-needed general audience rather than the FOQers [F*rty old quizzers- such as me]. A friend of mine, who’s not a regular quizzer by any means, got most of the etymology questions- or missed them narrowly. In that sense, MQ 2006 was better than MQ 2005. But I think the quality of questions was more even last year.
The KQA needs to do something about standardising the scoring across locations. I hear that Marcel Duchamp and Ur*nal and witwatersrand was awarded points in B’lore, while it wasn’t in Mumbai.
If that is the case, then the KQA relly needs to sort this issue out by next year.
*were* awarded points.
Aargh, the curse mislaid plural strikes.
And the lost prepositions.
Mahaquizzer does that to people, I can understand.
Some questions were outright brilliant, a few were extremely random, and some not so well-framed.
Examples for all, please (especially the 2nd & 3rd)… We love feedback. I bet you knew that :-)
… standardising the scoring across locations.
We will be doing the validation of all scores; so that shouldn’t be a problem.
I’m supposed to support my unsubstantiated accusations with evidence? [shakes head] what is the world coming to?
I think there were a few questions in which there could have been multiple answers, and no way to eliminate the options. eg, qns. 145, 54. On 145, I’m willing the bet most people guessed the American bugger. 19 was the center of the Great Herring-Salmon Divide, at least in Mumbai. I just happened to remember the Swedes *love* rotten herring, but for those quizzers lucky enough not to encounter a Swede (or know about piscine breeding cycles), things may have got a little random. OTOH, 74 was a great example of how framing could narrow down the options. Up to the bit about 70000 companies, there were 3-4 options, and the additional fact helped eliminate those. This makes it a well-framed question.
Imo, 42, 43, 44, 63, 73 were just “know it or don’t” questions. Now, if the answer to 43 had been Puffer, and there was some link to reticulatus…This may be a reflection of my ignorance, but I don’t see how anyone could have *worked* out these answers from the data in the questions. Perhaps Bernard Shaw did hideous and notorious things with mulberries, blowtorches and his leading ladies. If so, this should have been mentioned in the question.
52…hmmm. Yes, yes, quite. *snorts* Yoicks!
But these are relatively minor quibbles in what was an extremely enjoyable quiz, and one that you evil buggers had immense amounts of sadistic fun in setting, I’m sure.
We had actually agreed on what would be given points and what would not. Will check the Bangalore papers; if points were awarded for Urinal and Witwatersrand, they will evaporate.
I would like to see a urinal evaporate. Duchamp’s or otherwise.
>Witwatersrand will evaporate
I think it’s a little harsh to wipe out an entire mountain range in the interests of fairer quizzing.
Harsh, smarsh. Sit down and munch your popcorn, spoilsport!
But what if I want to get to the urinal before it evaporates? Can I go then?
You can do what millions of other Indians do – pee on the footpath.
Pee on the footpath?
That would make me a pede-ophile, you disgusting fellow. Don’t project your lust for japanese children on to others.
“In India, it is better to be an -ophile than a -strian”
-old Jungle saying.
jobless feckers