The Novice Certamen Contest and Lower Certamen Contest were held last month on the 20th and the 27th. The winners of these contests wrote some articles telling us what each thought about their own experiences and about winning in the contests.
 Novice Certamen Winners. (L to R) Katlyne, Enid, Dicky, Jared, Richard * * * - Memories - On Wednesday, October 20th, many eighth grade students attended the Novice Certamen Contest in Ms. Hui and Dr. Properzio's rooms. Two weeks before the contest, they gave us each a packet with a lot of information about mythology to study. There was also information about Roman houses, Roman monarchy, abbreviations of Roman phrases, and ranks of Roman society. It seemed like a lot of information to study, but I was determined to at least make it to the finals. I was nervous on the day of the preliminaries because there were many other eight graders who I thought knew more mythology and could perform better than me. There were two rounds held in two different rooms. Each round consisted of sixteen students competing, and I was in the first round in Ms. Hui's room. One thing that helped me in this competition was going to Mt. Greylock HS in Williamstown for the Catapult Contest on Saturday, October 16. The open certamen and the performance by Ods Bodkin gave me a lot of helpful information. There were even some questions that appeared in the open certamen that were asked in the Novice Certamen Contest! At the end, Ms. Rivera and Ms. Hui tallied up all the points that each of us had. On the following Friday, I got a note that said I was chosen to go to the finals on Wednesday, October 27. On the day of the certamen finals, my hands were shaking. There were many other competitive players who did great. At the end, I made third place with two other eighth graders. This event has really showed me what I can learn and it has made me more aware of how fun mythology can be. Everyone should become involved in the Classics Club because you can learn a lot of information that will help you later on. Plus, we go on fun trips! ~Katlyne D., Grade 8  Novice Certamen - Memories - Certamen, to me, is a nerve racking and sometimes exciting experience. It covers a broad range of elements, such as mythology (my favorite), geography, grammar, history, and culture from the ancient Greek and Roman times. You can learn more about these things as you progress with your skills. I began this competition last year as a seventh grader and have continued to thrive in it while attending the Catapult Contest, choosing it as an applied academics, and staying after school for the school-based certamen. My team of three contestants at the Catapult competition won our Novice round, and I, myself, challenged formidable players after school and succeeded as first place winner. I have surprised even myself at how far I have come, but now I just have to keep trying harder unto near perfection in the long future. For those of you who participate in the BLA’s certamen, please do the same and keep on buzzing. ~Jared H., Grade 8  Novice Certamen (2) - Memories - The Novice Certamen Contest was held in Ms. Hui’s room. I knew most of the students who attended, and I was afraid that I would become too competitive against them. For the whole time there, I sat in my chair with my hands gripping the buzzer, and was ready to pounce on the questions that came my way. Those questions were based on mythology heroes and history. I never expected to get into the final round of the Novice Certamen Contest. This game is nerve racking sometimes. You sit there, when someone buzzes in before you and they answer the question correctly, you jump out of your chair and complain. It is actually funny watching this happen, even when I did it. I was so negative throughout the whole contest saying that I was not going to win and that my friends were going to. It actually came out the other way; I won third place and my other friends did not win a place on the team. I felt kind of bad because I did not study as much. The experience of it all was fun. I learned from the questions that were answered by my peers and I felt proud of myself. ~Enid F., Grade 8  Novice Certamen (3)  Novice Certamen (4)   Lower Certamen Winners. (L to R) Wade, James, Marcus * * * - Memories - There are several differences between the regular team certamen and the recent 9th grade individual Certamen Contest. The competition had all toss ups, while the regular team certamen has a toss up and includes two bonuses for each toss up. In the Certamen finals, the questions were relatively easy, many of which were similar to the ones in the preliminaries. But more than half of the questions were still new to me. Some questions were easy, such as how many declensions are there, but other questions were harder. Some were so difficult that I did not understand what was asked. Although the questions ranged from being easy to bring hard, everyone buzzed in at least once. It meant that a lot people had good reaction time with the buzzer and that helped us to move pretty quickly through the questions. Reaction was very important; there were many questions that I knew the answer to but could not answer it because other participants buzzed in first. I was able to answer enough questions to get second place, but the competition was really about having a quick reaction to the buzzer in order to score. ~Wade G., Grade 9  Lower Certamen - Memories - I was a contestant in the Certamen Contest on October 27. I had little hope of winning because in the first round I answered less than half of the questions that Marcus Peart answered. Even though I was automatically qualified for the finals, I did not expect to place. I believed at best that I would be seventh out of the sixteen who came. However, once the contest started, I was surprised at how well I did. I lost count after six answers, so I still did not think that I would win. The competition went faster than I anticipated, and seemed relatively short. When the count came in, I was first with fourteen answers. Ms. Hausey, Anna, one of the "cheerleaders" who came to watch, and Marcus congratulated me. It was great. ~James B., Grade 9  Lower Certamen (2)  Lower Certamen (3)  Lower Certamen (4) Even though no contests included the Upper Certamen Team, I've decided to give you a little taste of what they're like. Here are a few pictures of the team at work.  Upper Certamen  Upper Certamen (2)  Upper Certamen (3)  Upper Certamen (4)  Upper Certamen (5)  Upper Certamen (6) |