Saturday, February 21, 2009

IT Olympiad Quiz Bowl

Yesterday, me and my wife attended the IT Olympiad Quiz Bowl, as part of the contest's judges. The IT Olympiad is a yearly event organized by CDITE-XI and PSITE-XI, and participated by schools under their group. Aside from the Quiz Bowl, part of their event was their Research Paper Presentations, and a Programming Contest.

This time, it was a partnership with PhilNITS to formulate the Quiz Bowl's questions. Being located here in Davao and a known advocate of PhilNITS, and being neutral (no official affiliation with any particular school), I was requested to develop the questions. It helped also that both me and my wife (who helped by reviewing the questions I made) are passers of the exam.

I had to skip sleep the night before as it was the only time I had to finish developing the questions. It was all worth it after seeing that the participants, organizers and even the audience appreciate the questions. All my tiredness and sleepiness went away when I observed several organizers and audience trying to answer the questions too :) That was part of my objective as I wanted the competition to be "engaging and educational" too.

The questions were said to be more challenging as compared to previous ones. But basing on the result of the competition, if you have fundamental knowledge on IT concepts, you can answer the PhilNITS-based questions. That's pretty much the same with the actual PhilNITS exam. At first glance they seem impossible to pass, but once you get to know how it is organized, from which topics (they call it IT Body of Knowledge) they base the questions, and what are the most important areas to focus on, you will gain that confidence and pass the exam. It was one of the messages I was hoping to deliver during the event. And I am hoping it will inspire more students to join the Quiz Bowl next time, and also take the PhilNITS exams.

Congratulations by the way to the organizers for such a meaningful, and successful, activity. Congratulaions also to all participants and their coaches, and also the audience who came in support of their respective school mates. Of course, a congratulation is in order to the winners :
1st place = Jose Maria College
2nd place = UP Mindanao
3rd place = Davao Del Norte State College