Last week, a group of six students were driven up to Alliston, Ontario by our own Mr. Young for Certamen, a quiz competition that pits teams of students against one another to test their knowledge of Roman history, daily life, mythology, and language. The competition took place at Banting Memorial HS, and Abelard fielded a team in each of the intermediate and senior divisions: Francis, Angelo, and Nicole were our intermediates and Molly, Carmina, and Tas competed in the senior division.
Before the contest, our students spent 80 hours per week preparing for big event. They each had to read and prepare an assigned text, and Mr. Young filled them in on details about what life was like back in ancient Rome. The competition requires a great deal of memorization. On the hour-long drive to Alliston, our teams used the time to quiz one another. There were around 150 other students from really diverse backgrounds at Banting Memorial representing schools across the GTA, and as far away as Waterloo. Some school teams even wore matched Latin club t-shirts.
The competition itself was high pressure. Our students were nervous, but really excited too. Four teams competed at a time, using buzzers to respond to a moderator’s questions. There was considerable strategy in how students approached answering questions, with lots of teams buzzing in early to make an educated guess about what the moderator wanted. After all, the first correct answer got the point, so it was often worth the risk to get ahead of the other teams. However, if they guessed wrong, the team could not submit another answer for that question.
The day began with two rounds of questions that all teams had access to, with 28 questions asked in each round. At the end of this stage, each team’s score was tallied and the best teams moved forward to the semi-finals. We are so proud that both of our teams made it to this next phase. Each round in the semi-finals and finals challenged teams with 56 questions, doubling the scale of the effort. Although our teams did not compete in the finals, the experience was really positive for those who participated. We are already making plans to participate next year, and are considering another Classics competition for high school students that will take place in May this year. It likely won’t surprise anyone to know that Abelard loves Latin!
The Abelard School 