Testimonies of students participating in BK20 and SPM BK Quiz 2020 Semifinals
The Malayan Christian Schools Council (MCSC) organises a Bible Quiz every year based on the syllabus of the SPM Bible Knowledge paper. This year however, due to MCO, it was an online quiz.
BK20 was held on 27 June 2020 with 223 students taking part. Students answered 50 multiple-choice questions on Luke chapters 1 to 12 in 45 minutes. SPM Bk Quiz 2020 Semifinals was held on 18 July 2020 with 52 pairs participating. Each student individually answered 50 multiple-choice questions on Luke and Acts in 40 minutes. Three of our teams made it to the finals which took place on 1 August 2020.
Amanda Alessandra Kwang Rong LOI
Honestly, I think it was quite a challenge for me preparing for this quiz, especially on Acts of the Apostles. There are so many names of places. And I actually took my time to read all the footnotes of every single page because I’m the type that can’t remember without understanding (although some people can; I always wish for that).
Besides that, I spent my time watching all the videos for Acts. I think the videos are very nice and they help me to imagine the real things happening in what I’m reading.
Anyway, at the same time, I also took the chance to relax my mind the last 2 nights as I was quite tired after so many hours staring on the screen attending classes.
Also, I have done all the practice quizzes Mr. Ben posted, and they really helped me too. And yup, that’s pretty much what I did weeks before the quiz. I also read these 2 books as my bedtime story as I think Bible reading can be part of my prayer before taking a good night sleep. •
Angeleeca Anak DOMNU
The quiz today was much harder than I had expected it to be. However I managed to complete it just in time with about 5 minutes to spare. Honestly, while preparing, I was focusing more on Acts rather than the Gospel of Luke because I’ve never really studied Acts in detail.
When I was in Sunday School or as of now my church’s youth group, we’ve covered lots of things from the 4 gospels and other books in the Bible as well. When it came to Acts, there were only a few chapters that we had studied during our meetings (i.e. Saul’s Conversion and Jesus Taken Up To Heaven). Because of that, I was having quite a hard time studying for Acts. Much more difficult compared to the times I studied Luke.
What really helped me were the videos and diagrams the teacher gave us which summarized the whole of Acts. Earlier this morning, about 3 hours before the quiz started, I looked through the diagram once again and watched some of the videos. I was able to answer most of the questions, thanks to the diagram and videos. While preparing,
I also asked some family members or members from my church (i.e. my youth leaders/deacon and sometimes even my church pastor) as I thought they would know more than me. I was fortunate enough to have them answer my questions and explain the things that were very confusing to me. When they found out that I was taking the quiz, they said that they would keep me in their prayers and that really lifted my spirits especially when I was really mentally drained!
Despite not getting higher results I’m still content with what I’ve achieved. I’m glad I’d made the decision to join this quiz and I’ll definitely join it again if I have the chance to. Also, I’d really like to thank Mr. Ben for providing us with the study materials and constantly praying for us and encouraging us since the very beginning. Thanks to you as well, I was able to keep working without giving up. I really really appreciate it, Mr Ben. •
Bliss Yee Xuan LAM
I took a long time to finish it because I had to rethink some of the options. I read all the text while watching the videos you posted on Google Classroom (GC) and did all the quizzes. I also listened to the audio Bible on YouTube while doing maths. •
Christabelle Johneva Yinxuen LEE
The quiz was fine overall, just some questions frustrated me a bit. Preparing for the quiz however was a roller coaster ride. Me being me, I assumed that we only needed to study Acts 1-12 (I thought the Luke quizzes in GC were for Form 5 students); those 12 chapters were all I did for the week.
Until I sensed something was off and I went to ask my friend about what we had to study. Apparently I had 2 whole books to revise and was only left with 2 days. I panicked but my friends reassured me that I’d be fine. I went as far as getting less than 5 hours of sleep in a period of 48 hours. A few hours before the quiz, I realised I still had 10 chapters to go, but I couldn’t focus anymore and decided to take a power nap.
I set my alarm to 5 am but it didn’t ring. I felt very betrayed by the clock. My mom woke me up at 8:30 am and I was so shocked. I literally froze for a good five minutes. Then I started to read through the remaining chapters until the quiz started. I prayed hard the night before so I still had a tiny spark of hope within me.
At last I completed the quiz and got 84%. I was very contented considering what short amount of time I had to finish everything. What helped a lot were the diagrams and practice tests in GC. As a conclusion, this definitely wasn’t the best experience but I learnt many valuable lessons from it. Moral of the story is I need to be more attentive to things, pray more often and understand that panicking doesn’t solve problems. •
Darrius Astral Toh Hun KIU
The quiz was quite ok for me. Even though I have never actually read the second half of Luke and the whole book of Acts, but I had heard some of the stories before in Sunday School and youth meetings. Maybe that helped me a lot in the understanding of the text. I also think that my study techniques played a major part in studying for the quiz. I hope to study even harder in the future to achieve better results in the future quiz. •
Ehlena Chien Ai LAU
Taking this quiz for me was quite stressful; mainly because I was having a camera/mic-on camp with another quiz at the same time. I was actually expecting chapter and verse quotations, eg 8:20-21, but this time surprisingly there wasn’t any. In preparation, my study style gravitates towards the “need to write the entire book” so I copied the questions and answers from the book, but for last-minute studying I just did lots and lots of quizzes from Mr. Ben and also from other platforms because all the important things you need to know are there. •
Eunice Shun Yi WONG
Honestly, I was very doubtful at first as there were a number of chapters with only three weeks left to prepare, and I was unfamiliar with Acts. But I decided to give it a try so I allocated some time every day to read the two books. I was hoping to read through them a few times to remember better. Personally, I had a very hard time reading and remembering speeches and incidents during each mission. The teacher’s suggestion to break down the speeches into parts was actually very helpful.
Another material that helped me were the maps with a short summary of the happening during each of Paul’s mission at specific locations and the chart on the whole book of Acts because I could sort out and arrange the stories better. Thank you for your help, Mr. Ben! •
Gabriel Jing Yuan HII
It was hard to study especially when it was something that I didn’t touch before. I studied by reading the text and gather those characters which were frequently being mentioned. Also, I tried my best to memorise all the parables, and what God, Jesus and the apostles say, for example, “Get up, my child.” •
Jayden Wen Ming LIM
I must say that the questions on Acts were quite difficult as I had never touched Acts until recently and there is much to memorise. The surroundings of my house are also not a very good place to concentrate but I managed to pull through. I did some of your (Mr. Ben) quiz to gain some experience before the real quiz. I feel this quiz is a good way to prepare myself for my Form 5 and other BK quiz next time. •
Jeslyn Sze Lyn SIM
Well, I think this quiz is really helpful for those who want to take Bible Knowledge as one of their SPM subjects because the questions asked really requires a lot of reading and most of all, understanding of the stories.
Besides reading the text itself, I also went on YouTube to find some videos about the text, and I think this is quite helpful for last minute recap. The videos I watched are from a YouTube channel called BibleProject. The videos sum up the important story line, and they help me to classify each chapters into different big main topics so that it’s easier to link them all up. •
Jordon Qi Hao LAI
The quiz today was rather tough and I was so scared I would run out of time. Thankfully, I managed to finish at the very last few minutes. I actually started studying the week after we finished the first quiz and no matter how much I tried, nothing from Acts would go into my brain. However, when you (Mr. Ben) gave us the diagram, I tried reading it and after the first time I read it, I could remember everything!! YAY!
My last preparations were just going through the short notes I made and telling the story as though I was Luke. I also attempted all the quizzes you provided for us until I was really familiar with them.
All in all, I had a really great time. Although it was a tough quiz, it was a great learning experience and lastly, thank you, Mr Ben, for providing us with the diagram; it helped a lot! •
Lester Wei Chien TSAI
I started revising for this quiz a week ago. When I was doing the quiz, I was really nervous but I just try to calm myself down so that I can have enough time to answer all the questions. •
Marshall Yu Khim CHEE
I actually joined this because my partner needed a partner. Since the MCO was so long, I cannot imagine doing the same thing every day. Joining this would make me have the initiative to study and use my time wisely.
Furthermore, I get to learn more about my own religion. It would be a shame I did not know these things and still call myself a Christian.
Lastly, I get to escape boredom even if it is reading because all I need is a positive mindset. After all, it would not kill to learn something, so why not. •
Max Tze Khai NG
For me, the first quiz was quite an easy going experience because Luke 1-12 were already a part of what I learnt since Form 2 because Mark is quite similar to Luke. I just read through 3 chapters a day including the notes in the textbook to prepare for the first quiz.
The second quiz was quite nerve racking for me because I originally did not plan to join it as I have never read Acts at all. I was panicking days before the quiz because I couldn’t remember anything. I found that the Luke textbook is incredibly helpful in providing extra information as context. So even when I’m not sure about some answers, I can rely on context clues to narrow down to the possible answers.
Unfortunately, I did not have Acts textbook with me as it was left in school. It was extremely tough for me to digest the text online because I’m so normally used to physical books. Also, the online text I used did not have extra notes so I couldn’t really gauge everything that was happening. I just read through Acts once before the quiz.
On both quizzes, I read the important chapters right before the quiz. As I was really confused about Paul’s missions, I read Acts 13-28 on the morning 2 hours before the quiz. It really cleared up my memory and allowed me to understand the timeline, names and places better. The practice quizzes were also very useful in helping me train my memory. I did most quizzes twice to remember the answers properly. Also, some questions actually appeared in the real quiz so it was a great help. •
Natsuki Tsui Qi CHIENG
I copied down the Gospel of Luke on foolscap and highlight all the important points because through this way I am able to read through the whole book and remember the things I think is important. For Acts, I printed out the whole book from Bible Gateway because I don’t have the book and highlighted the main points. After that, I will imagine the scene of that story. Lastly, I do the quiz in the GC for revision. •
Tiffany En TONG
I think at first I was very hesitant about going into the next round of this quiz because I didn’t have a partner after asking a few people. I was honestly rather discouraged when many of the friends whom I asked didn’t want to join the second round of this quiz. I am pretty sure I want to take Bible Knowledge for SPM next year and I want the experience. I didn’t think I was going to join the second round until about a few days after the first round when Max told me he didn’t have a partner as well. So I was like oh okay then I guess I am going after all.
I actually studied extremely last minute for this quiz, and found it rather difficult to study, especially when I got to the Book of Acts as it was my very first time reading it. I was reluctant to study and only started reading it exactly a week before the quiz. By Thursday afternoon before the quiz, I still had about 10 chapters unread and I felt like giving up. Mostly because I found it very hard to remember the names of the places and time frames. But I persevered and ended up finishing the entire book the night before the quiz.
I studied by reading each pericope, scanning through the extra information and then doing the questions beneath each passage. My mom also sent me several links for online quizzes on Luke and Acts for me to do. Although it was starting to get frustrating at the last few days before the quiz, I‘m glad I pulled through and finished it. I’m happy I took the quiz because taking it made me read Acts before it was being taught and I feel like it will be easier for me to memorise and understand the book before sitting for the exam next year. •
Zhi You LAU
This experience was pretty interesting because on one hand I had to read and memorise the two books every day, while on the other hand it was fun reading Acts and Luke like a story book. The quiz itself wasn’t as hard as I thought but I was lucky because I wasn’t sure of some of my answers.
I found it helpful when I pictured the story itself so I can remember better. Not only that, how I studied was I would read through the chapter once, then I would try to retell the story without looking at the book. •
