Congratulations to our incredible Quiz Bowl A-Team for ranking #1 in the United States! Co-captain senior Amogh Kulkarni, co-captain senior Ryan Sun, senior Michael Kwok, senior Brian Lam, and senior Sanjith Menon, coached by Mr. Christopher Schultz, have dominated two tournaments, without losing their winning streak once. Earning the #1 spot on Jan. 25, here is a behind the scenes to how the team got to where they are and how they feel about their amazing accomplishment. 

Arcadia High School’s (AHS) Quiz Bowl has improved tremendously, shooting from fifth in last year’s NAQT High School National Championship Tournament to being ranked first on GrogerRanks Midseason Poll 2021-22. 

First of all, what is Quiz Bowl? Quiz Bowl is a competition of knowledge, accuracy, and speed. Two teams compete one-on-one, answering a multitude of questions, from history, literature, and science to fine arts, current events, popular culture, and sports. A noticeable aspect of Quiz Bowl is the buzzer feature, which allows competitors to answer questions as fast as possible, adding to the intensity and rapid recall needed to do well.

AHS Quiz Bowl meets after school once a week in C101 with Coach Schultz. For one hour and 45 minutes, they train their knowledge in a variety of categories, focusing on history, science, fine arts, and literature. They also practice smaller topics too, including sports, current events, mythology, math, religion, and psychology. Teams of four are assigned by the captains, and they are usually divided by skill. The victorious A-Team consists of some of the best players of Quiz Bowl in the school. Typically, there is a JV team and a Varsity team in practices and in competition, with newer members participating in JV to gain more experience. 

In a typical practice, Quiz Bowl goes three around three 20-25 question packets. They practice in a game-like environment with buzzers and friendly competition.

“I think the most prominent challenge that everyone goes through is the hesitation to answer a question at the risk of losing 5 points, even if they know answering the question right will give 15 or 10 points (depending on how early on in the question they answer). Overcoming that takes a lot of competition experience, having confidence in your knowledge, and being willing to take risks,” stated senior Brian Lam.

For the points system, if a question is answered wrong and it hasn’t been fully read, five points are deducted. If it has been read, zero points are taken away. If the answer is right and the question hasn’t been fully read, the team is rewarded 15 points. If it hasn’t been fully read, the team gets 10 points. When an answer is wrong, that team may no longer use their buzzer, and if they get it right, three additional questions, worth 10 points, are provided. These bonus points permit the team to converse with each other, while normal questions are answered individually. 

To make a difference on the team, you really only need to specialize in one or two categories. Quiz Bowl isn’t about knowing everything; it is about your love for knowledge and playing in an exciting environment. 

Lam, a dedicated member of the A-Team, said “My motivations to keep studying are to reach the level of my peers (especially the captains) but also just to learn new and interesting things that give me a better idea of the world.” 

Photo courtesy of Arcadia Quiz Bowl