I missed this year’s National Geographic Bee, and found out that they changed the format of the finals for the first time. (In the past, they asked each of the 10 finalists a question - sometimes the same question, where they had to write down their answers, and sometimes different questions - and eliminated finalists after two incorrect answers until they were down to the last two.)
Does anybody have specifics on how this year’s finals worked?
This year they have a 6-year oldwho qualified by winning her regional bee.
StG
I think you are thinking of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Where is it? I can’t find it.
You’re quite right. My mistake.
StG
That’s pretty much how it worked.
Alex Trebek was the Host. The questions were very difficult, I thought. I only got a few of the questions. It was extremely slow paced with a lot of fluff.
There were ten finalists, 9 boys/1 girl.
I can’t remember all the states that were represented Utah, California, Arizona, Wisconsin, Louisiana, New Hampshire
One thing that seemed a little curious: all four quarter-finalists were boys who appeared to be of South Asian extraction.
A good friend of mine’s son made it to the round before the finals. Nothing to add, just wanted to point out I know people!
Actually 7 of the 10 finalists were of South Asian (Indian) extraction.
two finalist were of “European” exrtration.
One appeared to be of the Far East extraction. Either Chinese or Korean I think.
Official National Geographic Bee website
Not from what I heard - this year, apparently they added some sort of “challenge question” format, and at certain intervals, the two low scores were eliminated until they got down to the last two. That’s why I posted in the first place.
The ten finalists were from Arizona, California, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Texas, Utah, and Wisconsin.
I’m sorry I misread your OP, yes, they eliminated two contestants after a couple rounds of questions.