David writes:
<<Is there the same
problem at the college level that is rampant at the high
school level, where tournament packets have "hidden
themes"? This is when you order packets from commerical
vendors and you find that there is at least one question
per round on Civil War battles or surface areas of
rectangular prisms, for example (certianly there could be
more variety in American history and
math!).>>
Thankfully, such 'hidden themes' are relatively rare; I can
think of only two examples--off the top of my head, at
any rate--neither of which I think were
intentional:
* At one ACF Nats, there were several questions
that had 'benzene' as the answer.
* At this
year's NAQT ICT, I think there were three questions on
"The Count of Monte Cristo" plus a fourth Dumas
Q....
--STI