Online Test Recap & Discussion (Pacific), January 9, 2014

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Volante
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Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Pacific), January 9, 2014

Post by Volante »

skullturf wrote:My two cents on the Burroughs/Tarzan question:

It's not that the clue is unfair. It's just that it's imperfect or inelegant.

If a clue asked for "the most beloved rock quartet from Liverpool", it would be reasonably obvious what the intended response is.

But if we're going to hold trivia questions to a high standard, I think they should ultimately refer to something that's objective or measurable.

In order for the Burroughs/Tarzan question to be closer to perfect, it should have included a name or date or something. Something like "First appeared in..." or "portrayed on screen by..." or "sold this many copies..." Just something quantitative that ends up making the clue have one and only one correct response.
To compare and contrast, they'd -never- ask for the "most famous" Dashiell Hammett creation.
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DadofTwins
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Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Pacific), January 9, 2014

Post by DadofTwins »

44 on this one, after 49 & 47 on the others.

Robert Gates released a book this week, or I probably would have gone CIA.

The New Testament clue was WAY tougher than the Bible clues the other nights.

I agree with others that the Edgar Rice Burroughs clue and the DNA clue were both shaky. I would have liked to have seen tighter writing there.

Overall, the clues seemed shorter on these tests than others. Maybe that's going to be a trend going forward -- give Alex less to read so he can get through more clues? His reading pace has dropped fairly significantly in the last couple of seasons. And this season especially, I've noticed they've been writing shorter clues to compensate.

If so, I like that they're trying to adjust the game to the constraints of the host. But it makes the job of writing good material that much harder. I try to average 25 syllables per clue in the SHC, with a limit of 40. I suspect that if I had to lower the average to 20 and the limit to 30-35, it would be very hard on the TOM-rich middle-of-the-board material. The easy stuff will get easier, the hard stuff will get harder, and the in-between will dry up.
okstater04
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Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Pacific), January 9, 2014

Post by okstater04 »

39. *shrug*

Stupid misses.
evanakm
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Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Pacific), January 9, 2014

Post by evanakm »

DadofTwins wrote: Robert Gates released a book this week, or I probably would have gone CIA.
A couple people said this upthread as well, but the clue asked for a Cabinet post. With the exception of the Attorney General, it's fairly easy to remember, since "Cabinet member" is generally synonymous with "Washington bigwig whose job title contains the word Secretary"
Francois40
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Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Pacific), January 9, 2014

Post by Francois40 »

I didn't score myself, but as usual, I got some ones many cited as misses (Alice Walker, Cordelia) and missed several of the "OMG that was so easy" ones.

Having managed or worked in a bookstore/library is SO handy for books a few years old. I might recommend to J! pursuants that they get a part-time job in one or the other!

I am mediocre at Shakespeare, but the "She did XXXX for her father" told me it was Cordelia, since the one thing I remembered about King Lear was that the two older daughters were conniving bitches but fooled him into trusting them, when Cordelia in fact turned out to be the only good one. That may be slightly incorrect and way oversimplified, but it got me to the answer there. At the very least, it's a "2 against 1" situation and she is the "1", so I would tend to guess her in any "King Lear's daughter" question, the other two being more interchangeable.

So many of these I eventually got right just in this thread but would have missed trying to get them typed in in the allotted time. I "knew" Vassar but my brain kept saying "Sarah Lawrence", which I KNEW was wrong, but by the time I shoved it aside, I would have been 4 questions down the line. And while I got Pelosi, I too was stumped by the sexist presumption that it was a man. Good question, though, for that reason!
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Linear Gnome
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Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Pacific), January 9, 2014

Post by Linear Gnome »

Catching up after a trip.

Just did this off the transcript--it seemed harder to me than the others, but I still managed a 40 (after getting 43 on Tuesday's and 38 on Wednesday's).
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