A mix of friendly competition and focused preparation, Scholar’s Bowl is a good environment to be involved in.

“There are categories, and usually, how we do it in our practices, we start out with a foreign language question, which sometimes gets thrown out for a miscellaneous question,” junior Lennon Williams said. “Then we go through three English questions, three science questions, three social studies questions, three math questions, two fine arts questions, and one year in review.”

Scholar’s Bowl can range from loud and chaotic to a serious and focused environment.

“Loud, loud in practice. In actual competitions, it’s not as chaotic because we have to focus,” senior Audrey Thompson said.

Some people might think it looks scary during competitions, but it’s fun for the students involved.

“It’s generally pretty nice. You know, sometimes you’ll find people in between rounds, and they’re in the hallways talking to each other, just going ‘This question was a little bit weird’ or ‘Nice job answering that question,’” Williams said. “There’s not really any toxicity or anything; it’s just people who like trivia and are having a good time.”

Figuring out other aspects, like teams, can still be challenging.

“Most of it’s just stuff that we’ve learned outside of school and stuff. So there’s not like a lot of work put in during actual practice because it’s all outside of that, except for figuring out who works well as a team,” Thompson said.

Scholar’s bowl also allows students to strengthen their skills in various categories.

“During practice, it’s not like a lot of work, but it’s certainly like sitting there kind of going like ‘OK, Edgar Allan Poe wrote the Masque of the Red Death’ just things like that,” Williams said. “Then it’s also kind of sharpening up on math skills you haven’t used in a while or science skills you haven’t used in a while.”

Scholar’s Bowl is welcoming to anyone who wants to join.

“Some people think it might be a little bit intimidating,” Williams said. “They just need to know that it’ll get easier over time with just practice.”