Introduction
BrainSmart has always been about improving the minds of children and teenagers through a friendly competition. But a big part of childhood is change. So HAAFA is proud to introduce BrainSmart 2.0, a brilliant evolution of our efforts in improving the minds of our youth.
Enrollment
It is integral to BrainSmart’s success that it be as easy as possible to enable our children to participate in the competition. The following Criteria must be met for teams to participate.
- Teams must have exactly THREE members, with a fourth as backup. Teams with more than THREE members will not be allowed to participate in BrainSmart.
- All players must be between 13 and 18 years old, unless otherwise requested by a parent who has filled out the Exceptional Promotion Application (EPA).
- Registration will cost $25 per player ($100 per team), which includes a T-Shirt and Participation Medal for every player.
- All members of the team are required to attend ALL Qualifying Rounds, as well as the Finals, unless HAAFA is notified at least two weeks before the start of the competition. Teams that are missing members and have not notified HAAFA will be disqualified.
- Teams must arrive ON TIME to ALL Rounds of BrainSmart. Any team late by 5 or 10 minutes will lose 1 point. Any team more than 15 minutes late will be disqualified.
Competition Arrangement
QualifyingThe Qualifying Rounds will consist of 20 questions, 10 for each of two topics each week for 4 weeks. A brand new question system and study guide is part of BrainSmart 2.0, which has been designed from the ground-up to better accommodate Grade 8-12 academics.
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FinalsThe Final Round will consist of 40 questions, divided into 8 topics. When teams are asked a question, they will have approximately 20 seconds to answer. If the team fails to answer, then the other team will similarly be given 20 seconds to answer.
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Competition Rules
- After the host reads the question, a team will have up to 20 seconds to hit the buzzer and answer the question.
- Teams are allowed to confer with each other to decide what the answer is.
- Only 1 member of a team is allowed to hit the buzzer and answer.
- Each question is worth one point during the pre-selection. However, each question is worth the assigned point during the Finals.
- Players cannot use their phone, calculator, tablet, or any other devices.
- A question cannot be half answered. There is no partial credit. It is either correct or incorrect.
- A team can skip up to two out of ten questions without any penalties during the pre-selection.
- Should a team choose to skip up to 2 questions, the highest score they may receive that round is 8/10 or 80%.
- Should a team skip more than 2 questions, then they will be required to answer up to three backup questions.
- During the Finals, a team can skip as many questions as they want to. They will not receive any points for skipped questions
- When a team or team member misses a question, the team loses the assigned point.
- Should a team or team member choose to contest a score decision, the host will collaborate with Project Leaders to recalculate the answer and make a final decision.
- The host always has the final word, in collaboration with the project leaders.
- During Finals: When a team misses a question, the other team will have up to 15 seconds to press the buzzer to answer the question.
- During Finals: The member of a team who presses the buzzer must answer the question.
- During Finals: A player cannot press on the buzzer before the host finishes reading the questions. Failure to abide by this rule will result in a loss of one point per occurrence.