They came out on top of the practice test to make Bromfield’s main team. They drilled trivia for months. They fought nearly 100 other schools for the chance to be one of the top 16 teams advancing. Now, it all came down to speed for the Bromfield Quiz Team.
“Who formulated the three physical laws of motion that together laid the foundations for classical mechanics?” host Billy Costa asked, an easy question to start the day. Eight fingers buzzed in, but a Belmont contestant got in first, quickly answering “Isaac Newton.” The answer was approved and the competition raced on.
The Bromfield Quiz Team members got their chance to shine on television at WGBH’s “High School Quiz Show” octofinals, aired Saturday, Feb. 10, ultimately losing to Belmont 470–325. The team competes in various online and in-person competitions throughout the year against other quiz teams in the state. For WGBH, the Bromfield team had to best more than 80 schools in a qualifying 50-question verbal test on “Super Sunday” to make the top 16 teams that would be a part of the televised portion of the competition. Questions spanned topics from sports to state capitals to physics, and more.
Luckily, Bromfield was ready. The team consists of students in grades 9–12, with trivia knowledge complementing one another. Although Bromfield could bring a main team of only four students with two alternates to WGBH, many other students take part in various competitions during the year. Bromfield’s main team for WGBH consisted of freshman Vivian Liu, sophomore Grace Acton, junior Kevin Yu, and junior Yohhan Kumarasinghe. Alternates were junior Kira Houston and senior captain Ivy Wang. The team is coached by Bromfield psychology teacher Kathleen Doherty and parent Miriam Smith.
The team is relatively new at Bromfield, but it has taken off since its founding five years ago. The team originally started with the goal of attending just Super Sunday, but it did not qualify until the 2016–2017 school year with Sylvia Ren as captain. The team first began to practice fast-paced trivia before the qualifying match, along with branching out to recruit students who specialized in different areas. Bromfield made the top 16 that year as well, but unfortunately fell in octofinals to the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School.
A love of trivia
The team went on to compete in the local Athena quiz tournament and continued to practice into the current year, allowing it to qualify again while attending various tournaments in the state and playing in online tournaments. In fact, Bromfield finished in the top 10 percent nationally in the fall 3-2-1 Questions Unlimited competition and earned the 15th highest score, qualifying the team for participation at the 36th annual National Academic Championship.
The students on the team are united in their love of trivia, but different things drew them to the club. Acton, who won “Jeopardy! Kids Week” in seventh grade, joined thanks to Ren’s recruitment. She explained, “Even though I didn’t know anybody in the club, I fell in love with being on a trivia team. I love trivia because people can be talking about anything and I can add a little tidbit of information. It’s also really fun to have random facts stored in your head that you can bust out at any time and have people say, ‘Wow, how do you know that?’”
Kumarasinghe was drawn to trivia from an early age before being recruited by Ren. “I liked looking at maps in elementary school,” he said. “I wanted to know why the borders existed as they did, so that caused me to learn more about history, which led me to read Wikipedia and create my YouTube channel [focused on history and geography]. [Quiz Team] also helps me express that knowledge.”
For junior Maddie Gamelin, it was “Jeopardy” in the evening. “‘Jeopardy’ is one of my favorite shows,” Gamelin said. “I watch it with my mom every night at 7:30. And when I kept answering questions and my mom told me she didn’t know any of those, I decided to join.” Similarly, Houston gained interest through the popular smartphone app Trivia Crack, explaining that he used it to translate trivia questions into Spanish along with writing his own, but his questions were often rejected for being too specific or obscure.
Trivia matters
“‘Trivia’ implies that it isn’t important, and it’s just tiny little details,” said Coach Doherty. “I know that we live in a world where we have all the information we could possibly want at our fingertips. But I think that even though we have a wealth of information at our fingertips, there is something to be said for having your own wealth of information in your long-term memory. Because to me, it’s not just about the details, it’s about making connections. And it’s fun!”
Acton agreed, saying, “Not only do you learn so much about so many different topics, you also gain some thinking skills. When you’re asked a trivia question, you have to immediately start making associations, especially when collaborating on a team. During the collaborative round of [“High School Quiz Show”], one of our strategies was literally to start saying things we associated with the things said in the clue. You also have to think really quickly, which helps in other situations.”
Acton added that Quiz Team was one of her favorite parts of the week, along with the bonding that takes place in conversations during the car rides on the way to competitions, ranging from silly to serious. At the end of the day, she concluded, the tight-knit team is about family and fun.
Kate Selig is a Bromfield junior.
