8th National Schools Sports Quiz

Today, the Serious PE class of 3B took part in the 8th National Schools Sports Quiz organised by Hwa Chong Institution.

Last year's team managed to get into the Top 3 despite having almost no preparation. So this year's team being comprised of the Serious PE fellas offering GCE PE for O-Levels surely can do better, right? Well, other schools offering GCE PE were also taking part and we knew we would face tough competition.

The qualifying round would consist of 40 MCQ. The Top 4 individuals and Top 4 teams would proceed to the finals.
So first off, we would have to qualify--

Team Captain Narren's words "We will do our best to make Victoria proud!" left a smile on my face as I made my way to the canteen to wait for them to come out half-an-hour late.

The half-hour passed quickly and I was confident that they would do well. Afterall, the team and I spend yesterday afternoon going over all the GCE PE syllabus that they covered so far. Our preparation was damn serious man! I give them powerpoint slides to revise, use Flash cards to quiz them. Donch pray pray arh!

Then Captain Narren comes to tell me, "Sir, all the anatomy, fitness and training sessions and hard core PE theory never come out!"

Uh Oh......
Nevermind, being a good sport we proceeded to the auditorium to watch the rest of the teams participate. Suddenly as we were seated, the ushers came to us and said,"Uh 'cuse me ar sir, you know your boys in the Top 20 for Individual Round? Got prize wan..... Oh ya, your team also in Top 4 for finals. Got to draw lots for table, can?"

WOOTS! Of couse can lah! As I always say...... Rock neber die!
So here are the highlights of our ardous climb to glory.
First came the Matrix Speed Round where teams had to choose questions from 12 boxes and give the correct answer:

The first question, on Judo, was answered by typical Victorian talent. Yup, pure, unadulterated guesswork.


Our second question, on Rugby, which the boys probably have never played during their PE lessons in VS was answered again with the belief in our natural Victorian talent. Yup, it was pure luck again. I look at the boys and could see them equally amazed. The audience must be wondering "Eh, liddat orso can ar?"


The we got the next question wrong, and I started to fear whether our first 2 lucky flukes would be the only thing we would take back with us.


But the next round would tell. We moved on to the Buzzer round where the first team to press the buzzer would get a chance to attempt the question. 2 point for correct answer, -1 point for wrong attempt.


But this round showed that we had what it takes to make history after all.
Against all odds, we led the round by a one point margin at the end of the round. Yup, thanks to Jeremy Tan's 'anyhowhantam also better than don't answer', we squeezed in the extra one point to make 11 points and qualify us to match Nanyang Girls in the final round.


In the final phase, students are split into pairs with a Describer and a Guesser. Describer has to describe elements of a sport to the Guesser without using certain forbidden words ala Taboo.
If ever there was a doubt that we would pull it off, this round erased all doubt from my mind that Victorians can indeed think outside the box.


Jeremy and Shaun got 3/5 for their round
Next was Naren and Ernest-
Although abit hesistant at first, the duo showed that they had almost telepathic communciation skills when they got 3/5 as well for this round!

Jeremy and Shaun made history for us after this round!

Despite giving a hilarious answer for the first question, they clinched the round by getting 3/5 again.
It was this consistency in scoring points for each round and earning the bonus points by naming the sports that allowed us to make sporting history.


It was a well-deserved win! All 4 boys won medals for being in the Top 20 Individual scorers amongst the Secondary School category


But winning the Championship was a sweet reward for our first batch of GCE PE students offering PE for O-Level. It has been a very challenging year for Sec 3B and some have expressed doubt about our level of ability, our committment and character.
But I believe that this is the first step towards proving that when it comes to PE, we are SERIOUS.

3 cheers for the team and Narren, you DID make VS proud!
Sec 3B Serious PE
is here to stay!