General Wisconsin Quizzing Information
A Normal Day | Registration Options | Photo Release Forms | Memory Verse Awards |
A Normal Day
- Register your team(s) and equipment at least 2 days prior to the quiz.
- If you are new to the site, you will need to create a new user.
- If you have forgotten your password, there is a link on the Login page to reset it, or let Stephen know and he can reset it.
- If you have more than 5 quizzers (more than 1 team), register your teams the way you would prefer to have them split, but also e-mail Stephen to let him know what other splits you would be okay with in case he needs a little more flexibility for combining teams.
- Everyone should arrive by 9:30am.
- If anyone was registered and doesn't actually come, or if someone comes who wasn't registered, please call Stephen after 8:00am. Any changes to lineups may require some reshuffling of teams and possibly even a change to the schedule for the day, so he needs to know as early as possible.
- Any registration fees not paid in advance should be given to Stephen upon arriving.
- Any outstanding photo release forms should be given to Stephen upon arriving.
- We try to start by 10:00am.
- We begin with a brief opening where Stephen gives any announcements for the day, goes over the schedule, answers any final questions, and also shares some of what he has learned while studying the material ("The Bible According to Stephen").
- We then quiz a few rounds, break for lunch, and come back to quiz several more rounds.
- In the morning rounds, we usually quiz as teams; in the afternoon, we sometimes continue quizzing as teams, but other times we will split everyone up into Experienced/Novice divisions based on how well they did in the morning.
- This gives the top quizzers a chance to push each other a little more, and the lower quizzers have more of an opportunity to get questions.
- Lunch is often provided by the host church for a small fee (typically $5). This allows us to keep things moving faster since we don't have to go out somewhere, and it tends to be more affordable.
- After statistics are compiled (a matter of minutes because of QuizMachine!), Stephen gives any final announcements and presents the awards.
- 1st-place individual: Trophy
- 2nd- through 5th-place individuals: Medals
- Top 3 rookies (first-year quizzers, regardless of age/grade): Medals
- Memory verses: Certificate, and gourmet cupcake or cookie
- 1st-place team: A traveling trophy somehow related to the book(s) we are studying, which is unveiled at the first quiz.
- At District Finals, we also award scholarships for Olivet to the top 3 individuals from that day (scholarships actually presented at District NYI Convention):
- $500 for first place
- $250 for second place
- $125 for third place
- We also have up to 5 $125 scholarships available for seniors who have quizzed at least 2 full years. These are also awarded at District NYI Convention. For applications and full details, contact Stephen.
- Everyone who is able to stick around for a little bit helps clean up and we all head home. Everything is usually completed by 3:30-4:30pm, depending on how many rounds we do.
Registration Options
For each quiz, we require a $5 registration fee for each quizzer.
The registration fee supplements the district budget to help us cover the following costs:
- Awards
- Registration and housing for the St. Louis trip in December
- Registration, housing, and travel for district/field team members from Wisconsin who make it to the national tournament (Q2025 at ONU this year!)
- Equipment for QuizMachine
Note that District Finals is included in registration for District Celebrate Life, so that leaves 5 quizzes to pay for.
Two ways to pay:
- Pay $5 at each quiz.
- If a quizzer does this and comes to all 5 non-Finals quizzes, he/she will end up paying a total of $25.
- Pay $20 at the very beginning of the year.
- The $20 is non-refundable.
- It must be paid no later than the September quiz.
- If quizzers come to all 5 non-Finals quizzes, this means they would be getting one quiz free.
- If quizzers miss a quiz due to sickness or some other conflict, they will not have overpaid (but they would be overpaying if they miss two or more quizzes).
- Reasons for offering/encouraging this option:
- It motivates quizzers to stick with it through the whole year and come to all of the quizzes.
- Collecting $5 from everybody at every quiz takes time, and sometimes we would not get everyone.
- It gives us a clearer picture at the beginning of the year as to what our full budget will be.
- While there is a little risk that someone will pay the $20 and then drop out, in general it is meant to save most people some money.
Photo Release Forms
Every quizzer must have a parent/guardian sign a photo release form and bring it to their first quiz, or scan and e-mail it to Stephen ahead of time. We like to take pictures and post them in our Facebook group, and we have also done a highlights video for District NYI Convention, so we hope everyone will be able to be included. If a quizzer has submitted one for a previous quiz year, they do not need to submit another.
Memory Verse Awards
At each quiz, we award certificates and gourmet cupcakes or cookies to any quizzers who memorize any complete section of memory verses. By "section" we mean all the memory verses for the new chapters covered in each quiz. So for the September quiz, anyone who completes all the memory verses in Luke 1-3 will receive a certificate and cupcake/cookie. For October, the new chapters are Luke 4-7, so there would be a certificate/cupcake/cookie for that. However, if someone didn't memorize the verses for Luke 1-3 by the September quiz but he/she memorizes them by October, we would still give him/her a certificate/cupcake/cookie for that section at the October quiz. Sections do not have to be completed in order, so a quizzer could, for example, memorize Luke 4-7 for October and come back to Luke 1-3 in November.
Process for memory verse awards:
- A quizzer quotes all of the memory verses for a section to his/her coach.
- The coach goes to the appropriate "Memory Verses" event on the Schedule page and "registers" the quizzer as having completed that section of verses.
- Stephen presents the awards for anyone who is registered by 7:00pm the Thursday before the quiz.
- Anyone who receives an award is also recognized in the Memory Verses section of the current year statistics page.