Twice in the last months, junior Nick Mulkerin and sophomores Abby Maher and Emily Bedeck represented Shaler Area in the KDQuiz competition, and they have advanced to the semifinals.
The KDQuiz is a gameshow hosted by the KDKA TV. Each week, three students from three different schools in the Pittsburgh area compete in a game of knowledge and represent their schools. Our intelligent Titans won two games, and will be advancing to the semi-finals.
This year, 81 Pennsylvania schools entered and competed in the KDQuiz. From there, there were 27 regular match-ups, 9 playoffs, 3 semi-finals, and 1 final. Our Titans will be one of nine schools to compete in the semi-finals. This team was ideally supposed to be a senior trio.
“I couldn’t get any seniors to participate,” GATE sponsor Mrs. Kathleen Elder said. “And so then I talked to one of the juniors, and I think a couple of sophomores overheard.”
When they entered the competition, it was online, which meant no room for errors or cuts in the recordings.
“So basically, there’s three schools and four rounds of trivia, and you can win or lose points,” Maher said.
These trivia rounds are not very simple. Each round has a different point distribution, in which you can win or lose depending on a correct or incorrect answer. However, these questions could be completely out of the blue or difficult to predict.
“I just told the kids to watch episodes online because you have no idea,” Mrs. Elder said. “It’s really a mixed bag.”
Luckily, this strategy proved to be effective, as our Titans were able to finish each episode with the top score. Many strategies can be seen and conveyed by the other teams in the other episodes as well.
“We were totally playing it safe. And you can tell if you watched the other team’s faces. You can tell they know exactly what we’re doing,” Mrs. Elder said.
Competing against other schools like Penns Manor, South Fayette, Kiski Area, and Plum can be thrilling, yet it can also be quite nerve-wrecking in the heat of the moment.
“Let’s say in the moment, I wish I could have changed the speed round,” Mulkerin said. “I wish we could have gotten more right.”
The entire competition was filmed over Zoom, and our Shaler Area representatives competed in three difficult rounds. However, our reps were able to come out on top at the end of the first and second competitions.
“I feel like a lot of people (watching it) thought it was live, but it wasn’t,” Maher said. “We had to keep it a secret that we won for like a week.”
Be on the lookout for their next KDQuiz appearance on May 31.
