Reading poetry and English literature anthologies as well as a book about classical military history is not what most college students would choose to do over the weekend.
But that’s exactly what Jordan Brownstein did in order to get “some last-minute cramming” to prepare for the Academic Competition Federation Nationals, a Quizbowl competition, on April 22 and 23 at Columbia University, he said.
Brownstein’s studying paid off when the Maryland Academic Quiz Team’s A-team won the national championship, a long-awaited victory for the team.
A Quizbowl game consists of 20 questions that cover a wide array of academic topics. Questions of history, literature and science come up the most, each with four questions in a round. Questions about art, music, religion, mythology, social science, geography and current events are also asked.
The team has four members: Brownstein, a senior computer science major; Sam Rombro, a junior physics major; Weijia Cheng, a sophomore computer science and economics major; and Ophir Lifshitz, a senior computer science and linguistic major.
Last year the team placed in fourth. This year they took it all, outshining the other 37 teams in the tournament and beating their friendly rival University of Michigan in a final game, with a score of 250 to 175.
[Read more: UMD junior leads quiz bowl team to 4th place at national tournament]
A team buzzes in to answer and earns 10 points for each correct answer. Every time they get a question right, they have an opportunity for a three-part bonus question, which is worth up to 30 points if they answer each part correctly.
“I still can’t really believe it,” Brownstein said. “We’ve all put a ton of hours into this. We weren’t really sure we could pull it off, but we managed to win finally.”
Each member specializes in specific categories. Cheng, who focuses on religion, described himself as a “niche player” and aims to get two questions every game.
Cheng, who played Quizbowl all four years of high school, said he was excited that they won the championship.
“Having the chance to win this championship at a college level, it was a big surprise,” Cheng said. “I never expected I would ever do this in high school.”
Lifshitz specializes in music, as well as physics and astronomy, Brownstein said.
Rombro, who focuses on science, said that the win was a major accomplishment. The team had come close to winning the national competition before, but they never “overcame the hump” until last weekend, he said.
Brownstein covered nearly everything else: history, literature, philosophy, social science and more. Brownstein’s slice of distribution is approximately three-fourths of the questions asked, Cheng said. He scored about 90 points per game, the team said.
To practice, the team meets in Jiménez Hall twice a week for three hours, where they drill questions from previous games, read and study.
But there’s more to Quizbowl than just answering questions, Brownstein said. It’s also a great opportunity for people to learn about different types of academia.
“You want to engage with the history of human culture and achievement, be able to have coherent conversations with people with a lot of different backgrounds and learn about other people’s interests and discover new interests of your own,” Brownstein said. “I wouldn’t have known I was into 20th century analytic philosophy before I started studying for Quizbowl.”
Rombro said participating in Quizbowl has made him “a more engaged citizen of the world.”
“I like knowing a lot of things, being able to impress people with my knowledge,” he added.
Plus, it’s always nice to be right.
“I like being right,” Cheng said. “I like being told that I’m right.”
In addition to the ACF nationals, the Maryland Academic Quiz Team sends teams to or hosts on the campus regional tournaments about three times a semester, Brownstein said. These tournaments are generally attended by other teams from the mid-Atlantic region as well.
The team acknowledged they might experience a setback next year by losing a valuable player like Brownstein. However, Cheng said he hopes that they can put together as strong a team as possible to win the undergraduate championship, as well as place in the top 15 in the national tournament.
“Even though we won’t be in contention to win the tournament, we can still play against the other good teams, and hopefully we can take some games from them,” Cheng said.
