Before Tuesday, please go over the rules with your student and make sure they understand the consequences for breaking a rule during the competition. Because this is a competition, the rules will be closely observed. This keeps things fair for everyone! Every student who attended the meeting today received a copy of the rules.
Battle of the Books rules
- Teams may not bring anything with them when they compete.
- All students who participate, either as a competing team or audience member, must maintain proper behavior. There will be no communication between audience members and team members in any form, including signs, hand signals, verbal cries, or mouthing of answers. Any team member who is deemed to be cheating will be disqualified from the competition.
- Each team will choose one member as the spokesperson for their team. Only the spokesperson may respond to the question. If any other person responds, the team gets no points for the question.
- Team members may only talk with one another when it is their turn to respond, and only after the question has been read. If a team member speaks when it is not his or her team’s turn, or prior to the end of the reading of the question, the team will be penalized 2 points.
- Teams may huddle while deciding upon the answer.
- A correct response must contain the full title of the book. No partial answer will be accepted.
- Once the spokesperson begins to respond with a title, only that title will be accepted as the team’s answer. If the spokesperson attempts to change the team’s answer after beginning, the answer will be judged incorrect and no points will be awarded.
- Questions will be read only once for each team.
- A team has 30 seconds after the question is read to respond. If there is no response, time is called and the team has 10 seconds to give an answer.
- If a correct answer is given the team is awarded 5 points. If an incorrect response or no response is given, no points are awarded.
- A missed question is then read for the second team, which has 15 seconds to respond. If they respond correctly the team is awarded 3 points. If an incorrect response or no response is given no points are awarded. The Questioner then gives the correct answer.
- A round will consist of 16 questions, 8 for each team. At the end of a round if the score is tied, there will be a tiebreaker round.
- During a tiebreaker, both teams will be given a piece paper on which to write. The Questioner will read the question aloud and both teams will have 30 seconds to write their answer down on their piece of paper. After the 30 seconds, the answer sheets will be checked. If any team has an incorrect answer, they are eliminated unless no one has a correct answer. The winner of the tiebreaker round is the first team to answer correctly a question that the other team has missed.
HAVE FUN and GOOD LUCK!!!
