National Academic Quiz Tournaments

National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC, is an organization that produces College Bowl questions and holds regional and national tournaments at the high school and college level every year. Currently led by R. Robert Hentzel, NAQT is a timed tossup/bonus format with 9-minute halves. NAQT is thought to occupy a middle ground between CBI and ACF: its questions contain some pop culture and current events but have consistently high academic content, harder than CBI but easier than ACF; its tossups emphasize pyramidality but are shorter and less dense than those of ACF; its bonii are all worth 30 points; it is timed, though the last bonus can be finished after time expires. Many players criticize NAQT for having too many "cutesy" questions and not enough academic content, though this criticism is limited compared to that directed against CBI.

NAQT's National tournament is distinctive for having an upper and lower division, and for emphasizing the Undergraduate champion of the former and the Community College champion of the latter. On April 8, 2006, Williams won the Division I Undergraduate title, beating Chicago B 315-205 in the final.

Detailed team performance at NAQT tournaments for the past few years can be found at http://www.naqt.com.

Dave Letzler '06 is currently a freelance question-writer for NAQT.