**This is a post I wrote earlier on Facebook on July 2nd analyzing the National Science & Maths Quiz organised for Ghanaian Senior High Schools and held in Accra, Ghana in June. I have reproduced this piece in order to revive my blog which has been dormant for 5 years. Enjoy!!!!
It's that time of the year again, the National Science & Maths Quiz has drawn to a close, and I'm here with my usual End of Brilla insights to cover everything, the good, the bad, the funny and the ugly, from my point of view and observation point (in the middle of somewhere!). It's always a good time to watch the National Science and Maths Quiz, especially now with the increased participation of schools and the active branding exercise the organisers have done and continue to do in order to get more people and sponsors on board. I'm just here to give my observations on this year's competition, which has kept lots of people from far and wide glued to the various updates from Legon. So on that note, let me begin!
1. The era of the "big schools" is over: If you didn't know that already, or you just woke up from a deep cave, I just want to reiterate this point for you. Since the quiz returned in its current format, with regional qualifiers and all, most of the big schools have found the going tough and this year has been no different. From schools like St. Francis Xavier and Achimota School failing to qualify for the national competition, to schools like Opoku Ware School and my alma mater, St Augustine's College exiting the competition at the early stages to having Jachie Pramso SHS, Aduman SHS and Nifa SHS and other unheralded schools go as far as they did brought a whole lot of excitement. Now every school would have to sit up and prepare well for the Quiz.
2. There is no such thing as a "Comfortable Lead"! The whole format of the quiz has made it such that no school can ever say for certain that they are "cruising to victory". Yes, you may have wonderful and masterful performances such as St. Thomas Aquinas in the 1/8th stage and Prempeh College in the Quarterfinals, but most of the contests have had several swaps for the lead, tight outcomes and unpredictable outcomes (see Accra Aca vs Presec Legon vs St John's Grammar). As such, all schools must be prepared for anything and be at their utmost best because things change in a twinkle of an eye.
3. Speed Race and Bell Lockout System: Well, well, well.......where do we start? I must say that ever since it was introduced, I have been a skeptic of this part because I felt the questions were too easy then. This year has been a bit better with more challenging questions but they haven't really won me over yet. It is still surprising how the contestants answer some of the questions in the speed race, even for a former contestant such as me, because it looks ridiculous seeing certain questions that you would spend a lot of time on in a WASSCE paper being answered even before Dr Kaufmann finishes reading out the question. This makes it hard for people to follow, especially for those who wanted to try questions themselves at home. I really liked the Speed Races of the third semi-final as well as the final, because it looked more like a proper contest and tested speed and accuracy in calculations a bit more than we had seen previously.
This brings me to a nice point, the bell lockout system. Having this type of round needs that bell lockout system to determine who rang first and ensure that speed element. But for me, it was just annoying hearing Auntie Elsie ask over and over again whether some schools rung the bell, with complaints over the system having problems and activating some bells when another bell was pressed. In order to solve these problems, I am going to suggest something I picked up from the Zain Africa Challenge. With that quiz, even though it was a speed race, contestants had to wait for the quizmaster to finish reading the question and a light in front of his desk to come on before they could ring their bells, because that was when the contestants' bells were activated. It wouldn't be so difficult to implement such a system for the NSMQ, since they already have the basic setup. This would also help with all the accuracy issues, remove some of the guesswork and make the contest flow more smoothly since Dr Kaufmann would be able to read out the full question before schools start to ring their bells.
4. Tiebreakers: As I said earlier in the "Comfortable Lead" section, most contests have had tight outcomes with some ending up in ties, thus requiring tiebreakers. Here comes my question though; what was wrong with using riddles for tiebreakers that organisers decided now to use a Speed Race Question to break ties in earlier stages of the competition? I honestly cannot see a tangible reason why, and I was flabbergasted when for one such tiebreaker, the question was "Evaluate 6!". I mean, not to sound belittling, but six factorial is something I can say off the top of my head, even 9 years after participating in the NSMQ. It was something I know most colleagues of mine such as James Azam, who represented St Francis Xavier Minor Seminary in 2008, used to write in their notepads as soon as they were seated on stage. Moreover, it's not as if you would always need a lot of riddles for a "tiebreaker question bank", because tiebreakers aren't needed that often. I doubt if there were more than five tiebreakers in the entire national competition. Therefore, I would humbly ask the consultants and organisers to look at it again, because I think the system was quite alright with the riddle tiebreaker system.
5. Questions Issues: Here, I am going to tread cautiously with my criticism because this affects the consultants, who I have the greatest respect for and I haven't achieved a tenth of what they have achieved. Nevertheless, I am still going to say what I have to say, and go hard where I have to. There were a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes with some of the questions asked during the contest, some of which I felt were sloppy with all due respect. But the consultants are not infallible, they all make mistakes. It's not easy having to prepare sets of questions for quiz competitions, so I will let the consultants off on this slightly. My question then is, has the audience now become sloppy themselves to the extent that no one, including teachers is working the questions out and are just there as cheerleaders, school cloth wavers and jama leaders? Don't get me wrong, all of those things makes the contests fun, but if you have such simple mistakes going unchecked because no one seems to be keeping tabs on questions, working it out in the audience and raising protests when mistakes are found, then the quiz loses a bit of the credibility it has gathered over the past two decades and we lose sight of the main aim for which all the cheerleading and jama singing comes in. Me sitting in a corner nine time zones away, for example, cannot raise a protest because there's no way to do so in real time. So I hope the organisers take the critique some of my friends have given in good faith, rather than focusing on the sideshow of people accusing them of cheating for one school or another. You would always have some people saying that, whether accurate or otherwise, but if you cut out the mistakes from your end, you give them no voice and enhance your credibility. Just think about that, Primetime!
6. Make the rules clear to everyone! I know most of the basic rules of the competition, as do most people who follow the NSMQ. But it felt a bit arbitrary, having Dr Kaufmann deduct points for certain infractions. Yes, she does have the power to do that, but I feel it would all be easier for everyone sitting at home to be abreast of all the rules if the rulebook (I heard the NSMQ has one, and schools were given copies) is made public for everyone to follow the rules. It should also cover all of these aspects so that people know what exactly to do, and not to do. You have a website that is quite ripe for some of these things, Primetime Limited. USE IT & MAXIMISE ITS POTENTIAL!
7. Mentorship Session: It was a brilliant idea of Primetime Ltd to have various people involved in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields come as mentors to give their various insights and inspire the upcoming generation to pursue areas in STEM and have an impact on their lives in their own way. I especially liked them having the legend Dr. Subulr Yakubu, a person so many of these students have heard about and seen clips of his performance 14 years ago come as a mentor and tell his story and give them some inspiration. Good one there!
8. Girls’ Schools getting close to the ultimate? I enjoyed the performances of the female contestants and schools on stage. They gave a good account of themselves and showed that they can rub shoulders with their male colleagues. I hope that an all-female school can win the NSMQ in the future, I can see that day coming, but the only thing that I would tell them is to develop their mental toughness and believe that they can still do it even when things are tough. I know it's not easy to be mentally tough, I have experienced that when I lost to Ketasco in 2008, it was hard keeping my head up even when things weren't going according to plan that day but I had to try and do that and fight to the end. It was quite sad to see some of these ladies drop their heads at the first sign of things not going their way. But I had hope when I watched Zuweira Baba Mohammed of Tamasco show that mental toughness even when things weren't going well to end up tying with University Practice SHS in their quarterfinal. Her fist pumping at the end of the tying riddle was just refreshing to see. At least her efforts did not go unnoticed culminating in her winning the prize for the best Female Contestant of NSMQ 2017. Special mention also goes to Nifa SHS’s Priscilla Appiah, who also gave a good account of herself and her school. Now, no one should get me wrong, I'm not saying that females don't have that mental strength. I'm saying that they have to find that extra determination and someday, that dream would be fulfilled.
9. Social Media: This is on the lighthearted side, I must say. If there's anything this year's contest made us notice, it's the fact that Social media can make you, but it can also bite you in the backside. Social media made things a whole lot of fun and gave us a nice coverage of all the contests, through the live streaming on Facebook and YouTube. It also gave us some very nice things to laugh about, from Owass and Ketasco's "From Food Donations to Losses" posts, Accra Academy's "Losing Dance", Mfantsipim/Mfanstipim dilemma, Augusco going to "Brilla Relegation", Pope John's sweating under the spotlight, Aquinas supporters removing their shirts in celebration after a tough contest, Ghana National College being 'spoilers' for Adisco's qualification, Presec and their substitutions, Zayn Malikh being the Zoomlion officer for Accra, Adisco going to ‘Samaria’, Prempeh boys being denied their ‘Soloku Special’ after winning the trophy (as Countryman Songo would put it).....the list is endless. Just to emphasize the main point, be careful what you say on social media for it would make you a legend, either one of amazing awesomeness, or one of amazing trolling! I had a suggestion from Snr Kwadwo Owusu Kanin for the social media pages of the NSMQ to give the head to head statistics of contesting schools so as to increase the enthusiasm for the various contests which I think is worth considering, especially considering the fact that history in the competition is quite important, and it serves as a starting point for the bragging that supporters of various schools indulge in during such contests. If I may add, could there be a roll call of all the contestants who represented their schools in the entire history of the competition on the NSMQ website? It’s all well and good having some of them come and talk as mentors, but we don’t have to forget these distinguished people who once sat on the stage in their youth, representing their schools in the battle of knowledge.
10. Be time conscious, and cut the long speeches in the Final! We all know from time immemorial that no one would want the climax of an event ruined by long talk; everyone wants to see some action! It was a great idea for the finals to be done at the National Theatre, and guests were asked to be seated by 9am. But I was left banging my table in disgust, and I guess as did many other people, after there were lots of speeches which nearly threatened to take away the enthusiasm, and the main reason why everyone sat behind a TV set or radio, bought a data bundle for their internet service, or trooped to the venue ended up starting after midday. Yes, we know there are lots of people who sponsor the program and are important, but limit the amount of time they get to speak and get things moving quickly so we can watch some proper battle of brains, rather than wasting time on a smorgasbord of speeches.
11. Security must be improved for future competitions. The final ended on a bit of a sour note when it emerged that Dr Kaufmann had her handbag containing her valuables stolen in the aftermath of the trophy presentation and celebrations. It’s so annoying to see that as people are congregating to celebrate knowledge and “Blains at work” (brains at work, for those who are uncomfortable with or unaware of my reference), some are just there to commit petty crimes at the slightest opportunity. I do hope that the culprit is caught, and the appropriate punishment meted out. But with Auntie Elsie’s misfortune, lessons must be learnt for future events in terms of keeping security tight so everyone attending such events feel safe and comfortable and not worry about being robbed or falling in a spot of bother.
So here you have it, my insights for the 2017 NSMQ. I would like to congratulate Prempeh College on winning their fourth NSMQ trophy. Enjoy your win, Wonder, Daniel and all Amanfoɔ, for nothing is sweeter than achieving success the hard way. Also, I would like to commend St. Thomas Aquinas SHS for a good performance in the final and coming second. God wasn’t an Old Tom in the final, but Bright and Christopher did exhibit their God-given talents so take some solace from that. Adisadel College, well done on placing third. Reaching three consecutive finals is very hard, as only St. Peter’s has managed that feat. But you guys did your best, and Santaclausians should be proud of their efforts. Special mention goes to all the contestants who gave us brilliant and exciting contests, and the evergreen Dr Elsie Effah Kaufmann for her handling of the quiz with her sharp wit and broad scope of knowledge! Till next year, onwards and upwards!
It's that time of the year again, the National Science & Maths Quiz has drawn to a close, and I'm here with my usual End of Brilla insights to cover everything, the good, the bad, the funny and the ugly, from my point of view and observation point (in the middle of somewhere!). It's always a good time to watch the National Science and Maths Quiz, especially now with the increased participation of schools and the active branding exercise the organisers have done and continue to do in order to get more people and sponsors on board. I'm just here to give my observations on this year's competition, which has kept lots of people from far and wide glued to the various updates from Legon. So on that note, let me begin!
1. The era of the "big schools" is over: If you didn't know that already, or you just woke up from a deep cave, I just want to reiterate this point for you. Since the quiz returned in its current format, with regional qualifiers and all, most of the big schools have found the going tough and this year has been no different. From schools like St. Francis Xavier and Achimota School failing to qualify for the national competition, to schools like Opoku Ware School and my alma mater, St Augustine's College exiting the competition at the early stages to having Jachie Pramso SHS, Aduman SHS and Nifa SHS and other unheralded schools go as far as they did brought a whole lot of excitement. Now every school would have to sit up and prepare well for the Quiz.
2. There is no such thing as a "Comfortable Lead"! The whole format of the quiz has made it such that no school can ever say for certain that they are "cruising to victory". Yes, you may have wonderful and masterful performances such as St. Thomas Aquinas in the 1/8th stage and Prempeh College in the Quarterfinals, but most of the contests have had several swaps for the lead, tight outcomes and unpredictable outcomes (see Accra Aca vs Presec Legon vs St John's Grammar). As such, all schools must be prepared for anything and be at their utmost best because things change in a twinkle of an eye.
3. Speed Race and Bell Lockout System: Well, well, well.......where do we start? I must say that ever since it was introduced, I have been a skeptic of this part because I felt the questions were too easy then. This year has been a bit better with more challenging questions but they haven't really won me over yet. It is still surprising how the contestants answer some of the questions in the speed race, even for a former contestant such as me, because it looks ridiculous seeing certain questions that you would spend a lot of time on in a WASSCE paper being answered even before Dr Kaufmann finishes reading out the question. This makes it hard for people to follow, especially for those who wanted to try questions themselves at home. I really liked the Speed Races of the third semi-final as well as the final, because it looked more like a proper contest and tested speed and accuracy in calculations a bit more than we had seen previously.
This brings me to a nice point, the bell lockout system. Having this type of round needs that bell lockout system to determine who rang first and ensure that speed element. But for me, it was just annoying hearing Auntie Elsie ask over and over again whether some schools rung the bell, with complaints over the system having problems and activating some bells when another bell was pressed. In order to solve these problems, I am going to suggest something I picked up from the Zain Africa Challenge. With that quiz, even though it was a speed race, contestants had to wait for the quizmaster to finish reading the question and a light in front of his desk to come on before they could ring their bells, because that was when the contestants' bells were activated. It wouldn't be so difficult to implement such a system for the NSMQ, since they already have the basic setup. This would also help with all the accuracy issues, remove some of the guesswork and make the contest flow more smoothly since Dr Kaufmann would be able to read out the full question before schools start to ring their bells.
4. Tiebreakers: As I said earlier in the "Comfortable Lead" section, most contests have had tight outcomes with some ending up in ties, thus requiring tiebreakers. Here comes my question though; what was wrong with using riddles for tiebreakers that organisers decided now to use a Speed Race Question to break ties in earlier stages of the competition? I honestly cannot see a tangible reason why, and I was flabbergasted when for one such tiebreaker, the question was "Evaluate 6!". I mean, not to sound belittling, but six factorial is something I can say off the top of my head, even 9 years after participating in the NSMQ. It was something I know most colleagues of mine such as James Azam, who represented St Francis Xavier Minor Seminary in 2008, used to write in their notepads as soon as they were seated on stage. Moreover, it's not as if you would always need a lot of riddles for a "tiebreaker question bank", because tiebreakers aren't needed that often. I doubt if there were more than five tiebreakers in the entire national competition. Therefore, I would humbly ask the consultants and organisers to look at it again, because I think the system was quite alright with the riddle tiebreaker system.
5. Questions Issues: Here, I am going to tread cautiously with my criticism because this affects the consultants, who I have the greatest respect for and I haven't achieved a tenth of what they have achieved. Nevertheless, I am still going to say what I have to say, and go hard where I have to. There were a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes with some of the questions asked during the contest, some of which I felt were sloppy with all due respect. But the consultants are not infallible, they all make mistakes. It's not easy having to prepare sets of questions for quiz competitions, so I will let the consultants off on this slightly. My question then is, has the audience now become sloppy themselves to the extent that no one, including teachers is working the questions out and are just there as cheerleaders, school cloth wavers and jama leaders? Don't get me wrong, all of those things makes the contests fun, but if you have such simple mistakes going unchecked because no one seems to be keeping tabs on questions, working it out in the audience and raising protests when mistakes are found, then the quiz loses a bit of the credibility it has gathered over the past two decades and we lose sight of the main aim for which all the cheerleading and jama singing comes in. Me sitting in a corner nine time zones away, for example, cannot raise a protest because there's no way to do so in real time. So I hope the organisers take the critique some of my friends have given in good faith, rather than focusing on the sideshow of people accusing them of cheating for one school or another. You would always have some people saying that, whether accurate or otherwise, but if you cut out the mistakes from your end, you give them no voice and enhance your credibility. Just think about that, Primetime!
6. Make the rules clear to everyone! I know most of the basic rules of the competition, as do most people who follow the NSMQ. But it felt a bit arbitrary, having Dr Kaufmann deduct points for certain infractions. Yes, she does have the power to do that, but I feel it would all be easier for everyone sitting at home to be abreast of all the rules if the rulebook (I heard the NSMQ has one, and schools were given copies) is made public for everyone to follow the rules. It should also cover all of these aspects so that people know what exactly to do, and not to do. You have a website that is quite ripe for some of these things, Primetime Limited. USE IT & MAXIMISE ITS POTENTIAL!
7. Mentorship Session: It was a brilliant idea of Primetime Ltd to have various people involved in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields come as mentors to give their various insights and inspire the upcoming generation to pursue areas in STEM and have an impact on their lives in their own way. I especially liked them having the legend Dr. Subulr Yakubu, a person so many of these students have heard about and seen clips of his performance 14 years ago come as a mentor and tell his story and give them some inspiration. Good one there!
8. Girls’ Schools getting close to the ultimate? I enjoyed the performances of the female contestants and schools on stage. They gave a good account of themselves and showed that they can rub shoulders with their male colleagues. I hope that an all-female school can win the NSMQ in the future, I can see that day coming, but the only thing that I would tell them is to develop their mental toughness and believe that they can still do it even when things are tough. I know it's not easy to be mentally tough, I have experienced that when I lost to Ketasco in 2008, it was hard keeping my head up even when things weren't going according to plan that day but I had to try and do that and fight to the end. It was quite sad to see some of these ladies drop their heads at the first sign of things not going their way. But I had hope when I watched Zuweira Baba Mohammed of Tamasco show that mental toughness even when things weren't going well to end up tying with University Practice SHS in their quarterfinal. Her fist pumping at the end of the tying riddle was just refreshing to see. At least her efforts did not go unnoticed culminating in her winning the prize for the best Female Contestant of NSMQ 2017. Special mention also goes to Nifa SHS’s Priscilla Appiah, who also gave a good account of herself and her school. Now, no one should get me wrong, I'm not saying that females don't have that mental strength. I'm saying that they have to find that extra determination and someday, that dream would be fulfilled.
9. Social Media: This is on the lighthearted side, I must say. If there's anything this year's contest made us notice, it's the fact that Social media can make you, but it can also bite you in the backside. Social media made things a whole lot of fun and gave us a nice coverage of all the contests, through the live streaming on Facebook and YouTube. It also gave us some very nice things to laugh about, from Owass and Ketasco's "From Food Donations to Losses" posts, Accra Academy's "Losing Dance", Mfantsipim/Mfanstipim dilemma, Augusco going to "Brilla Relegation", Pope John's sweating under the spotlight, Aquinas supporters removing their shirts in celebration after a tough contest, Ghana National College being 'spoilers' for Adisco's qualification, Presec and their substitutions, Zayn Malikh being the Zoomlion officer for Accra, Adisco going to ‘Samaria’, Prempeh boys being denied their ‘Soloku Special’ after winning the trophy (as Countryman Songo would put it).....the list is endless. Just to emphasize the main point, be careful what you say on social media for it would make you a legend, either one of amazing awesomeness, or one of amazing trolling! I had a suggestion from Snr Kwadwo Owusu Kanin for the social media pages of the NSMQ to give the head to head statistics of contesting schools so as to increase the enthusiasm for the various contests which I think is worth considering, especially considering the fact that history in the competition is quite important, and it serves as a starting point for the bragging that supporters of various schools indulge in during such contests. If I may add, could there be a roll call of all the contestants who represented their schools in the entire history of the competition on the NSMQ website? It’s all well and good having some of them come and talk as mentors, but we don’t have to forget these distinguished people who once sat on the stage in their youth, representing their schools in the battle of knowledge.
10. Be time conscious, and cut the long speeches in the Final! We all know from time immemorial that no one would want the climax of an event ruined by long talk; everyone wants to see some action! It was a great idea for the finals to be done at the National Theatre, and guests were asked to be seated by 9am. But I was left banging my table in disgust, and I guess as did many other people, after there were lots of speeches which nearly threatened to take away the enthusiasm, and the main reason why everyone sat behind a TV set or radio, bought a data bundle for their internet service, or trooped to the venue ended up starting after midday. Yes, we know there are lots of people who sponsor the program and are important, but limit the amount of time they get to speak and get things moving quickly so we can watch some proper battle of brains, rather than wasting time on a smorgasbord of speeches.
11. Security must be improved for future competitions. The final ended on a bit of a sour note when it emerged that Dr Kaufmann had her handbag containing her valuables stolen in the aftermath of the trophy presentation and celebrations. It’s so annoying to see that as people are congregating to celebrate knowledge and “Blains at work” (brains at work, for those who are uncomfortable with or unaware of my reference), some are just there to commit petty crimes at the slightest opportunity. I do hope that the culprit is caught, and the appropriate punishment meted out. But with Auntie Elsie’s misfortune, lessons must be learnt for future events in terms of keeping security tight so everyone attending such events feel safe and comfortable and not worry about being robbed or falling in a spot of bother.
So here you have it, my insights for the 2017 NSMQ. I would like to congratulate Prempeh College on winning their fourth NSMQ trophy. Enjoy your win, Wonder, Daniel and all Amanfoɔ, for nothing is sweeter than achieving success the hard way. Also, I would like to commend St. Thomas Aquinas SHS for a good performance in the final and coming second. God wasn’t an Old Tom in the final, but Bright and Christopher did exhibit their God-given talents so take some solace from that. Adisadel College, well done on placing third. Reaching three consecutive finals is very hard, as only St. Peter’s has managed that feat. But you guys did your best, and Santaclausians should be proud of their efforts. Special mention goes to all the contestants who gave us brilliant and exciting contests, and the evergreen Dr Elsie Effah Kaufmann for her handling of the quiz with her sharp wit and broad scope of knowledge! Till next year, onwards and upwards!
