An epic performance from our Lit Quiz teams!!

By Emily Jensen-McCloy

To get into the Lit Quiz team, you first have to make it through the trials. After answering a bunch of tricky book-related questions, the top scorers get put into one of two teams of four, while others might end up as reserves. If you get in, that's when the real challenge starts—weeks of practice, reading different books, and getting ready for the big day at DNI.

Every day leading up to the competition felt like it went by in a blur. One second, it was weeks away, and then suddenly—boom—it was here. I was excited but also kinda nervous. I still couldn't believe I'd actually made it past the trials, but here I was, about to compete. Even though I missed out on mufti day, I’d much rather be at the Lit Quiz, doing something I love.

At our last practice before the competition, we had a fun warm-up round and learned an important rule—when in doubt, John it out. (Basically, if you don’t know an answer, just write "John.") Then, on the big day, Mr. Min drove the eight of us to DNI in one of the school’s minivans. As soon as we got there, we found our assigned tables while other schools started arriving.

Waiting for the competition to start was a mix of nerves and excitement—picking our joker round out of the 10 categories and taking it all in. At 11:00 a.m., the quiz master, Wayne Mills, introduced himself and the rules. Each round had 10 questions, all from different books, and no two competitions were ever the same.

We started with ‘Bears’ as the first category. The atmosphere was tense—the silence before each question, the scribbling of pens as everyone tried to get the right answer. But at the same time, it was fun and exciting. After each round, we’d rip off our answer sheet and hold it up for a DNI student to collect.

Between rounds, Wayne would ask bonus questions to the teachers and spectators, and if they got it right, they won a $10 book voucher. He also asked bonus questions for the teams, with a $5 voucher up for grabs. It was fun watching everyone try to guess!

Before our joker round—‘Creatures’—we had a lunch break. Everyone went outside to eat, and Mr. Min pulled out two bags of cola-flavored sherbet fizz licorice mini logs.

Some categories were easier than others. ‘Bears,’ ‘Big Cats,’ ‘Fairies,’ and ‘Escapes’ were pretty good, but ‘Clocks,’ ‘Footwear,’ and ‘Games’ were definitely harder. We were scoring around 6-8 points per category, which felt solid.

At one point, during the ‘Fairies’ category, we tied with another team, which meant a sudden-death question. Hazel from our team put her hand up, hesitated, then answered—and got it right! We each got a $5 book voucher, which gave us a confidence boost heading into the next rounds.

Finally, after all 10 categories, the scores were in. Everyone was buzzing with excitement. St Hilda’s Team 3 came in 1st place with 73 points, and then... TAHUNA TEAM 2 CAME SECOND! With 72 points! It was insanely close. I can’t remember who came third, but honestly, all I could think was we came second!

Afterward, Mr. Min took us to McDonald's to celebrate. He let us each pick a frozen drink, and since Mila and Jess didn’t want one, they split the rest of the licorice mini logs. We had way too much fun tapping all the screens (even the broken ones) and just laughing about the whole day.

On the ride back, we were all tired but still hyped from the experience. Once we got back to school, instead of going to house sports, we chilled in Room 6, talking about the questions, the scores, and how crazy it was that Team 2 came second. It was such a close competition, and we were still buzzing from it all. 

That's my Lit Quiz Experience from start to finish.