Studying

Studying is the process of learning information which appears in quiz bowl questions, allowing a player to improve by various metrics (converting more bonuses, powering more tossups, etc.). It is usually understood to indicate active, dedicated work akin to the studying done for academic coursework, rather than the passive accumulation of knowledge from playing the game or simply existing in society.

Studying is an answer to the question "how do I get good at quiz bowl?", along with things like "attending tournaments" and "going to practice."

Methods

At their core, all study methods rely on obtaining and retaining information for the purposes of answering quiz bowl questions. Most "study methods" are specific approaches to these tasks and not standalone processes - as such, it is typically the case that a player will employ many of these methods at the same time while studying.

This section is incomplete.

Packet studying

Main page: packet study

The process of packet studying takes advantage of two things: the assumption that clues for specific answerlines will be used again (because they are fundamental to the subject or because writers and editors use previous questions as sources for what clues players are likely to know), and the online availability of almost every quiz bowl set that has every been written for free.

The key resource involved is the packet archive, which retains all non-NAQT sets written since the late 90's, but also useful are the numerous question databases which allow for search and filtering functionality.

Study guides

Raj Bahn's guide on improving at quiz bowl has been preserved here: How to Get Good at This Game.

There is a dedicated page for becoming a good science player, which describes resources and methods for studying science.