2014 Practice Test Project

I sent out this email earlier today, but I don't have everyone's address. :)

Hello again Bible Bee friends!

You may remember that shortly after 2013 Nationals, I sent you an email about the 2014 National Bible Bee. In that email, I challenged each of your families to work together towards recruiting at least one new family to join in the Bible Bee. I also told you about the goal that I pray the Bible Bee will achieve this year, Lord willing - 1,000 new families to make 3,500+ total! This message is to follow-up on the first one, and to remind you that since registration is now open, now is the time to take decisive action! With the new, more flexible format of the Local Competition, as well as the publicity the Bible Bee has been receiving in publications like WORLD and Answers, who knows what could happen? :D

Also, if any experienced Bible Bee-ers are interested, I would like to invite you to join in what I believe will be the best practice test making project yet! If we get enough volunteers, I believe the work load will be nice and light. An ideal number of volunteers would be at least 25, which is more than I had in previous years. The more, the better, however. I am hoping to get at least a few people using each BB version this year - in past years we have had a comparative lack of NKJV and a much more severe lack of NASB users.

For those of you who have participated in the past couple of years, I will be making a few changes to our procedure. First of all, it will be much more organized. For the sake of simplicity, we will not have all participate in both question-making and proofing; instead, most if not all will make questions but only a few from each group will proof them. So there will be three levels of commitment to this project - 1) simply creating questions, 2) proofing as well as creating, and 3) one commander for each age division to manage the project, help proof, and compile the tests.
If you're interested in volunteering, I will need the following information:

• Age division (if applicable)
• Preferred Bible translation
• Group(s) you can or prefer to work in (Base this information off of the Sword Studies you will have access to, excluding Level 1 (Young Explorer).)
• E-mail address you will be using, if it's different than the one you use to reply to me
• Level of commitment you're willing to make

I'm being too formal with this. :) I'd just like you to consider your commitments for the summer, and see if God is leading you to help with this project! If you plan to finish your Sword Study early, we could definitely use your help making questions for the latter weeks of the SS. Don't feel constrained to help just because you did last year. :) We will not turn away anyone who volunteers after we begin the project, but just so you know, our tentative starting date is Monday, June 9; if possible, please reply well before that deadline. Finally, if you will not be able to help with this project, don't worry about replying to this email, unless you really want to.

There goes my long-windedness again! :P I know this is a bit early, but hopefully it will give you plenty of time to consider joining. More information about the project will be coming out shortly for those who respond. You're also welcome to pass this email on to other Bible Bee-ers you may know.

God bless! :)

Matthew Minica

Count me in (of course) as a Senior this time! Wow, that sounds kind of old…

I'm not going to commit to anything at this point, but I'll consider it =) Even if I don't join a team, but make questions for my own use, would it be acceptable to email them to you for use?

Hey Matthew,
I’m not doing the Bible Bee this summer. However, I use NKJV and would like to offer help with this project. :)

Matthew, I'm planning to make my own test for Juniors and Seniors. If you would like, I can email it to you when I'm done, so that way there would be an extra test. Thanks :)

I WANT YOUR TEST!!!! =) When it's ready let me know :D

Sure! It'll be hard, though!

That's what I want xD Because I know the Locals test will be hard…

Count me in (of course) as a Senior this time! Wow, that sounds kind of old...

Yeah, now you can start getting discounts with the rest of us oldies! :P :D
@Matthew - I'll be able to help with the test this time!!! I'm a Senior and use ESV, but my brother is using NKJ so I'd be fine with that too. I also have access to the Junior studies. As far as commitment - I'd probably be either level 1 or 2. :)

@Rachel, the only real difference between joining a team at the level 1 commitment and making your own questions would be the fact that the topics your questions cover would be assigned to you beforehand. If we get to our goal of 25 volunteers, there would be an average of only about 20 questions to make for each participant. If you can commit to that, you're good to go. :)

@Sarah - Aww… Do you mind me asking why not?? I thought you wanted to get to Nationals to meet everyone!

@Everett - Usually we publish the tests on the Memverse blog. You could probably get Alex to do that for you on the same post that ours will be on.

@Bethany - Awesome! If you haven't sent me an email already, could you do that? I don't believe I have your email address.

@Matthew, I just sent you an email with a copy of my earlier comment.

Well, I really wish I could… but Dad decided awhile ago that (1) we (especially me) were to busy this summer, and (2) it cost to much. I'm still holding to the hope that I can somehow make it to Nationals… we will see. I'm just hoping.

Too busy to do a family Bible study??? Well, okay… :( I'd love to have your help, but if you're not going to do Sword Study I'm not sure how much you could actually do…

@Bethany - Okay, thanks! Hopefully my dad will let it through soon. xP

Oh, we'll still be doing family Bible Study! You don't have to be signed up for anything to do that! :) I hope to still do the same studying you guys are doing. I have friends who will be doing the Sword Study, so I'll ask them to share their studying with me (Greek words, Key verses, etc.). I understand that it will be hard to find something I can help with… that's okay.

So your reason that sounds good is that you don't have time, and your real reason is the money? Okay. :P :(

I should be able to help this year. Since I'm not actually competing, I'll have more time.

I don't know yet what all SS I'll have available to me. Probably all three levels, but for sure the Senior SS.

And now I know. I'll have all three levels of SS available to me.

Just wanted to remind everybody about this! :) I have roughly a dozen volunteers at this point, so I would like more if possible.

Sarah, would you mind shooting me an email if you're still interested in helping out?

Who are your volunteers so far? (If I may ask)

Myself and Courtney, Sarah E, Rionna F, Emily H, Bethany M, Bella M, Luke and David P, and Nathan W. I have Sarah B and you down as well but not as confirmed.

Okay, thank you!

Sure thing! :) I might have to do it a little later… but I will email you when I can. :)

22 more people till the 3,500 goal!!! :D

That's the contestants, correct? Technically I wanted 3500 families. But that's still great!! Praise the Lord! :D

Oh… good point. :) Well, it's still great, like you said! :D

Matthew, do you have a number of how many volunteers are in each version group? I was thinking about switching versions (cause I did for BB), but I'll be okay with still using ESV if you don't have many there.

That would be fine - actually, I have plenty of each version except NASB. :)

Okay, great, thanks! Too bad I didn't switch to NAS. :)
EDIT - the version I switched to was NKJV.

Hello Matthew!
I just wanted to let you know, that at this point, I don't want to commit to making more than 10 questions for the test. I want to help but I won't have too much extra time this summer, with several other major things happening besides BB.
Thanks! :)

Just do whatever you feel is best for you! It can be 10 questions, it can be 50, but I'm happy to have you help no matter how much it is. :D

Okay, thanks! Depending on my schedule, I may be able to make more, but right now I'm committing to no more than ten. :)

Last call, guys! :) I've got a dozen and a half people working on this so far. I'm especially looking for an NASB or ESV user who can help with Juniors. Project starts a week from today.

Can I help with the practice tests?

Yes Justin, I've already got you down. :D Thanks for being willing to help!

I can probably help. I can't commit to how much I can do though.

Awesome!! You're a Junior now, right? :D

Yup!!

Great, you're just what I need then! :D

Do I send you practice questions through e-mail?

I will try to impute questions into the online quiz form based on Jonah.
As a BB alumni (09, 10, 11) I dont have a SS at home. 4 families from our chapel are participating though.
But I think I will just stick with Questions from Jonah.

Yes. I will be sending out another email when the project begins, telling you what to do.

are we making the weekly online memverse tests or are we making the one you print off?

Print off - this is what last year's looked like. https://www.memverse.com/blog/main/2013-bible-bee-practice-tests?page=1

Who is putting together the memverse quizzes?

The bi-weekly Memverse quizzes are Andy and Alex's creation. You can submit questions for them under the "Quiz" link. Currently they don't have a Bible Bee theme, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do some later on in the summer.

Oh!

@Jarrett - I have a question. Do you still have a Primary in your family?

I guess I'll answer for him. Nope.

KK, I actually just saw that on his new IY page xP facepalm

IY?