Diamond Bar High School’s newly founded Quizbowl Club takes Triviacrack to an entirely new level, engaging students in a eclectic variety of academic topics. Club members recently tested out their knowledge through a series of intense competitions.

Junior Peyrin Kao started the club along with Jason Chang, Paul Abdo, and Kevin Jiang because he believed DBHS AP students would be well-versed in the topics covered by Quizbowl, which include history, literature, science, fine arts, current events, sports, and popular culture. The group participated in their first competition last month.

During Quizbowl competitions, two teams of students from different schools compete using buzzers to answer questions based on academic subjects. A typical question may be structured as such: Identify this American author of “A Farewell to Arms” and “The Old Man and the Sea.” Students that know the answer will tap the buzzer, and state their answer (in this case, Ernest Hemingway). If the answer is correct, the student will obtain the points.

“We recently got a hold of a buzzer system, so we have been practicing with that to get familiar with [the] competition format. We also used some online resources to read over old question sets and study guides,” Kao said.

The DBHS team competed in the Southern California Quizbowl, and placed ninth out of 11 teams, while Kao individually placed eighth. The competition, held at Arcadia High School, included local high schools such as North Hollywood High School, Westview High School, and Torrey Pines High School. The DBHS team consisted of juniors Derrick Li, Peter Thompson, Paul Abdo, Kevin Jiang, and Jason Chang.

“I first found out about Quizbowl through a multiplayer website that ran questions online. I realized that because a lot of topics covered in Quizbowl are also covered in AP classes, Diamond Bar could do really well in competitions like this,” Kao said.

They plan to compete again on March 26.

To train for competitions, the competing group meets for two to three hours every week, using old questions and buzzers to practice. The club members are open to attend these practices, and are able to sign up for competitions. If too many members sign up for competition, competing members are selected through their performance at the practices.

“It’s a great learning experience for the future,” Thompson said.