Knowledge Master Open - Revision history

Rajiv Pujara at 14:21, 8 March 2023

2023-03-08T14:21:31Z

Kevin Wang at 17:12, 6 January 2022

2022-01-06T17:12:46Z

Matt Weiner at 20:29, 23 January 2014

2014-01-23T20:29:58Z

Matt Weiner at 20:03, 23 January 2014

2014-01-23T20:03:15Z

Matt Weiner at 19:53, 23 January 2014

2014-01-23T19:53:04Z

Jeffrey Hill: Created page with 'Knowledge Master Open is a computer quiz contest held twice a year, run by Academic Hallmarks. The contest has five divisions using three sets of questions: high school,…'

2011-07-16T03:30:39Z

Created page with 'Knowledge Master Open is a computer quiz contest held twice a year, run by Academic Hallmarks. The contest has five divisions using three sets of questions: high school,…'

New page

[[Knowledge Master Open]] is a computer quiz contest held twice a year, run by [[Academic Hallmarks]]. The contest has five divisions using three sets of questions: high school, middle and junior high school, and 5th and 6th grade.

==Format==
The tournament's "official" date is on a Wednesday, but teams may compete earlier, as long as scores are reported by the end of the official contest day. Teams may consist of any number of students.

The contest consists of 200 multiple-choice questions (100 questions for the 5th/6th grade division) in a variety of categories. Questions has five answer choices and teams are given two chances to answer each question. Five points are awarded for a correct answer on the first attempt with bonus points based on how quickly the team answered.

{| border="1" cellspacing="0"
!Time
!Bonus Pts.
|-
|0-7 seconds
|5
|-
|8-12 seconds
|4
|-
|13-17 seconds
|3
|-
|18-22 seconds
|2
|-
|23-29 seconds
|1
|-
|30-60 seconds
|0
|}

Two points are awarded for a correct answer on the second attempt, with no bonus points possible. No points are deducted if both answers are incorrect.

Teams are given up to three five-minute timeouts. Teams are only allowed to use pencil and paper; assistance from outside resources, including adults and spectators, is prohibited.

During the contest, awful puns are occasionally displayed between questions, each playing on the word "auk", referring to the "Great Auk" which is the mascot of the competition.

At the end of the contest, statistics are displayed indicating how well the team did in each category. Results are reported via telephone by reporting the number of correct answers, number of points, number of second chance answers, and a "score code" generated based on the aforementioned values that is used to authenticate the total number of points reported.

Scores are usually posted to the contest's website the Friday following the official tournament date.

==Links==
[http://www.greatauk.com/ Knowledge Master website]

[[Category:High school tournaments]][[Category:Middle school tournaments]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Knowledge Master Open]] was a [[computer quiz contest]] held twice a year, run by [[Academic Hallmarks]].
+[[Knowledge Master Open]] is a [[computer quiz contest]] held twice a year, run by [[Academic Hallmarks]].
 The event began in 1983 with a high school division, and later added four more divisions which AH labeled "5th Grade," "6th Grade," "Middle School," and "Junior High." Presumably, the fact that two or even all four of those grade levels could be part of the same school/team depending on the structure of one's local school district was addressed in the eligibility rules.
-Academic Hallmarks announced that the spring 2013 KMO was the last one that will be offered.
+Academic Hallmarks announced that the spring 2013 KMO was the last one that will be offered. In 2022, the competition was revived by Academic Hallmarks.
 ==Format==

@@ Line 50: / Line 50: @@
 ==Relationship to quizbowl==
-As a multiple choice, computer-based quiz with no head-to-head component, the KMO was not an attempt to be any kind of quizbowl event. However, due to the crossover of knowledge and trivia needed to succeed at KMO with the canon of [[bad quizbowl]], many of the more successful participants were quizbowl teams, or at least squads that had success in local TV formats. Some teams that were initially formed to compete in KMO evolved into very successful [[good quizbowl]] programs; most notably, the [[State College]] dynasty still labels itself the "State College Knowledge Masters" club.
+As a multiple choice, computer-based quiz with no head-to-head component, the KMO was not an attempt to be any kind of quizbowl event. However, due to the crossover of knowledge and trivia needed to succeed at KMO with the canon of [[bad quizbowl]], many of the more successful participants were quizbowl teams, or at least squads that had success in local TV formats. Some teams that were initially formed to compete in KMO evolved into very successful "[[good quizbowl]]" programs; most notably, the [[State College]] dynasty still labels itself the "State College Knowledge Masters" club.
 The questions disproportionately emphasized the pet topics of the Academic Hallmarks writers (grammar, math calculation, and earth science) out of proportion to their normal rate of appearance in the quizbowl canon.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Knowledge Master Open]] was a computer quiz contest held twice a year, run by [[Academic Hallmarks]].
+[[Knowledge Master Open]] was a [[computer quiz contest]] held twice a year, run by [[Academic Hallmarks]].
 The event began in 1983 with a high school division, and later added four more divisions which AH labeled "5th Grade," "6th Grade," "Middle School," and "Junior High." Presumably, the fact that two or even all four of those grade levels could be part of the same school/team depending on the structure of one's local school district was addressed in the eligibility rules.
@@ Line 59: / Line 59: @@
 [http://www.greatauk.com/ Knowledge Master website]
-[[Category:High school tournaments]][[Category:Middle school tournaments]][[Category:Bad quizbowl]][[Category: Academic Hallmarks]]
+[[Category:High school tournaments]][[Category:Middle school tournaments]][[Category:Bad quizbowl]][[Category: Academic Hallmarks]][[Category:Computer-based quizzes]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:03, 23 January 2014
Line 59:		Line 59:
	[http://www.greatauk.com/ Knowledge Master website]		[http://www.greatauk.com/ Knowledge Master website]

−	[[Category:High school tournaments]][[Category:Middle school tournaments]][[Category:Bad quizbowl]]	+	[[Category:High school tournaments]][[Category:Middle school tournaments]][[Category:Bad quizbowl]][[Category: Academic Hallmarks]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-[[Knowledge Master Open]] is a computer quiz contest held twice a year, run by [[Academic Hallmarks]].  The contest has five divisions using three sets of questions: high school, middle and junior high school, and 5th and 6th grade.
+[[Knowledge Master Open]] was a computer quiz contest held twice a year, run by [[Academic Hallmarks]].
 ==Format==
 The tournament's "official" date is on a Wednesday, but teams may compete earlier, as long as scores are reported by the end of the official contest day.  Teams may consist of any number of students.
 The contest consists of 200 multiple-choice questions (100 questions for the 5th/6th grade division) in a variety of categories.  Questions has five answer choices and teams are given two chances to answer each question.  Five points are awarded for a correct answer on the first attempt with bonus points based on how quickly the team answered.
@@ Line 37: / Line 42: @@
 At the end of the contest, statistics are displayed indicating how well the team did in each category.  Results are reported via telephone by reporting the number of correct answers, number of points, number of second chance answers, and a "score code" generated based on the aforementioned values that is used to authenticate the total number of points reported.
-Scores are usually posted to the contest's website the Friday following the official tournament date.
+It is unknown if anyone ever got around the score code verification system; however, it was trivial to attempt to cheat at the contest in other ways, either by copying the files off the disk and attempting to crack the password without disturbing the original files in order to pre-research the questions, or by having ineligible people or materials in the room during the competition. KMO relied on an honor system to avoid those issues, and, despite occasional rumors, there was no solid evidence of any winner cheating. Most years of KMO only awarded plaques or t-shirts as prizes; monetary prizes were infrequent and modest, providing a low incentive to cheat.
 ==Links==
 [http://www.greatauk.com/ Knowledge Master website]
-[[Category:High school tournaments]][[Category:Middle school tournaments]]
+[[Category:High school tournaments]][[Category:Middle school tournaments]][[Category:Bad quizbowl]]