On Saturday, upon return home, people look out the window when the Venomous Agenda debaters competing at Nationals arrive, with each of them holding trophies on hand for their placement among the top-14. However, that day would not be the day where they would be greeted by the entire town, since the mayor informed them of one event taking place Sunday afternoon. So why is it that the town seem to be more willing to see their heroes before the competitions take place but does not make as big of a deal out of quiz bowl results? Sadie muses while, for some reason, she wonders why, after the EGMO earlier this year, as well as two years ago, the town saw fit to wait until the graduation ceremony for the town to celebrate.
The debate team holds one last meeting Saturday evening, where their roadmap is being laid out for the next debate season, with their coach but without their OO player:
"While we might have been successful in our pursuit of debate success, we must not neglect our life beyond high school. Make no mistake: for some of you, college applications are around the corner. Everyone, make sure that you will take advantage of your free administration of either the SAT or ACT unless you're satisfied with your ACT score if you're a rising senior" the coach warns the players.
"Speaking of that, I think we are due to take our SAT diagnostic tests" Rebecca replies.
"Speaking of which, I took one on Wednesday night, I got a fifteen-hundred" Daisy adds. "Eight hundred verbal, seven hundred math"
What Daisy refers to as the verbal score is actually called evidence-based reading and writing. But people mostly call that verbal as a shorthand. I am not surprised to see debaters score high on verbal, in fact, I pretty much expect it, the coach muses, while the discussion turns to the course schedules for some.
Sadie might have driven herself sick doing it, but she showed it was possible to achieve a lot nonetheless. While even the USAMO would be a pipe dream for me, let alone the IMO, I think the gold at the VMC, and the AIME, too, should be doable. My parents called me "ultra-brilliant"; if I really am "ultra-brilliant", it should be doable for me to do well in calculus, single and multi-variable, now that I am more comfortable with extemp, Chantal ruminates. If I am "ultra-brilliant", then Sadie is as well; she's not that different from me intellectually. She has quiz bowl, I will have mathletics.
"I kept hearing at Nats that, for the Dukes and Vanderbilts of this world, you should take calculus in high school regardless of what major you want to declare" Joe tells the players. "And ideally get an A in it"
"You take calculus here, it's equivalent to taking single and multi-variable calculus in one year" the coach warns the entire team. "I hope you understand how much work that is"
The one saving grace for those debaters who plan on taking calculus is that getting an A in AP Calculus BC is doable if they take advantage of every opportunity for multi-variable calculus-based extra credit.
So while it may make the course even harder than it would have been elsewhere, students perceive an A in the course as a symbol of status. Not quite as impressive as a gold at the VMC (i.e., being in the top 1/12 of the teams at the VMC final) or a state championship in either quiz bowl or a speech and debate event, but a symbol of status nonetheless.
"The booster club has also announced they will pay for materials for us. So if you have specific requests, please don't hesitate to check against their list of acceptable materials. Briefs will be immensely helpful for us since we cannot attend camps" Jarod pleads with the coach.
Briefs, in the debate world, are bundles of pre-packaged evidence and, for the version the policy pair is eyeing, some pointers in sidebars. Typically a couple hundred pages long with a complete bibliography.
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A Tale of Two Academic Teams
Teen FictionSadie, an ambitious high school student, is the first student on the debate team to use its reserved quiz bowl spot. Little does she know that the pressure built up over the years could explode at any time, while struggling to evade the shadow of he...