A case of cheating

The following comment was recently posted by an anonymous writer about the Incredible India Quizzes:

"This quiz sucks!!!4 teams from or school got selected and these selfish people didn't even take 1...this quiz sucks!!!seqc yu suck to the core!!!!"

I am keen that people who come to this blog are aware of what happened, so I'm posting this response on the blog itself, besides having responded to the comment.

From the comment, I assume the writer is from the Navy Children's School (NCS), whose teams had this fate befall them. Let's look at the facts:

1. No team from NCS qualified for the Schools quiz. The scores of the same students during the Schools quiz prelims, which was far easier than the Open edition, were in the range of 5 to 8 points, against the 11 or 12 points that they uniformly scored in the Opens prelims. On the other hand, other NCS teams, including students whose quizzing prowess we have witnessed at other events, did much better in the Schools prelims, including one which just failed to make the cut.

2. During the Schools quiz prelims, we had segregated the teams so that no two teams from the same school sat next to each other. This was almost certainly why the Schools prelims more accurately reflected the ability of these students. During the Open quiz prelims, it was not possible to ensure such separation, and neither did we think it would be necessary.

3. In comparing the answer sheets of the four teams from the school that 'made the cut' in the Open edition, as many as 5 to 8 incorrect answers were common to the different papers, in addition to those which were correct. I would say this is statistically almost impossible, unless the answers were shared among the teams.

4. On two separate occasions during the prelims, I warned the teachers who were with those teams -- and who were, amazingly, complicit in the cheating -- not to let the teams consult with each other. I even had to make the announcement from the podium when they continued to flout my warnings.

Given these facts, it was clear to me that these teams only qualified by cheating, which is shameful. In particular, I find the conduct of the teachers who accompanied the teams on the day appalling.

Neither I nor any other member of SEQC has anything against NCS as such, and we would not stand to gain anything from discriminating against the school. Neither am I suggesting through this post that all NCS students or teachers are cheats -- only the ones that were part of this 'scam'. At least two students of the school (whom I know personally and like) are regular members of our club, and have been a part of teams that have done well in several other schools quizzes that we have organised, including winning the Football Quiz that I conducted at the Vidya Vikas Academy in Margao in mid-July.

Annie Sen Gupta

Quizmaster, IIQ

SEQC September Quiz

Date: 5th September 2010
Time: 5 pm
QM: Rajiv D'Silva
Flavour: General
Venue: CCP Hall, 2nd Floor, CCP Building, Opp. Cafe Central, Panaji
Participation: Open

Dawoodbhai J Noorani Rolling Shield Quiz

Organized by: Loyola Ex-Students Association
Date: 29th August 2010
Time: 9.30 am
QM: Sachin Chatte
Flavour: General
Venue: Loyola High School Hall, Margao
Participation: Open to students of Class IX & X, in teams of two. For more details, download the official invite here.

Incredible Response for India Quizzes

Independence Day saw a massive gathering at the International Centre Goa (ICG), but it wasn't for any speeches or flag-hoisting. It was for the Incredible India Quizzes conducted on the day, organised by the Sunday Evening Quiz Club (SEQC) in partnership with ICG, and supported by the Department of Tourism, Goa. The turn-out for the Schools edition, held in the afternoon, was overwhelming, and the organisers were indeed overwhelmed for a while. But after the initial confusion, things sorted themselves out, and a great event ensured that everyone -- organisers, participants and hangers-on -- had a rip-roaring time.

The school teams answering the prelims papers.

Close to 150 students, in teams of two, took the written elimination test. From those, six teams made it onto the stage for the finals -- Shukr Usgaonkar and Aditya Prabhugaonkar from Sharada Mandir School in Miramar; Jatan Rodrigues and Joel Vaz from Don Bosco, Panjim; Raj Kunkolienkar and Anusha Pai from Mushtifund High School, Panjim; Shubham Tiwari and Akash Kulkarni from People's High School, Panjim; Jayant Karn and Ashray Adappa from Dhempe HSS, Miramar; and Shashwat Salgaonkar and Akshay Rege from Mushtifund High School, Panjim.

Teams on stage in the Schools edition contemplate a question, as Annie tries to appear in control of things.

A close-fought battle ensued, with each team notching up points initially. The quiz had been put together by Aniruddha Sen Gupta, who was conducting both editions. The Schools edition had six rounds on different subjects highlighting India's diversity and complexity, from History and Places through People and Life to Sport and the Arts. A special feature was the topically-named 'Tryst with Destiny', under which each team could choose one of the rounds as its Tryst with Destiny, and gain double points for every question it answered correctly during that round. The Mushtifund team of Shashwat and Akshay chose wisely, and shot ahead of the rest by garnering 60 points from three correct answers on questions related to Places in India.

Hits and misses, deliberations and decisions...

Despite the best efforts of the other teams, their lead remained unassailable till the end. Eventually, they finished on top, with Jayant and Ashray from Dhempe HSS pipping Shubham and Akash from People's High School to second place -- by recognising Aamir Khan dressed in drag in the film 'Baazi' on the last question of the quiz.

An audience member picks up a prize.

Immediately afterwards, the Open edition followed, with participation open to all. This version too saw a huge response, with more than 60 teams of two in the fray. The six that made it onto stage were the mixed team of Nitya and Sabulal P.C.; the all-woman team of Anjali Sen Gupta and Venita Coelho; Mahesh Prabhu and Leroy Veloso; Dhruv Usgaonkar and Aaron Lobo; Rajiv D'Silva and Harsh Bhatkuly; and Milind Joshi and Sudhir Rao.

The Open edition about to get under way.

The Open quiz had a more complex structure than the Schools edition. After two rounds of straight quizzing came a round where teams chose subjects off a grid. The 'buzz-and-grab' feature of this round, which allowed teams that knew the answer to steal it away from the others, lent excitement to this round. Then followed another couple of straight rounds, but with a twist -- the 12 questions were all linked through a theme, which the teams had to try and crack as they struggled to answer the questions themselves. Only two of the teams -- and a few members of the audience -- figured that the questions were related in sequence to 'Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha...' and that the theme was therefore places mentioned in the national anthem. The final round was a visual connect round on the buzzer.

A sizeable audience watches the Open quiz progress.

Experience with quizzing, particularly on buzzer questions, showed clearly during the contest, and this edition turned out to be rather one-sided. Rajiv and Harsh, Goa's foremost quizzing team which has won laurels at the national level, swamped the opposition, winning by a margin of 240 points to the second-placed Anjali and Venita's 60. Dhruv and Aaron took third place, 10 points behind.

The Open teams on stage.

At the end of the hectic but exciting evening, Nandini Sahai, Director of ICG, gave away the prizes -- trophies and cash prizes -- to the top three teams in each of the editions.

The top three teams from the Schools edition (above) and the Open quiz (below), display their pickings, as ICG Director Nandini Sahai, Programmes Manager Arjun Halarnkar and Quizmaster Annie Sen Gupta join in.

Incredible India Quizzes - Results

QM: Aniruddha Sen Gupta

School Edition:
1st: Shaswat Salgaonkar & Akshay Rege (Mushtifund) - 105
2nd: Ashray Adappa & Jayant Karn (Dhempe) - 55
3rd: Akash Kulkarni, Shubham Tiwari (People's) - 50
4th: Aditya Prabhugaonkar & Shukr Usgaonkar (Sharada Mandir) - 40
5th: Anusha Pai, Raj Kunkolienkar (Mushtifund) - 20
6th: Jatan Rodrigues, Joel Vaz (Don Bosco) - 10

Open Edition:
1st: Harshvardhan Bhatkuly & Rajiv D'Silva - 240
2nd: Anjali Sen Gupta & Venita Coelho - 60
3rd: Dhruv Usgaonkar & Aaron Lobo - 50
4th: Nitya & Sabulal P. C. - 30
5th: Milind Joshi & Sudhir Rao - 25
6th: Leroy Veloso & Mahesh Prabhu - 20

IIQ 2010 questions and answers

Questions and answers for the Open and Schools editions of the India International Quizzes held at the International Centre Goa on August 15, 2010.

Schools Edition

Open Edition

The prelims questions and answers can be downloaded from the Files section of the SEQC e-group.

Date: August 15, 2010
Time: Schools edition 3 pm (registration and check-in 2.30pm); Open edition 5pm
QM: Annie Sen Gupta
Flavour: India
Venue: International Centre Goa (ICG), Dona Paula
Participation: Schools edition: students up to Class XII; Open edition: open (what else?)
Teams: Schools edition: two members from the same school; Open edition: two members, Schools edition participants can also participate, with same or different partners
Registration: Send names and contacts of team members to seqcgoa@gmail.com, or letter to Arjun Halarnkar, Programme Director, International Centre Goa, Dona Paula. Spot registration may be allowed, depending on availability of prelims questions papers.
Prizes: Sponsored by Department of Tourism, Goa

Incredible India Quizzes on Independence Day

The Incredible India Quizzes (IIQ) will be organised on Independence Day, August 15, partnership with the International Centre Goa (ICG), Dona Paula. The quizzes will be held at the ICG, starting from 3pm. Here are the details:

* The IIQ 2010 will be conducted as two editions -- the first one for Schools, and the second an Open quiz.

* Entries are invited for teams of two for each of the quizzes. For the Schools edition, both team members must be from the same school.

* For the Open quiz, any two people can team up, irrespective of age, sex, nationality or whatever. Participants in the schools edition can also register for the Open edition, with the same or different partners.

* The last date for registration is Friday, August 13, 2010.

* Entry for both quizzes is free.

* The focus of both quizzes will be on all things Indian. The content will include audio, visual and video questions, buzzer rounds, the works.

* In each of the editions, there will be a written preliminary round for all registered teams, with the six top teams going up on stage for the final quiz.

* A tentative schedule for the day is as follows:
-- 3pm to 3.30pm: Schools edition prelims
-- 3.30pm to 5pm: Schools edition finals (six teams on stage)
-- 5pm to 5.30pm: Open edition prelims
-- 5.30pm to 7.30pm: Open edition finals (six teams on stage)
-- 7.30pm to 8pm: Prize distribution and wind-up

* Great prizes are being offered by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of Goa, for the top two teams in each of the editions. Certificates will be awarded to all participating students in the schools edition.

* The quiz will be conducted by Annie Sen Gupta,.

* To register, e-mail seqcgoa@gmail.com, with 'IIQ 2010 registration' in the Subject line, and the names plus contact numbers or e-mail IDs of both team members (with school name, if entry is for the schools edition) in the body of the message. Alternatively, you can send in your registration in the form of a letter listing the names of team members to Arjun Halarnkar, Programmes Manager, ICG, Dona Paula.

* For more details, call Aniruddha Sen Gupta on 2415449.

Gol! The Football Quiz -- questions and answers

Gol! The Football Quiz began with a written elimination called the Qualifiers. The files for these are uploaded in the Files section of the SEQC Google group. You can access them here:
http://groups.google.com/group/seqc-goa/files

Six teams then qualified for the League Stage:


At the end of the League stage, the two bottom teams were elminated, and the top four teams faced off in the semis, Team 1 vs Team 4 and Team 2 vs Team 3. The two semis PPTs are below:





The teams that won the semis then met each other in the finals



Each of the matches had buzzer rounds, which can also be accessed at the Google Groups URL:
http://groups.google.com/group/seqc-goa/files

A reviewer reviewed

A report on the August 2010 monthly by Annie Sen Gupta

A little bird -- actually, quite a big one -- told me a little story about the SEQC August 2010 monthly. I will retell it, with apologies to the bird and to his informant for playing a little fast and loose with the facts.

The mantle of responsibility for setting the quiz had been draped over the shoulders of our Little Master, Sachin Chatte, at the previous meet. So, this bird called up Sachin a few days before the current monthly was due, and enquired how things were shaping up. The answer was sufficiently non-commital and vague for the bird to assume the worst -- that Mr Chatte had not yet got going on it. Further probing on the subject revealed as much.

"So what's the problem?" the bird enquired.

"It's not very easy," was the response. "You guys are used to it."

"But you did fine the first time around," the bird reminded the recalcitrant QM, referring to Sachin's previous foray on the SEQC proscenium.

"Yeah, but that time I was motivated."

I was told this tale while we waited for Sachin to make an appearance, as a warning that perhaps our QM was going to be a no-show. Thankfully, however, Sachin pulled no such stunt, and reported for duty, perhaps a little late but with laptop full of questions. The bird and I breathed sighs of relief.

In case you didn't know this, Sachin's thing in life is to watch movies first-day first-show, and then make fun of them on television, radio and the odd newspaper (a very odd newspaper, in fact). Watch Prudent TV on Sunday night, and you'll know what I mean. His quiz, he announced early on in the evening, would naturally contain a fair bit of filmology, some music (oh yeah, he's also an RJ on an FM channel) and some cricket.

As Sajan complained after the show, the cricket component seemed to consist exclusively of questions about Bhausaheb Nimbalkar. One question that we realised Sachin had missed out on was what Nimbalkar's first name was. To illuminate, it was Jack -- his full name being Jack B. Nimbalkar. If you don't get the joke, you don't know your nursery rhymes.

All in all, it was a rollercoaster quiz -- some questions as inaccessible as the moon being succeeded by ones completely down to earth. But a lot of fun was had, and there was applause for many questions, even though there was no claque. Must have been a clique. Turnout was a little low, perhaps due to the rain, but there were participants from Margao, Vasco and perhaps further afield.

The end game was cliff-hanging, with Rajiv's answer on 'Smoke on the Water' (from a description of the circumstances by Deep Purple during an interview with Sachin himself) ensuring a tie for the first place -- the first time that this has happened at an SEQC monthly.

August Quiz Results

QM: Sachin Chatte

1st: [Ananya Mukherjee, Aniruddha Sen Gupta, Jatan Rodrigues, Paola Mambro,Rajesh Panicker, Raunaq Rao] & [Conrad Fernandes, Julian Fernandes, Kiril Vaz, Neha Khadpe, Raj Kunkolienkar, Rajiv D'Silva, Vinita Panicker] - 110
3rd: [Adish Talwadker, Ameya Mardolkar, Anant Lawande, Anil Rodrigues, Leroy Veloso, Shaila D'Souza] & [Akshay Rege, Anjali Sen Gupta, Anurag Panicker, Pranab Mukherjee, Sajan Venniyoor] - 80
5th: Anagha Panicker, Harshvardhan Bhatkuly, Lucarno Alvares, Omkar Borkar, P. D. Mukherjee - 50
6th: Abhijeet Virgincar, Ashwin Mysore, Mahesh Prabhu, Sunil Sardessai, Suyash Kamat, Tallulah D'Silva, Taran Mukherjee - 45

The next monthly quiz will be held on the 5th of September. Some uncertainty prevails over who the quizmaster will be, but fear not, it will all pan out in the end.
(Update: The uncertainty has now been resolved. Rajiv D'Silva will QM the September Quiz)