The Academic Competition World Scholar’s Cup 2022 has officially ended with impressive achievements of WASS members.

WASS “team” attended the Tournament of Champions at Yale University, USA from November 10th to 16th with 04 members including Nguyen Tuong Anh Khoa, Ly Hai Minh, Tran Anh Khoi – WA10A, and Phan Nhat. Class – BWA8A.

They competed in Team Debate, Scholar’s Challenge, Scholar’s Bowl, and Collaborative Writing. After tough competitions, by being calm, confident, and preparing knowledge, WASSers won 9 gold medals, 11 silver medals in the individual parts, and many awards in the team competitions. Especially we honored that Nguyen Tuong Anh Khoa once again represented Vietnam to raise the national flag in the traditional flag procession at WSC.

These proud achievements did not come naturally, WASSers had to afford a lot. Let’s hear four boys talk about their journey at this year’s World Scholar’s Cup!

“After a few months participating in the World Scholar’s Cup, the final round has come as my wish. But now, the opportunity is right in front of my eyes. World Scholar’s Cup: Tournaments of Champions 2022. Since the beginning of the competition, it has been almost half a year, and also the end of a long journey with many lessons.

After finishing the Global round at Bangkok, I immediately focused on studying all subjects again, listing the main ideas, because I knew that in the next round, ToC would be more difficult. The contents of subjects are summarized based on my knowledge, combined with links and ideas from other websites. Besides 6 main subjects, in this ToC, the organizers have added a new “Booster pack”, to add information and make the competition more interesting.

I have some advice for you: Usually, the format question of The Scholars Bowl will be more difficult, which requires you to brainstorm, think of all connections to find out the final answers. In addition, the motions in the debate will be related to the topics learned in the subjects in the WSC. Especially: When writing essays, you should show many ideas related to the topic you have studied, it will help you raise your score in the writing test”.

Phan Nhat Huy – 8A Ba Huyen Thanh Quan Campus

“The competition took place over the span of a few days, but the actual tests only took two. The remaining days are spent for leisure and bonding with other contestants, with an activity known as the “Scanvager’s Hunt” specifically working to that end. I feel like we competed to the best of our abilities, but the results were surprisingly better than we had expected. Overall though, I think it was rather decent.

……

As for the competition itself, however, it spans across 5 days, although the days with elements of competition are relegated to 2, that being the ones directly after the first day. As per World Scholar’s Cup tradition though, the 5 days are sprinkled with a diverse plethora of activities, some of which are to take note. The first of these would be the “Scholar’s Scavenge”, which, as its name suggests, is in essence a glorified scavenger hunt. In which, instead of the usual object or trinket to find, there are also actions and quotas to complete. All of these contribute points to a total, and serve as a basis for a rather fun bonding activity.

Another instance of leisure activity in the scholar’s cup would be the scholar’s show, in which volunteers come up to stage in front of everyone with the express purpose of showing off their talents. Of course, there was a massive variety of talents being displayed, often with the occasional maestro coming to light.

However, both of these activities would not have been complete without the final one, that being the scholar’s bowl. Held right before the closing ceremony, in the previous day, it serves as a precursor to the cheering that’s to be done following. In all, it’s quite literally a disco, with a live dj, and loud, booming music, though the heart-thumping power of which personally did not come up to the one in Bangkok.

Now, with all the leisure activities out of the way, and with the general background set, the following paragraphs would delve into each of the activities present in the scholar’s cup; It’s time to tell you, the audience, about the actual competition part of the competition.

First of all, there was the scholar’s challenge. In and of itself, the scholar’s challenge is a quiz-like exam style section in which scholars would sit with a sheet of paper, and fill out blanks as one would in an exam. It is strictly multiple choice only, and tests all 6 subjects present in the given curriculum. This year, performance in the challenge for our team was to an acceptable standard, with us improving our performances compared to the Bangkok round that occurred just recently a few months ago. However, there could have always been room for improvement.

Secondly, there was the writing challenge. The second part of the scholar’s cup for the team included another test, in which participants are required to formulate a text according to a provided prompt, with each subject having 1 prompt. Participants could choose to write any style, or form, with more creative outreaches being encouraged. The team performance in writing was decently well, with one member tucking away a gold medal, and another bringing home a silver.

After that, there were the debates. Arguably, the debates were the most harrowing of the four activities, with the team being pitted against multiple opposing teams in 3 bouts. The team as a whole did decently well, and fared to a good extent, however, opposing teams had outmanoeuvred us in two out of three bouts, with the motions also leaning towards them, as compared to us.

Finally, there is the scholar’s bowl, which amounts to a big game of kahoot. Team performance in the bowl was decent.

Overall, it was a fun experience to be undertaking, and it does give a lot of lessons and memories to take with one if one were to embark on such ventures.

• Anh Khoa & Hai Minh – WA10A