National Finals Contest Rules

In addition to all the general contest rules stated by North South Foundation, the following rules are applicable for the Geography Bee Competition.

1. 1. There are 2 levels of competition in Geography Bee:
      • JGB (Junior Geography Bee): Grades 1, 2 and 3
      • SGB (Senior Geography Bee): Grades 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8

Rules

1. 1. • A 1st rank winner at the North South Foundation National Finals Junior Geography Bee can only participate in the Senior Geography Bee the following contest year onwards.
      • A National Geographic Bee winner is not eligible to participate in North South Foundation Geography Bee contests.
      • Geography Bees (JGB and SGB) are held in three phases: Phase I (written), Phase II (oral), and Phase III (Oral).
      • All the contestants will be allowed to participate in Phase I and Phase II. Whereas Phase III will be limited to the top 10 finishers based on scores from Phase I and Phase II. Parents and students will have the opportunity to watch phase 3 depending on the capacity of the rooms.

The following rules are applicable for Phase I and Phase II for both JGB and SGB:
Phase I (Written round):

1. 1. • Phase I is a written test with 30 questions. All contestants will get the same 30 questions. The contestants will have 30 minutes to complete Phase I.
      • If there are multiple answer choices, only your answer choice entries, from the provided multiple choices, are recorded, and graded.
      • Please note that there may not be multiple answer choices for all questions. It is also possible that there may not be any multiple-choice answers.
      • Students can change their selected answer for any question within the allocated time during the contest, provided the older answer is clearly crossed out.
      • Contestants must not use books, handwritten or electronic notes, websites, phones, smart watches, or any other form of external help – in person, or by messaging/emails/etc.
      • No recording of any sort is allowed. If a contestant is found recording with a camera or using voice recording devices, they will be disqualified.

Phase II (Oral round):

1. 1. • All contestants advance to Phase II. In Phase II, contestants will be divided into groups of no more than 25.
      • Phase II contest contains 3 oral rounds only.
      • During this phase, the pronouncer announces the question. The contestant is not allowed to ask the judges for any information on the question. The contestant is allowed 15 seconds to provide his/her answer. The judges may award zero points to any contestant who ignores a request to start giving an answer.
      • In each round, each contestant gets a new question from the list. If a contestant gives an incorrect answer, the judges provide the correct answer. The next contestant will be given a new question from the list.
      • The contestant will be awarded one point for the correct answer and zero for an incorrect answer.

The following rules are applicable only for the JGB

Phase III – JGB (Top 10):

1. 1. • The top 10 advancing to Phase III is based on the cumulative scores from Phase I and II (30+3 = 33). Please see the tie-breaker rules outlined in a section below.
      • The 7 tie-breaker rules noted below are applied to any potential ties to determine the top 10.
      • Phase III consists of two sub-phases:
        • Double Elimination – to determine the top 3.
        • Championship Round – to determine the Champion.

Double Elimination:

1. 1. • Scores are tallied at the end of each round.
      • In a common question round contestants are given 15 seconds to write their answers on the white board. Contestant will write their answer on White board while facing the judges, with white board held up. When time is called the contestant should put down the pen or marker and flip the board to show their answer to the judges.
      • In an individual question round each contestant gets a different question and has 15 seconds to answer.
      • Any contestant who has a cumulative of two wrong answers at the end of the current round will be eliminated.
      • This process continues till 3 contestants are left.
      • If all contestants are eliminated at the end of a round, the remaining contestants at this round will continue to the next round and the contest switches to single elimination mode till the top 3 are determined.
      • If only three contestants remain at the end of the round, they advance to the championship round.
      • If only one contestant remains at the end of the round, he/she will advance to the Championship round. The remaining contestants will continue with a single elimination phase to determine the two more spots for the Championship round.
      • The ranks of the eliminated contestants in any round are determined by the tie-breaker rules.
      • This phase ends when we have identified the three Championship finalists.

Championship Round, Winners, and Ranks:

1. 1. • The top 3 contestants will compete in the Championship round.
      • Championship round is single elimination.
      • All questions in the Championship round will be only in a common question format.
      • In every round, the contestant has 15 seconds to write down their answer. Contestants will write their answers on the white board while facing the judges with white board held up.
      • When time is called, contestants must put down their writing pen or marker and flip the white board to show the answer to be seen by the judges.
      • If one contestant is eliminated before the other two, this contestant is declared the third-place winner. The other two will continue till the Champion is declared.
      • If two contestants are eliminated in a round, the remaining contestant will be declared the Champion. The two eliminated contestants will then continue the rounds to determine the 2nd and 3rd ranks.
      • If all three contestants answer incorrectly, they will all move on to the next round.
      • If any of these top three positions remains tied after a maximum of 10 rounds, it will be broken as per the tie-breaker rules outlined below.
      • Based on the situation, the coordinator and the judges may reduce or increase the number of rounds allowed for the championship rounds. The judge’s decision is final.

Tiebreaker Rules:

1. 1. • To break ties, the scheme outlined below is followed in the order given:
        
        1. Combined Phase I and Phase II score
        2. Phase I score alone.
        3. Phase I score among questions 26-30
        4. Phase I score among questions 21-25
        5. Phase I score among questions 16-20
        6. Phase I score among questions 11-15
        7. Phase I score among questions 1-10
        8. If there are more than 10 candidates at this point, then only the students who tied for the last position will go through a set of oral tie-breaker questions. This tie-breaker session will be conducted at the beginning of the time period that is identified as Phase III in the schedule.
      • To provide further clarification on item 8, some scenarios are discussed below:
        

        Scenario #1

        Contestant#	Placement
        9	9
        10	10
        11	10
        12	10
        13	10

        Last 4 contestants will go through an oral tiebreaker at the beginning of GB Phase III.
        1 out of the last four will go to Phase III. Three will be eliminated.

        Scenario #2

        Contestant#	Placement
        8	8
        9	9
        10	9
        11	9
        12	9

        Last 4 contestants will go through an oral tiebreaker at the beginning of GB Phase III.
        2 out of the last four will go to Phase III. Two get eliminated. As soon as two are eliminated, the oral tie-breaker round will close.

        Scenario #3

        Contestant#	Placement
        7	7
        8	8
        9	8
        10	8
        11	8
        12	8

        Last 5 contestants will go through an oral tiebreaker at the beginning of GB Phase III.
        3 out of the last 5 will go to Phase III. Two get eliminated. As soon as two are eliminated, the oral tie-breaker round will close.

        Scenario #4

        Contestant#	Placement
        6	6
        7	7
        8	7
        9	7
        10	7
        11	7

        Last 5 contestants will go through an oral tiebreaker at the beginning of GB Phase III.
        4 out of the last 5 will go to Phase III. Only one gets eliminated. As soon as one is eliminated, the oral tie-breaker round will close.

The following rules are applicable only for the SGB

Phase III – SGB (Top 10):

1. 1. • The top 10 advancing to Phase III is based on the cumulative scores from Phase I and II (30+3 = 33). Please see the tie-breaker rules outlined in a section below.
      • The 7 tie-breaker rules noted below are applied to any potential ties to determine the top 10.
      • Phase III consists of two sub-phases:
        • Semifinal Round – to determine the top 3.
        • Championship Round – to determine the Champion.

Semifinal Round

1. 1. • Phase 3 Semifinal Round will include exactly eight rounds worth a total of 40 points.
      • Each round is a common question worth a maximum of 5 points with progressively
        easier clues. Participants will have a chance to “lock-in” their answer after each clue,
        after which time answers cannot be changed. Answers “locked-in” after fewer clues
        are worth more points if correct.

        Here is a more detailed explanation:Participants will be asked to identify an answer based on clues. There will be 5 clues. Participants will have 12 seconds to write down an answer after each clue. For ease of scoring each round, participants will also be required to write a point value next to their answer which corresponds to the previous clue’s point value. A correct answer that was “locked-in” (written down) after the first clue will fetch 5 points, a correct answer after the second clue will fetch 4 points, etc. This will continue until a correct answer after the 5th clue fetches only 1 point. It is up to the participants if they would like to take a risk before answering after each clue. A participant will have only one opportunity to answer in each round. Any attempt to change an answer which has already been locked-in or write an incorrect point value next to an answer, will result in automatic disqualification. Because questions are common to all participants, participants will only show their written answer and orally respond once all five of the clues have been read.

      • Scores are tallied at the end of each round.
      • The laptop judge will display the scores after each round on the screen.
      • After 8 rounds, the top 3 participants advance to a clean-slate championship.
      • If, after 8 rounds, there are ties, the contest to determine the top three will continue.
        in a single-elimination “sudden-death” style.Participants will be given a common question to answer till the tie is broken. (Note: Those who have already qualified unquestionably after 8 rounds will not participate in this “sudden death” set. Continuation of tiebreaker rounds applies only amongst the tied participants).

Championship Round, Winners, and Ranks:

1. 1. • The top 3 contestants will compete in the Championship round.
      • Championship round is single elimination.
      • All questions in the Championship round will be only in a common question format.
      • In every round, the contestant has 15 seconds to write down their answer. Contestants will write their answers on the white board while facing the judges with white board held up.
      • When time is called, contestants must put down their writing pen or marker and flip the white board to show the answer to be seen by the judges.
      • If one contestant is eliminated before the other two, this contestant is declared the third-place winner. The other two will continue till the Champion is declared.
      • If two contestants are eliminated in a round, the remaining contestant will be declared the Champion. The two eliminated contestants will then continue the rounds to determine the 2nd and 3rd ranks.
      • If all three contestants answer incorrectly, they will all move on to the next round.
      • If any of these top three positions remains tied after a maximum of 10 rounds, it will be broken as per the tie-breaker rules outlined below.
      • Based on the situation, the coordinator and the judges may reduce or increase the number of rounds allowed for the championship rounds. The judge’s decision is final.

Tiebreaker Rules:

1. • To break ties, the scheme outlined below is followed in the order given:
     
     1. Combined Phase I and Phase II score
     2. Phase I score alone.
     3. Phase I score among questions 26-30
     4. Phase I score among questions 21-25
     5. Phase I score among questions 16-20
     6. Phase I score among questions 11-15
     7. Phase I score among questions 1-10
     8. If there are more than 10 candidates at this point, then only the students who tied for the last position will go through a set of oral tie-breaker questions. This tie-breaker session will be conducted at the beginning of the time period that is identified as Phase III in the schedule.
   • To provide further clarification on item 8, some scenarios are discussed below:
     

     Scenario #1

     Contestant#	Placement
     9	9
     10	10
     11	10
     12	10
     13	10

     Last 4 contestants will go through an oral tiebreaker at the beginning of GB Phase III. 1 out of the last four will go to Phase III. Three will be eliminated.

     Scenario #2

     Contestant#	Placement
     8	8
     9	9
     10	9
     11	9
     12	9

     Last 4 contestants will go through an oral tiebreaker at the beginning of GB Phase III. 2 out of the last four will go to Phase III. Two get eliminated. As soon as two are eliminated, the oral tie-breaker round will close.

     Scenario #3

     Contestant#	Placement
     7	7
     8	8
     9	8
     10	8
     11	8
     12	8

     Last 5 contestants will go through an oral tiebreaker at the beginning of GB Phase III. 3 out of the last 5 will go to Phase III. Two get eliminated. As soon as two are eliminated, the oral tie-breaker round will close.

     Scenario #4

     Contestant#	Placement
     6	6
     7	7
     8	7
     9	7
     10	7
     11	7

     Last 5 contestants will go through an oral tiebreaker at the beginning of GB Phase III. 4 out of the last 5 will go to Phase III. Only one gets eliminated. As soon as one is eliminated, the oral tie-breaker round will close.