Sophomore Peter Blanchfield placed first at the regional History Bee & Bowl on Feb. 27, qualifying him to compete at nationals (for the second time) in Washington DC on Apr. 22-24. Blanchfield competes with freshmen and other sophomores at the JV level. Read below for a Q&A with Blanchfield about his experience in the competition.

Q: Where was the regional competition and what was it like?

A: [The regional competition] was in Des Moines, Iowa. Usually one occurs in Minnesota, but it didn’t this year. There were 11 people competing, two from Minnesota, most of them were from Iowa, and then one from Kansas.

Q: What are the questions like?

A: They just give you trivia questions and it’s all history related. If you know the answer you buzz in on a Jeapordy-like buzzer. They’re not short questions, they’re like five sentences long. Basically they start off with some random, obscure facts like ‘this king wrote some edict’ and eventually it gets down to something that basically everyone will know.

Q: When are nationals and who goes?

A: Nationals are Apr. 22-24 in Washington DC. I’m going because I got first, but I think the top four from regionals go. It’s the same stuff [as regionals], just a lot harder questions with tougher competition. The varsity (juniors and seniors) had about 400 competitors last year and at JV I’ll compete against about 200.

Q: What are nationals like?

A: Its a lot of fun. It’s nice to talk to people at nationals because they like the stuff I like. We are able to converse about cool things that I wound’t normally be able to talk about. It’s super fun to meet people, to be able tot travel to DC is great. And our nights are free so you can go see a game or something.

Peter Blanchfield placed in the top half of the events he participated in at nationals. “I thought that compared to last year it was much more competitive and fun,”  Blanchfield said.

[mlw_quizmaster quiz=3]

Competition questions are long, with only one correct answer that must be spoken aloud. Take the quiz below (based on the 2015 National Championship questions) to see how well you would do in the National History Bee & Bowl Competition.