League Standards for officially counting memorized verses 

When it comes to checking off the official number of verses that a quizzer has memorized, it's important that we are all using the same standards for two good reasons:

 

1)    The number of verses memorized is one of the things that we rank and reward at the end of the year, so it's important that all quizzers/coaches are using the same criteria.

2)    More importantly, our underlying goal is get teenagers to memorize in a way that will stick with them for life.  The criteria below might seem kind of strict, but we have to have high standards if we want to reach our purpose in the most meaningful way.

 

With that in mind, here are the criteria that should be used. In order for verses to be "checked off" as officially memorized, they must be quoted:

• word-perfect, with no helps, the first time through
• to the coach, or to an adult volunteer
• only one time during a week (usually during team practice). 
• all in one sitting (i.e., if a quizzer has 15 verses for a week, he must quote all 15 at the same time, with no breaks)

Quizzers may NOT:

• simply say how many verses they have memorized.  They must be listened to and checked off, verse by verse.
• come back later in a practice and quote more verses, or verses they have already attempt to quote that week.

 

 

TIP: Many veteran coaches have expressed how quizzers have found it helpful to "double-check" their verses.  That is, after they have quoted them adequately for credit, they come back on a later week to see if they can still quote them.  Please understand, this is not a requirement for the official check-off, and they get no extra credit, but it's very beneficial for their long-term memory retention.