Junior Sylvia Crouch recently represented Normal West by participating in the Scholastic Bowl Nationals on April 12 in Rosemont, IL.
Crouch was originally invited to the national stage based on her individual performance at recent inter-city events. At the national stage, Crouch faced hundreds of participants.
“It was 300 of us, [and] it was all sorts of questions,” Crouch stated.
The competition followed a Jeopardy-style format, where players buzzed in to answer questions after hearing a sequence of hints promptly.
“It was six rounds of 10 people each, and the way they run it is it’s a set of a bunch of questions on a bunch of topics, it was 48 questions the first round and then 72 questions the next five, and it’s sort of like Jeopardy,” Crouch added.
“They read off the question, and then everyone has a chance to buzz in when they know the question because it’s a bunch of like sequential hints, so after you hear a hint that you think you know, depending on where you buzz, you can get different amounts of points, but effectively you’re just trying to get more points than everybody else in your room.”
The Scholastic Bowl Nationals featured a wide array of topics, which Crouch described as a “long list” with many subdivisions.
“The Big Three” academic categories in the competition included Literature, History, and Science. More specialized areas included Mythology, Religion, and Sports.
Crouch also noted that while many assume the competition is strictly academic, it also includes non-academic categories, like sports and art to make it more fun and interesting.
“People also assume with that kind of thing, like it’s super serious and academically competitive, but [it’s not], and on top of that, there’s also categories that aren’t entirely academically; there’s literature again, but there’s also like art, and there’s just straight up Math. Sports are not the best ones.” Crouch stated.
Crouch began preparing in February by using online resources from previous competition questions to help her study.
Crouch used a flashcard app on her phone to memorize hundreds of hints, associating authors with their books, composers with their works, and learning science-specific classifications, such as the organs of the body.
“I started focusing around February, and there’s a group resource which is just a bunch of questions from previous Scholastic World competitions, and so I would go on there and look at the most common answers, and I would study. I have a flash card app on my phone, and I have hundreds of flash cards that are just hints that I’ve memorized,” Crouch added.
“I associate them, so I can name a bunch of authors from the books they’ve written. I can name some composers from their works, and then in science, if you give me characteristics about, like organs of the body or certain classifications.”
Crouch placed 193rd overall, out of 300.
Broken down by category, she placed 26th in Science and Math (her specialty).
In Current Events and Literature, she placed around 110th.
In Social Sciences, she placed 140th, and in History, she placed 240th.
Although Crouch did not make it to finals, she still placed relatively high in her specialty area and greatly enjoyed her participation in the Scholastic Bowl Nationals.
Crouch believes she should have been more disciplined with her studying, mentioning that she often lacked motivation to make flashcards after school each day.
“I think I just need to be more disciplined with how I do it because I kind of had an issue where I would get home after school, and I just would not feel like doing anything, so I would just look over my flashcards instead of making new ones,” Crouch expressed.
Despite this, she encourages others to join, as it is more fun and inclusive than academically strict.
“It’s easier, it’s less competitive, and it’s more fun than you probably think it will be,” Crouch stated.
