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There are two more rounds to go at the Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin before competition ends for the evening. The topic area for this round is international economics.
Month: January 2014
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Here is the annual wacky graph at the MBA Round Robin. Each line represents a competitor during the tournament. Lines that are straight illustrate a competitor holding their rank and position. Lines that go down are illustrating a competitor moving up in ranking (e.g. going from fifth to third). Lines going the opposite direction illustrate a competitor moving down in ranking (e.g. going from third to fifth). Competitors do not know their lines, so it leads to much correct (and incorrect) speculation about who is who at this point in the tournament. Do you know the line of the competitor you are rooting for?
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We are halfway through the competition at the Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin in Nashville, Tennessee. Competitors have three rounds remaining in the day and the next round will be a domestic round, with the focus on President Obama and his administration.
Last round’s experimental topic concerned the Sochi Olympics. Extempers had two fake news stories to read discussing a new terrorist attack in Russia and the disaffection in the Russian military and then had to use that information to inform their approach to one of four questions they could select on various approaches toward the Sochi Olympics, which involved moving them to Vancouver, a Western boycott of the Olympic Games, whether Vladimir Putin should meet a series of Western demands about human rights in order to get security assistance, and whether the Olympic Games should be cancelled. There will be one more experimental round in the tournament that will be domestic in nature.
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Lunch is over and the rounds have resumed at this year’s Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin. This round features the first of two experimental rounds, where extempers handle topics and questions that are unconventional. The exact nature of this year’s experimental round will be revealed in the next round’s pairings since competitors are unaware of what it will entail before they do their draw for the coming round.
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Round four draw has just started and after this round competitors will have a lunch break until 1:00, when draw for the next round will begin. After lunch, competitors will have four consecutive rounds before ending competition for the evening.
The topic area for this round is U.S. economics.
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Round three draw is about to get underway as we kick off day two of the 2014 Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin. Extempers will compete in a grueling six rounds of competition today, so today is very important for extempers looking to gain and hold position for the last two rounds tomorrow. Luckily, all of the competitors made it to Nashville in spite of the weather, although that did not carry over to some nationally recognized critics that usually come to the tournament like Dr. Steve Moss.
The topic area for this round is American foreign policy.
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Draw has begun for round two, which is the last round of the day. Competition will resume tomorrow at 8:30 a.m., with draw beginning at 8:00 a.m.
The topic area for this round is election 2014.
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Draw has begun for the first round of this year’s Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin. Competitors will have two rounds tonight and the first round will run from 6:40-7:40 p.m. Draw for the next round will take place at 7:50 p.m.
The topic area for this round is international relations.
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Today’s R&D is brought to you by Prepd, the only software built specifically for extemp. Prepd makes it easy to research, practice, and compete! Visit www.prepd.in to learn more. Like Prepd on Facebook for special info and contests.
This R&D provides resources on the Volcker Rule. The Volcker Rule is part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that limits risky investments by American banks. The financial industry argues that the rule is counterproductive and hurts its business interests, whereas supporters of the rule argue that it is needed to avoid another financial crisis. The rule is scheduled to go into effect this April.
How Will the Volcker Rule Stand Up Against the Armies of Wall Street? Learn here @USNewsOpinion http://t.co/8GuZFxfFPh
— Am for Finan Reform (@FinanReformNow) January 2, 2014
Facing pushback from banks, regulators consider changes to Volcker rule provision on CDOs http://t.co/NNh4LUAaBL #banking #Volcker
— Andrew Johnson (@andrewrjohnson) December 27, 2013
RT @BennSteil: Beyond the Volcker Rule: A Better Approach to Financial Reform http://t.co/MolRckIxvg via @CFR_org
— CFR (@CFR_org) December 16, 2013
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For those who plan on following our live coverage of this year’s Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin, here is the schedule for this week’s tournament. The tournament will take place starting tomorrow evening and run through late Sunday afternoon. The tournament will feature ten rounds of competition, with four rooms of four competitors. Each round will have three judges and will feature three minute cross examination.
Our live coverage will provide the postings for the rounds, the topic areas for each round, the announcement of Exhibition Round participants, and the results of the tournament. We will try to be as prompt as possible when putting the pairings online.
The first two days of the tournament will take place on Montgomery Bell’s campus and the last day of the tournament will be held at the tournament hotel, the Nashville Airport Marriott.
Here is this year’s tournament schedule:
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Today’s R&D is brought to you by Prepd, the only software built specifically for extemp. Prepd makes it easy to research, practice, and compete! Visit www.prepd.in to learn more. Like Prepd on Facebook for special info and contests.
This R&D provides resources on the continued dismantling of Syria’s chemical weapons program. The Syrian government recently missed a deadline to get some of its chemical weapons arsenal into the hands of international observers who would destroy the weapons at sea.
is the world complicit in Assad’s continuing atrocities? #TheLead http://t.co/N5HJ65vz7g
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 1, 2014
A deadline to remove the first of #Syria‘s chemical weapons stockpile has been missed http://t.co/GmemyIIPiw
— Telegraph News (@TelegraphNews) December 31, 2013
U.N. blames security conditions, logistical challenges and poor weather for Syria missing chemical weapons deadline http://t.co/naKv0jphMn
— The Hill (@thehill) December 29, 2013
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by Logan Scisco
Extempers have a variety of sources at their disposal when crafting a speech. Magazines, newspaper articles, journal articles, books, and articles from think tanks constitute most of the tools that an extempers has in their arsenal. Most extempers tend to use magazine and newspaper articles the most, with journal articles constituting the third most used source. Think tank articles would probably be one of the least used sources, but they would be on the fourth rung of most used sources and books usually constitute one of the least used sources in extemporaneous speaking. Since books take more time to read and digest, extempers are less likely to use them since they feel they can use the length of time devoted to reading a book to reading a large number of other sources. However, books can be an important source of information and can impress an audience if used during a round. Extempers who watch old NFL final rounds can attest to the power of books in extemporaneous speaking as many recent national champions and finalists have used them.
This strategy piece will discuss the usefulness of using books in extemporaneous speaking and how to cite them, as well as providing tips for what books to read, how to read more of them quickly, and how to file and reference book citations during prep.
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Here is the last news quiz of 2013 and the first of 2014. Good luck and happy new year!
To access a list of all our old quizzes, click here.