Hey guys! I've got one heck of a treat for you today, which has been in the works for a couple months now... A Question & Answer session, with TWO individual first place national placings, and THREE Regional Team first place championships. Mike will end up having one of the most impressive quizzing resumes I've ever seen. But even better than that, he's a super nice, and humble, person as well. So let's jump into this Q&A with Mike Basko, a member of the reigning champs, the Eastern Field! 1) What is one of your favorite ways to study? M: "Because I am such a social person, I struggle a lot to study by myself. So usually I will memorize with my mom. She will read verses to me and I will repeat it until I get the verse down. One other thing I like to do is listen to the audio in the shower. For me, you might as well, because it really is a good time to absorb the materiel because your mind isn’t that occupied. This is what I always tell people that I know are really busy. Everyone can take a few minutes during their shower to listen to the material, especially because the chapters are so easy to listen to this year due to their length." 2) Have you struggled with procrastination? How have habits regarding this affected your quizzing? M: "Not really, to be honest. I have a habit of studying pretty much every day consistently. I also have a personality that I feel guilty if I haven’t studied for a day lol. For me, consistent study is a huge help. Other things that can help is getting a study buddy (a sibling or friend who you enjoy studying with) to keep you accountable in your studying. Another thing to think about is considering where you want to be at the end of the year and using that as a form of motivation." 3) What is one of your favorite quizzing moments? M: "Probably the second national championship we won at Q2018. We had gone 7-7 through the prelims and had our fair share of problems throughout them (including being blown out twice by the same team). However, due to a 5-way tie, we ended up being the second seed by some miracle, worked our way through the playoffs, took down the number one seed and ended up winning it all! It was such a surprise and a super amazing end to the best week of my life. (By the way, if you’re reading this and wondering if you should go to Q this year, you should go. You will not regret it!)" --- Save the link for info on Q2020! Info will be posted by the admin. ---www.nazquizzing.org/blog_posts/485-q2020 4) Who is a quizzer you have looked up to as you have gotten more competitive and why? M: "Calvin and Josiah Reedy. They were seniors in my first year in varsity and really welcomed me into the main quizzing group. They taught me so much and really helped me fall in love with quizzing. I was lucky enough to be on their team for my first nationals and helped them win their first national championship in their senior year. Without them, I would not be the quizzer I am today." 5) What advice would you give to an up-and-coming quizzer, who wants to be more competitive? M: "Set good goals and stick to them. Make sure you know where you want to be by the end of the year. Finding a coach or another quizzer to help you and give you tips (or even to just keep you on track with your quiz goals) can help immensely. Try to go to lots of invitationals so you can compete with some other quizzers. Iron sharpens iron, and quizzing is no exception to that. Getting experience against stronger and more experienced quizzers can really help." 6) How has Teen Bible quizzing positively affected you over the years? M: "I have made so many friends through it, and found that there are great people who will accept you no matter what. It is also super cool how much of the Bible I have learned and memorized, and it helps me to find verses to contribute to discussions or just to think about in my everyday life. In addition, I have been able to travel all over the country and experience all of those places with an amazing group of people. It is the perfect activity for me and my family, and I’m so glad that I have been introduced to it!" 7) What are your favorite things about quizzing? M: "Definitely all the friends I’ve made. All the quizzing people I’ve met have been amazing, nice people who accept you no matter what. There aren’t many environments that are like that and are devoid of stupid cliques. Friends make anything better, and that includes quizzing. I love the atmosphere and people who are in quizzing and they really make quizzing what it is. The competition is cool too, and it is great to get to know a different part of the Scripture every year. It really is the perfect activity in my opinion, and I’m so thankful that God has introduced it to me." Dang, that was awesome.
HUGE, HUGE, HUGE thank you to Mike for taking the time out to write these great answers! I hope this quizzing season for you (somehow) beats all the others you've had, and that the Lord abundantly blesses you for your hard work, and your humble heart. You know, one of the greatest quizzers I looked up to back in 2015, graduated that year. And I remember him thanking God in prayer before the championship round with our team, that "the future of quizzing is in good hands." How cool is that? And the thing I also found cool, when I was in my last round at Nationals this past summer, was that I knew quizzing was in good hands when I stepped out of it, as well. God is so good. Amazing, how that He so passionately pursues each one of us, even to the point of bringing each of us into this blessed thing called Bible quizzing. I can't count how many testimonies I've heard from current and past quizzers, about how Quizzing changed, or straight-up saved their lives. Praise God for His love for us, huh? Guys, I love you, but God loves you way more. I hope you're having a good quiz season so far, and that it just keeps getting better! Remember, you are completely capable of accomplishing any goal that you have, and you have conquering grace. Have an amazing week my friends, and until I see you again, keep quizzing and living VICTORIOUSLY!!!!! Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow (decades) quizzer, Mallory
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Hey guys! So one thing I get a lot of questions on, is how to do according to's well. How does one become a GOOD according to quizzer? I specialized in according to's my last three years of quizzing, and today I'm going to be sharing the basics of how you can start doing according to's (spoiler alert: it's SUPER fun, so lets get into it, LOL). Basic rules of According To's:
In the more competitive quiz tournaments, you'll probably see quizzers jump really early on according to questions. Sometimes, they jump right after the reference is said; this is called a "blind according to". When jumping on blind according to's, the quizzer has to remember the verse, and come up with questions that could come out of the verse. I know this can be a little confusing if it's new to you, so let me give you an example. 1) Quizmaster says: "According to Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 1-" 2) *QUIZZER JUMPS* 3) Quizzer thinks of Hebrews 1:1 4) Quizzer starts coming up with questions from that verse. Here are a few possible questions:
Don't worry if that doesn't make perfect sense right now - as you see other people do it, and as you practice it yourself, it gets super easy (AND you're gonna have a ton of fun with it!). BUT, especially if you're just starting out with being an According To quizzer, you don't necessarily have to do blind according to's all the time. Take your time with it, push yourself to jump where you can, and work on answering the questions. As you get more comfortable jumping on them, keep pushing yourself to get better and better. So now let's jump into 1) the basics of how to study for according to's, and 2) how to answer according to's effectively. Studying for According To's: What do you need to know of the material, in order to be good at according to's? Lets take a look. A GREAT according to quizzer will...
That looks like a pretty hefty list, huh? It is! Even the most elite quizzers I've known, have said that memorizing the material, and practicing recall time is often the hardest part of doing according to's. But the good news is, is that not a lot of quizzers put in all that work. That means, that you'll know WAY more than a lot of your competition, which can enable you to place higher, and help your team win more often. So what's the best way to study for according to's? The great news is, there's no just ONE way to study well. There are definitely some tips and tricks I can share, that have worked great for me, but every quizzer has to experiment and find what works best for them. Don't be afraid to try new study techniques! Since according to quizzers need to memorize all of the material (which is no easy task, let me tell you... *cue flashback to Luke*... *cough away tears* well anyways....), in the next post I am going to give you some tips SPECIFICALLY FOR memorizing everything, this season. In addition to that, in the next post I am also going to be talking about how you can ANSWER according to's really well. SO you can be looking forward to that :P. Stay tuned for part 2 coming in the next post, where I'll be talking about the super important things I just mentioned above.
Anyways guys, I love you, God loves you so much more. Keep quizzing, and living, victoriously. Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow (decades) quizzer, Mallory Hey guys!! Hahah it's been a second (yikes). If you didn't know, this past season (John) was my last season of Bible Quizzing as a quizzer, and my career came to a close at Nationals 2019 in Phoenix. Nationals was a bunch of fun, and very cool for me especially, to see just how much the Nazarene Quizzing community has changed and evolved since I first experienced it in 2014. I loved seeing the people who were novices, like myself, back in 2014-2015, who are consistently claiming places in the top ten of the nation. I think that's pretty cool. How I feel/felt about graduating: I'm pretty sure that I'll be making a blog post or YouTube video soon about what I learned during my senior year at Nationals, and about what I learned during my whole senior year of quizzing - but not in this post. And I don't want to get all sappy about graduating, LOL. I mean, I was expecting to be all sappy and emotional and crying during MY LAST QUIZ, but that didn't happen. I was honestly shocked by how relaxed, satisfied, and calm, I felt as my quizzing career ended. It was weird, LOL. And obviously it's still sinking in that I'm finished with being a quizzer (I haven't had a bunch of time to think about it, actually. I had one week at home after Nationals before I left for Taiwan for 2-3 weeks, and just got home a little bit ago). So, I mean, it could hit me harder later on - who knows? But I don't think there's any reason to worry about that. After dreading that day, and that one set of 20 short questions for about five years, it was more relieving than anything, to know that I got through it, and it was now behind me. Will I be involved in quizzing now? The short answer (and this is just going off of what I know right now) is absolutely, 100%. But I'll bet that not very many of you find that surprising :P. I know that a bunch of elite quizzers do kind of disappear right after graduation, but I think I always kind of knew that I wouldn't be one of those people. Not that leaving quizzing is always a bad thing, of course. I do believe that God can call people to intensely focus on the next part of their lives, that has nothing to do with quizzing. Since I'm not moving away immediately, I'll still be working out of the Colorado District in Northwest (and of course I'm not sure yet, but I would LOVE to take some CO teams to more invitationals this season...), helping with my church team and whatnot. Will I continue The Bible Quizzing Journey, while I'm graduated? I am talking with God right now, about how to move forward in regards to this question. My heart wants to say yes - I mean, how weird would it be for me to suddenly bring all of this to a stop, after nearly five years of working on it? BUT one thing that I've been learning this year, is that fully committing everything in my life to God, is not only something "good" to do, but just necessary. Necessary for my personal health (mentally, spiritually, emotionally), and also because if God's calling me to minister differently, then I'm depriving those people of the impact that God wanted for them. So I'm going to continue that conversation with Him over the next several weeks, or however long it takes for me to feel confident in a decision, and then I'll let you guys know. One thing's for certain: There's no way that (if God asks me to shift my focus away from TBQJ) I will randomly disappear from this platform forever. That just can't happen, LOL because it's been SUCH a big part of my life, so no worries!! I love you guys, LOL. And, just as a heads up I guess: even if I do continue making content, there is the possibility that my content would change a bit. I'm not saying that it for sure would (it might not at all), but I've tried to do my best over the past 4-5 years of running TBQJ to fully surrender it to God, and let Him do what He wants to with it. Because, as we all know, if He points it in a certain direction, that's going to be the BEST way to go. Thank you. I've loved, LOVED, every moment of knowing the people in the Nazarene Quizzing community. I have learned innumerable things NOT about the competition, through you guys. The adults in quizzing have mentored me, encouraged me, taught me SO MUCH about life, and showed me the love of Christ in a way I have never otherwise experienced. I can't really say enough, how grateful I am to the adults who have given to the Lord, and honestly just saved and changed my life, and set me on a path of life with the Lord that I am so happy with. I would not be the person I am, if I hadn't started quizzing, and hadn't met all of you wonderful adults. I admire you all so much - Your love for God, your incredible love for the kids, and your constant and consistent sacrifice of your personal resources, are things that I aspire to. Thank you so much for loving God, and for loving me, the past six years. And of course, to all of the quizzers I've had the privilege of meeting and getting to know, thank YOU for showing me the heart of God through all of your individual strengths, personalities, and gifts. You are some of the most amazing people I've met - incredibly talented, incredibly hard-working, and incredibly loving. Heavens, you guys are awesome! And for those of you I won't see (at least for a while), I'll miss you so much. But I know that God has amazing plans for each of you, and I hope that through the rest of your lives, you know and learn how much He loves you, and how that you are so perfectly covered by His grace. For the seniors I probably won't see again soon: May God's blessings be on you in such a complete way. May you be filled with His peace, His grace, and His love. May you run and dance through life with a child-like excitement, just wrapped up with peace. May you follow God's path for you, impacting His people, learning about Him, and experiencing His love in new ways every year. But, above everything, I pray that you may understand and walk in God's unconditional love for you, by His grace. God loves you guys so much. Well guys, this won't be my last post (LOL). I'll talk to you again soon. I love you guys, and God loves you so much more.
For those of you who are starting the Hebrews & 1-2 Peter season here in the next few weeks (or if you already have), I do have a few ideas for blog posts and videos about that, so stay tuned for those!! But until then, you know how it goes - Keep quizzing, and living, victoriously. You're amazing ;). Keep calm and quiz on (and out)! Your fellow quizzer -Oh, oops. I mean... "Your fellow decades quizzer," (???) .... Mallory :P |
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Trending Posts:Author:Mallory is a graduated Teen Bible Quizzer originally from the Southern region, moved to the Northwest, coaching quizzing over the book of Matthew. Check out our
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