:: Six Styles of Competition ::

There are six styles of competition that ABB created and supports. These six styles have been tested and developed by ABB members and offer the best environment for students to compete, develop socialization skills, meet state standards in literature & reading, and to enjoy ABB competitions. The six styles of competition are copyrighted and may only be used by our members unless you have received written permission to do so by ABB.

Friendly Family Feud

This style of competition is the most popular and has been used by battle of the books groups for many years. It is typically used for 3rd through 6th grade competitions. It is the most socially adaptive style of competition and is similar to the TV show Family Feud. This style of competition uses 2 teams that compete against each other.

The number of students per team varies upon the needs of local competitions. Usually when using the 10-book list there are 3 person teams, 20 book list 4 person teams, and 30 to 36 book lists 5 to 6 person teams. Each member of the team is responsible for their portion of the book list the team is using/reading.

Academic Whiz Kids

In this style of competition students are on their own. Each student answers a round (or part of a round) of questions on his or her own. Each student’s individual score is recorded and those teams whose members answer the most questions correctly receive points accordingly. Students may not discuss the questions or received help from other students on their team.

Relay Style

In this style of competition students have to run. Students are not only competing against other teams but also ‘the clock’. Teams line up on one end of a field or gym. One at a time, students run to the opposite end of the building/field and are asked a question. If they know the answer they tell the judge at the table. If not they run back to the team and discuss the question with their team members—they have to remember the question! If the team knows the proper answer the same team member returns to the judging table and tell the judge their answer. If the team does not know the answer, the next member of the team runs to the judging table and asks for the next question. What is different about this style of competition is once one team gets to the final question all competition between teams stop and the total scores of each team’s round of competition is recorded.

Super Challenge

All teams are in groups in one large room. All teams are competing against each other at the same time. A question is asked and the first team that stands up or raises a hand gets to answer the question first. You will need to have a few spotters to make sure who stood up first, second, third and so forth after each question is read by the judge/reader. If the first team standing or raising their hand gets the answer correct you move on to the next question and record the points for their correct answer. If the first team does not get the answer correct they loose points for not answering the question correctly. The team that stood up or raised their hand in second place must answer the question even if they know they have the wrong answer based on what they heard was the first team’s incorrect answer.

Baseball & Books

B & B is a competition that is designed more for the classroom or individual competitions. It starts with 2 teams and a referee (who reads questions, keeps track of the time and score).
A questions is asked to team #1, the team’s first person up to bat, who either answers the question is 3 seconds for a home run, 7 seconds for a triple, 10 seconds for a double, or within 10 seconds with a partial answer (either title or author correctly) for a single. If the student cannot answer the question then it is an out. The team continues rotating who is up to bat and answers questions till there are 3 outs. Then the other team is up to bat.

Book Club Challenge

The Book Club Challenge is designed for individual students to compete against each other. It is best to use one of ABB’s smaller booklists. Two students, one from each team will be asked 4 questions. The first team member to answer the question correctly gets points. An incorrect answer the team loses points. After four questions are asked then an new set of two team members will compete against each other in the next round of four new questions. If neither student wants to answer the question, move on to the next question, and if a student does not answer the question correctly, the other student does not have the option to answer the question correctly.

ABB suggests that all participants use a variety of competition styles during their battles. When battles use a variety of styles of competition a more balanced scoring process will identify the winning teams. Our suggestions are: 3rd and 4th grades competition use Friendly Family Feud Style only; 5th and 6th grades use both the Friendly Family Feud and Super Challenge Styles; 7th and 8th grades Friendly Family Feud, Super Challenge, and Relay Styles; and 9th to 12th grades all four styles of competition.