Trust me when I was informed that Nicole, bing and I would be entering mighty minds at 1st avenue, our first thought were WE CAN SKIP THE CROSS-COUNTRY RUN! Well, because both of them were held on the same day. We asked our friends about the instructions since we're the first time joining mighty minds? They said they never managed to enter the 2nd round before, they weren't sure. So, we just conclude that we will not enter the 2nd round and we can have fun after the 1st round. We didn't prepare much really. We just read some encyclopedia( which really didn't help at all) and I searched for sports news. It was kinda fun because I learnt more about sports, football especially.
Finally, that day arrives. There was a huge crowd and the scene simply terrifies us all. We didn't expect that it will be joined by so many people. And we were even convinced that we wouldn't stand a chance to get into 2nd round at all. Guess what, I bumped into my junior in primary school.
First, the over 120 teams were divided into 2 groups, A and B and team numbers were given. Ours was B38. Lower secondary A starts first. 3 teams of my friends were in, While we stood outside the ring and test ourselves. Everyone sat on the floor with their teammates, holding a remote control staring eagerly at the big screen where the question would be shown. There were 20 multiple choices questions in total. Each question 20marks. We were given about 30 seconds to answer each question which is sufficient. After answering 10questions, your current ranking will be shown in the screen. My friend was among the top 10. However, after 20question, they didn't manage to squeeze into top 5 qualifying teams.
There's 2 questions on japan , one about food and the other one is "what does YAKUZA (Japanese word) mean? To me, the yakuza one is as easy as ABC. The answer was Mafia. That word is commonly found in those mangas I read! There's also one about which country did 'The Ashes' come from? I was lucky to read it before during my search of sports news. The Ashes is a cricket team from England and has just won the BBC personality award of 2013.
At first our strategy is the minor will follow the majority unless you're very sure about the answer. fit three of us have different answers, let's just follow the one who thinks that her instinct was the most accurate. However, after round A, we noticed a pattern of our instincts. Question 1-5, bing's instinct a were accurate. 6-10, Nicole's. 11-15 was mine. 15-20 was random.
Later, it' s lower secondary B which is our turn!!! We cut lines to stand on the first spot when the ring opens. Well..... We did this So we can get a good spot where the remote controls can get good signal and we wouldn't be blocked by huge body boys. Since the speed you answer for each question counts too!!
As I just mentioned earlier about our weird instincts round, we REALLY did use that strategy. Although Nicole's instinct wasn't at her best form but well, mine and bing worked well. The questions are so weird and we answered some correctly through our instincts game. The most epic one is the last question, who is the manager of Real Madrid? Seriously! All I know is C.Ronaldo is in that club and I support Real Madrid over Barcelona but seriously who is the manager? That time the most I could remember was the face of that manager. The choices are like names i think I've heard before for example Fabio and stuff. The word Anttoni from Carlo Anttoni was like keep telling me "I'm the answer!I'm the answer! Choose me! Choose me!" So I just chose that. After a few seconds, we waited for the screen to reveal the answer. And it REALLY was Carlo ATTONI!!!!
And finally, WHO WILL BE QUALIFIED?
The screen showed #5 B38 200marks.
OMG!!!!!!!! I didn't believe we actually made it!!!! if we were a few seconds slower, we might not be qualified! We were soooooo close!!
Then, the head judge brought us to the back stage and explained the instructions for round 2 hands on. We were to do a model by the materials given such as cupboard and paper and stuff. Not only that, EACH ONE of us had 1minute to present your model. GREAT. We didn't really prepare anything... Plus, I'm very not confident in public speaking. We were told that the theme was Old is Gold. We reconfirmed with the judge because the website said that the theme was Going Round in Cirlces. We were told that that's Perak's theme,
We rushed to mcdonalds to have our lunch. We discussed while eating. Our first plan was a watch. But we later decided that it was too hard to make and it wasn't creative. Bing suggested a SMART TONGKAT. As bing and I were cat lovers, I immediately suggest that it to look like a cat. Unexpectedly, Nicole who was usually fed up of our cat-ing agreed our idea. So, we made a tongkat that looked like a cat.
We had another hour before round 2 started. We used that time to prepare our presentation scripts. Nicole did the WHAT, I said the WHY and Bing explained the HOW. During the round 2, my parents came! Yay! Between 45 minutes, we finished our cat tongkat which we named it CATWALK. Cool huh? Haha.
When it comes to the presentation, the upper secondary started first. That gave us another one hour to prepare our presentation. The time was really more than enough and I memorized my script so many times that I think I was able to memorized it backwards. The more the time ticked away, the more nervous we were. Bing and I ended up singing Counting Stars to soothe our nervousness. it didn't make much help though.
When it's our turn, Nicole forgot her script for a little. After that, she passed me the mike. All of sudden, I was conscious of the judges staring at me and all the crowd outside the ring looking at me. My mind just went blank. The script I memorized so well was all gone!! I wrote a small note in my hand but I panicked and the note was turned backways and I was certain my hands were shivering. SERIOUSLY. I never expected me to be this worse...... Lesson learnt : I should have just brought my whole script instead of making notes.
Then, it was announcement of qualification to the final round..... And also the current ranking again, ( the marks were accumulative from the first round to the last round)
I did my presentation so badly that I really think we would be the last.
Luck was at our side that day. Though my performance was terrible , yet we still managed to get the 3rd!! WooHOO!!! This means we will get 5th at the very least!!! And from some blog I read, the fifth place will receive RM300! Meanwhile, the main judge introduced the qualifying teams. She took a liking to our catwalk i think. Because she especially promoted our catwalk to the audience. LOL.
Meanwhile, the shopping mall was playing 'Price tag'. After I told bing about the prizes we would get, we sang along : it's ALL about the money money money! It's ALL about the money money money~ yes! indeed we're all MONEY LOVERS.
Then, it was the most exciting part of all. The buzz challenge. There were 15 questions, each question Answered correctly will be awarded 2 marks. The one who pressed the button first gets to answer. If the first player was correct, the second person wouldn't be given marks although the answer correct. If the first player was wrong, the next person who gave the correct answer will be given two marks. However, if your first answer was wrong and you wanted to try another time, you can. But there were risks. If you're correct, only 1 mark will be given, but if you're wrong, 2 marks will be deducted.
At first, one member from each team would go and stand behind the stage kinda thingy, where there was a button and a mike. Each member will answer three question alone. Then, the last 6 questions will be answered together as a team.
The question for buzz challenge was easier. I managed to get the first question correct. What's the latitude of equator? I was pretty sure that time the other schools were still dumbfounded. The question will be shown on the screen so we have to read fast and think fast. It was really tricky.
I regretted a lot. Because I was overjoyed about my first correct and I forgot to focus for the next question... That question was another easy one..... It was like an x a day kicks the doctor away, what is x? The third one was what is the animal in the logo of Ferrari. I hated myself for my slow brain.
Lesson learnt: read the question from below, because usually the front part is useless.
But thankfully bing got a quick mind and and she won 5 marks for our team! There was a question like: what is an egg tooth which is found in birds used for? When she pressed the button, I was surprised. I asked her DID you know the answer?? She replied no. Just making a guess.
She answered that the egg tooth was used for the young bird to crack the egg, so they can get out of it. And she was right.
There are many easy questions like where is Winter Olympic 2014 held? Sochi. Who bought whatsapp? Facebook. We were just a millisecond difference in our speed to answer compared to the Chung ling boys. DUH. Chung ling had 3 teams in the final!! Ridiculously strong, the other team was Bukit jambul. We are the only girls in the final.
And FINALLY, the rankings.......btw, we're from SMJK Perempuan china pulau Pinang.
5th SMJK........... Chung ling butterworth
Won RM 300
OMG OMG we're in top 4!!!!!
4th SMK bukit jambul......
OMG OMG OMG OMG top3!!!!!!!!
3rd......SMJK...............Chung ling!!
We jumped in JOY! OMG top 2!!!!!
2nd, it's us~ the announcer said that the difference between the champions and the runner-ups is really close, another 2 marks we would have won..... Damn it!! IF we were a little faster! IF I didn't forgot my script! AAHHHHHHHH
Btw, if you guys need the questions for round 1, check out Bing's blog.
http://blossom-rain.blogspot.com/