NTPC Electron 2010 - Delhi Round Review

NTPC once again conducted it's annual Electron Quiz for engineering and management institutions today at it's Power Management Institute center in Noida. The turnout was quite similar to last year, with around 50 teams participating. The quizmasters for the event were the renowned duo of K.M. Prashant, Sujit Verkey from NTPC itself.

Though Electron has in the past been a Gen Quiz with leanings towards business, this time it was vice-versa.

The prelim comprised 25 questions, which included old chestnuts, wiki-lifts and some interesting questions.

The finals were a well done-up affair, with 6 rounds and roughly 40 odd questions. A delight, especially compared to the National Finals last year. A good blend of dry questions, visuals, AV's, a "predator round" and the buzzer round.

The likeable aspect was the questions that had good fundas where, even if you didn't know the answer, you felt like you should have known it. The standard of questions wasn't quite uniform unfortunately, but was decent good nonetheless.

The let down, though, was the nature of the prelim. They were high-scoring, with the highest scored team at 18 and the cutoff being 16.5. When the range of marks between the qualifying teams comes down to a question and a half, the importance of each question is hugely significant.

The question in contention was:

Q. There are two types of newspaper sizes, one is broadsheet, name the other.
Now the problem that arises is this: there are three types of newspaper sizes: Broadsheet, Tabloid, AND Berliner. Tabloid was accepted, Berliner wasn't.

Notable questions included those on Toasted Skin Syndrome, Salman Khan Academy, Hugh Lowe farms, the Lipstick Building, Irving Fisher etc.

The national finals will once again be conducted by Derek O' Brien. Hope DoB does a better job of it over last year.

As always, NTPC were at their hospitable best, and had wonderful snacks and a sumptuous lunch for all participants.

All the very best to the teams for the Nationals.