West Georgia RESA Academic Bowl Rules
for Elementary School Matches
(To be read by the Reader in each room at the beginning of Round One)
Welcome to round one of our Academic Bowl. The following rules, which have been agreed upon by all of the coaches, will govern our matches today.
The official Reader and Scorekeeper are adults who have been trained by the host school. The questions have been developed very carefully, and acceptable answers for each question have been agreed upon by all readers. If there is an issue for discussion, first the 2 coaches in the room agree on a decision. Students and spectators may not participate in these discussions If they are unable to make a decision the RESA representative has the final decision. If there is no RESA representative available the host team is responsible to have a designated county administrator present to make the final decision..
Only four players from a team will participate in any round. While no substitutions may be made during the rounds, they may be made between rounds. Team captains will be identified at the beginning of each round. The captain or his designee must answer for the team during bonus questions.
The three rounds in a match each consist of twenty toss-up questions worth ten points each and their associated bonus questions worth twenty points which were purchased from Academic Hallmarks.
Team members may buzz in at any time during the reading of a toss-up question. The Reader will immediately stop and recognize that person. If the person answers correctly, his team receives ten points and is allowed to answer the accompanying bonus question. Team members may not confer on toss-up questions. If they do so, the question will be forfeited and the reader will ask the first available alternate question to the other team.
If the toss-up question is answered incorrectly, the other team will have the opportunity to answer that question. The entire question will be read only if the team buzzed in before the question was completely read. A toss-up or bonus question will be read completely only one time.
Teams have ten seconds from the completion of a question to buzz in. Once a team member is recognizedhe/she has ten seconds to complete the answer. The timing on a bonus question begins when the Reader has completed the question. Thirty seconds are allowed for the answer. A ten second warning will be given after twenty seconds.
If neither team answers a toss-up question correctly, the reader will give the answer to that question and then begin reading the next toss-up question. There are no penalties for answering a question incorrectly.
After the tenth question the Reader will call time to allow Scorekeepers to compare their scores. The team with the highest number of points at the conclusion of the twenty questions is the winner for that round. There will be no tiebreaker questions given if the round ends in a tie. Everyone will remain quietly in the room until the signal is given to proceed to the next round.
Please turn off all electronic equipment.
All participants, coaches, and guests are reminded to exhibit good sportsmanship to ensure that we achieve our twin goals of growing both academically and socially. Good luck to all!