The International History Bee is a buzzer-based history quiz competition for individual students. Please see below for a comprehensive account of how the Bee works. If you have any further questions, please email canada@iacompetitions.com
> Sample Questions for our Canadian Tournaments & Other Resources
Eligibility
In order to compete in the History Bee, you must be 19 years or younger at the time of your Regional Bee. You must also be enrolled in a primary or secondary school at the time of your regional tournament (or have graduated within the past two months, and not yet have started university studies).
High School is divided into Varsity grades 11&12 and JV grades 9 &10.
Elementary is divided into Middle grades 7&8 and Elementary grades 6 and under.
There is no younger age limit – a brilliant and well-behaved 8-year-old is welcome to compete.
There is no limit on types of schools – local, international, state, private, religious schools, and homeschoolers are all welcome.
Tournament Format
At all History Bees, in the Junior Varsity and Varsity divisions, there are three preliminary rounds of 30 questions each. In the Middle and Elementary divisions these rounds have 25 questions. In each round, you’ll be in a room with 5-10 students. Usually, it’s 6 or 7. Depending on how many students are competing, the 2 to 10 highest scorers from the combined preliminary rounds in each division then compete in the final rounds. The four divisions are kept entirely separate – there is no crossover, including in the final rounds. Each round takes about 20-30 minutes to complete, including the finals.
Game Format
Students each have a buzzer and attempt to be the first student to ring in and answer correctly. Students may ring in at any point in the question – they are encouraged to interrupt the moderator to do so. After they ring in, they give their answer. If they are correct, they get a point. If incorrect, they cannot buzz again on the question. Three incorrect answers given will end the question, at which point the moderator reveals the answer. They do not normally lose a point if they are incorrect except if they are the third student to answer incorrectly before the end of the question, in which case, they do lose a point (so it is possible, conceivably to have a negative score). If the question has been read to completion, three incorrect answers will still end the question, but no penalty will be assessed.
Once a student has reached 8 points, that student is done for that round and students receive bonus points based on how early they reach 8 points. The following table summarizes the bonus structure:
Reaching 8 pts on or before question… Results in this many bonus pts… And thus this many total pts…
Question Eight = Seven Bonus Points = Fifteen Total Points
Question Ten = Six Bonus Points = Fourteen Total Points
Question Twelve = Five Bonus Points = Thirteen Total Points
Question Fifteen = Four Bonus Points = Twelve Total Points
Question Twenty = Three Bonus Points = Eleven Total Points
Question Twenty-Five = Two Bonus Points = Ten Total Points
Question Thirty = One Bonus Points = Nine Total Points
Students are grouped into different groups for each of the three rounds. After all three rounds, the scores from all rounds are added up, and the top students advance to the finals.
Final Round Structure
In the final round, the top students (the number can vary from tournament to tournament based on how many competed in the preliminaries) in all divisions all compete at once. Most of the time, a set number of questions will be played and whoever is in the lead after all questions have been read is the champion. Additionally, if a student reaches a stated number (which can likewise vary from event to event) of questions, they may also win outright before the end of the match.
While the format of the finals can vary from tournament to tournament, it will always be made clear to the competing students how it will work in advance, and the number of students who make the finals will be made clear during the Opening Meeting of the History Bee before the preliminary rounds begin.
Question Styles
In the History Bowl, there are a number of different question styles. In the History Bee, by contrast, all questions are “pyramidal” tossups, where we start with more obscure information and move to more familiar information. Questions cover the history of the arts, sciences, religion, philosophy, languages, historical geography, recent history and the history of sports and entertainment in addition to the usual social, political, and military history. In the final rounds, the questions are, on average, slightly longer and more difficult.
Resources for Training
The IHBB Canada Study Guide contains both a list of topics that can be referenced in our tournaments and some strategies for preparation.
Past questions used at our tournaments in Canada are quite possibly your best resource for practicing. We use new questions each year, but the people, places, and events in history that are referenced in questions from one year to the next are usually quite similar.
Please also see NAQT’s (National Academic Quiz Tournaments) “You gotta know” pages.
A former History Bee player, Lawrence Wu of Canada, has created The History Specialist YouTube channel to help players prepare for competitions.
Additional Sample Questions
A sample High School Bee packet (both Varsity and Junior Varsity Divisions use the same questions) for our Canadian tournaments can be downloaded on our resources page, along with a sample middle school packet.
You can find additional question packets from past tournaments we have held in Asia here though keep in mind that these packets lack the standard amount of Canadian history questions that tournaments in Canada will use.
Also, see www.quizbowlpackets.com (though this has a heavy US American emphasis and references all subjects) and our past questions from the USA. Please note that the questions you’ll find here have more US American history content than the questions we use in Canada.