Academic Team Update - 1/26/10

Today we had our penultimate meeting of preparation for our competition on Saturday. I must say that I am a bit nervous for the High School Quiz Show. I have no idea what to expect, and I can't ever be sure of what the trivia will be and there for I can't prepare for anything specifically. I have realized at this point that my best plan would be to stick with what I know and have confidence in my answers. I'm not worried about guessing and getting an answer wrong, because if I tried it shows effort on my part. However, I am worried that my knowledge is insufficient, and that I could possibly be dead weight on the team.

At today's meeting I recognized a weakness of mine: not thinking through the question. Sometimes I would be too impulsive when I heard a question and just blurt out whatever the answer seemed to be without doing a mental check in my head to see if my answer was right. Often times I didn't wait for the question to finish, which I should do if I want to make sure I give the correct answer. I don't think it is that I'm not listening well enough, but more like I'm anxious and jumpy and just want to give the answer immediately. It gets confusing, though, because I need to give my answers as quickly as possible, but I also need to make sure I'm giving the correct one and not being too spontaneous.

Marliee has also informed me that I could be the captain of the team or the participant in the head-to-head. This would definitely be a new challenge for me to undertake, but I'm still not sure if either of these duties will be mine. I hope that if I get chosen to fulfill one of these roles, my team will support me and I will not let them down.