by Logan Scisco
Most of the people reading this strategy piece are extempers who have at least one tournament under their belt. If you fall into this category, and assuming that you are attending a tournament that has only two preliminary rounds, you know that over the course of said tournament you are presented with at least six different questions during preliminary rounds, of which you will choose two to speak on. If you are an astute extemper, you might remember the questions that you drew at tournaments or at practice sessions so far this season. Take a moment to reflect on questions that you have run into thus far. What did they ask you to do? After pondering this for a moment consider this: you can usually tell what an extemp question wants you to do by looking at the first word of the question. For example, a “can” question asks you to assess whether a certain event is going to take place while a “should” question asks you to make a judgment about whether doing something is right or wrong.