By Harry Smith
“Coming up on The High School Quiz Show,” Costa exclaimed, “It is the British International School of Boston, taking on Belmont High School!”
This is the voice of Billy Costa, the host of High School Quiz Show, which is a TV program where students compete over who can best answer general knowledge questions in a variety of academic subjects including literature, history, civics, science, geography, vocabulary, and math. The competition has four rounds: a toss-up, a head to head, a category round, and a lightning round.
In order to get on TV, schools must pass the Super Sunday Qualifying Round. BISB was one of 15 teams (out of a pool of 236 teams) to advance from that round. In the 12 year history of the competition, only 74 teams have qualified.
BISB’s 2021 team consisted of Year 13 students Cooper Allard-Jones and Isabel Grimes, Year 12 student Faisal Khreis, and Year 10 students Miguel Del Castillo Lozada and Harry Smith. They were coached by history teacher Mr. William Mitchell.
Due to the pandemic, the High School Quiz Show was done virtually for the first time. This forced the team to take on an extra set of challenges, outside of the rigor from preparing for the competition itself.
BISB’s initial contest was against Belmont High School on March 7th. Questions were predominantly about American History, civics, and geography. The match was extremely close and intense. In order to see the winner, you will have to watch it on May 1st at 7:00 pm on PBS. You can also catch it on Youtube starting that day.
The whole team felt it was a fantastic experience. Over their work together, the entire team grew closer and significantly strengthened their bond. Mr. Mitchell said, “I was glad for my students to have this opportunity to engage with other schools during these momentous times.”
The BISB team hopes to run and hopefully qualify again next year for the WGBH High School Quiz show.