Saarah-Mensah Auditorium, October 19, 2023.
Achimota again! Grand Finale secured!
Today marked the Semi-final Stage of NSMQ 2023 at the Saarah-Mensah Auditorium. It was a day to witness the top schools, the 'creme de la creme,' competing head-to-head for the coveted opportunity to reach the grand finale. In this intellectual showdown, three academic institutions, namely St. Louis SHS, Achimota School, and Wesley Girls' Senior High School, went up against each other.
The auditorium buzzed with anticipation, as enthusiastic spectators filled the seats, showing their unwavering support for the contestants, representing a range of different schools. The contest was expertly overseen by the accomplished Quiz Mistress, Prof. Elsie Effah Kaufmann. As the day drew to a close, Achimota School emerged as the clear frontrunner, securing an impressive 41 points and maintaining an undefeated record.
The 30th Anniversary edition of the National Science & Maths Quiz kicked off, on October 6, 2023. As an exciting highlight of the 30th Anniversary celebrations, this year's NSMQ is being hosted in two distinct regions: KNUST in Kumasi and National Theatre in Accra. This historic occurrence represents the first time the National Championship spans across two regions. KNUST serves as the venue for the Preliminary four stages of the competition, with the Grand Finale scheduled at the National Theatre.
Meet the Champions at Semi-finals - Achimota School.
In the opening round, two out of three questions were successfully answered by both St. Louis and Achimota, as scored by the knowledgeable Quiz Mistress. St. Louis gained extra points by responding to a bonus question meant for Wesley Girls. Unfortunately, Wesley Girls seemed to struggle initially, with two incorrect answers to the professor's questions.
As the competition progressed, Wesley Girls' performance improved, but they couldn't quite match the early brilliance displayed by the other schools. Notably, out of the five bonuses achieved by Achimota School, three were originally intended for Wesley Girls and two for St. Louis.
The first round's highest number of incorrect answers came from Wesley Girls' High School, despite their initial enthusiasm. As the contest neared its end, Achimota School emerged as the champion with 22 points. St. Louis secured the second position with 15 points, while Wesley Girls' struggled and ended up with eight (8) points, taking the last spot on the scoreboard.
St. Louis versus Achimota versus Wesley Girls' battling for intellectual superiority.
Next up was the Speed Race, which favoured Achimota School, even though Wesley Girls' made an early substitution during this stage. The first and third questions in this round went unanswered by all three schools. St. Louis encountered a challenge when they failed to answer a question correctly in their initial attempt, resulting in a subtraction of one point each.
In the Problem of the Day segment, a challenging biology question was posed to all the schools. Unfortunately, the question proved to be too difficult for St. Louis, resulting in them scoring zero out of 10 for this round. Wesley Girls excelled in this round, securing the top position by earning four out of 10. Achimota School, which had been leading earlier, came in second place for this segment with just two out of 10 points.
Achimota alumniwell pleased at the victorious outcome.
The heavily contested True/wereFalse Stage appeared cozy for all schools as most missiles released by the professor was correctly smashed down by the three contesting schools. A substitution was effected by Achimota entering into this round. The windows got shuttered at this round leaving St. Louis and Wesley Girls behind scoring 23 and 31 points. Outside the window was Achimota standing a chance at the grand finale since entering into the last round they have already secured a lead of 38 points.
The Riddles added an intriguing element to the competition as Achimota managed to secure an additional point by correctly answering a riddle. This boosted their score from 38 points in the fourth round to a significant 41 points by the end of the contest. Achimota's victory came with not only a spot in the Grand Finale but also a cash prize of GHS 600 from Goil, earned by correctly answering just one riddle.
St. Louis also received recognition and a Goil Bonanza cash prize of GHS 600 for correctly solving one riddle. Their journey in the competition concluded with a total of 23 points, following a commendable performance that had begun in the preliminaries. Wesley Girls' outperformed St. Louis in this contest but couldn't surpass the intellectual prowess of the boys, securing second place with a total score of 31 points at the end of the day's intellectual challenge.
Overly excited Walter and Kenneth were victorious.
The Round-by-Round Scores for this contest stood as follows:
Round One General Questions (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology)
St. Louis SHS 15
Achimota School 22
Wesley Girls' High School 08
Round Two (Pepsodent Speed Race)
St. Louis SHS 16
Achimota School 20
Wesley Girls' High School 17
Round Three (Problem of the Day)
St. Louis SHS +0 16
Achimota School +2 22
Wesley Girls' High School +4 21
Round Four (True/False)
St. Louis SHS 23
Achimota School 38
Wesley Girls' High School 31
Round Five (Riddle)
St. Louis SHS 26
Achimota School 41
Wesley Girls' High School 31
The 30th Anniversary Edition of the NSMQ is proudly brought to you by the Ghana Education Service in partnership with GOIL and supported by JoyNews, AT, Prudential Life Insurance Ghana, Pepsodent Toothpaste, Beta Malt, GARNET, Coronation Insurance, Academic City University College, Accra College of Medicine, Cowbell, Bel Beverages, GTP, Newmont Ghana, Africa World Airlines, and YFM. This is a Primetime production!