Holy Child vrs Kumasi Academy

The first contest of the second episode of Senior Sharks 5 saw Holy Child School and Kumasi Academy aiming to see who progresses to the next stage of the competition.

Admittedly, the growing popularity of The Sharks Quiz appear to have piqued the interest of these two schools and they opted to participate for the first time.

Holy Child School, Cape Coast, was represented by Abigail Cudjoe, Christel Karsen-Straut, Marissa Efe Quayson and Eugenia Ofori Gyamfi.

Louisa Adjei, Samson Adu-Mensah, Boateng Christian and Obed Ofori-Duah were the lady and gentlemen representing the Asokore-Mampong, Kumasi, school.

The contest did not depart from the usual intensely waged cerebral exchanges that Sharks Quiz produces.

But at the final bell, Holy Child School actualized their famous motto- “facta non verba”, to wit, actions not words.

Round 1

This round can be described as the ‘cash cow' round as it gives schools the opportunity to milk as many points as they can without suffering points deduction for incorrect answers.

Kumasi Academy ushered audience and viewers into this contest by answering the first set of questions in Round 1.

For any first-timer in the Senior Sharks Quiz, a score above the half-mark is a plaudable effort.

Kumasi Academy(Kumaca) earned sixty(60) points from a possible eighty(80) and deserve a pat on the back.

Holy Child School, Holico for short, stood in readiness to be drilled on their eight set of questions.

Like their opponents, they also missed only two questions to take home sixty(60) points.

Another good showing from the girls from Angels Hill.

Round  2

Marissa's task of leading Holico in Round 1 was accomplished, and she made way for Sheena to take her place.

Kumasi Academy on the other hand remained unchanged.

This round, also known as the ‘R-cube' round is composed of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic.

As quiz mistress observed, both schools were not at their best in the Reading and Writing segment.

Funny though, there were more “pass” heard in this round than there was the sound of buzzers.

Both schools were therefore visibly relieved to see this challenging segment over.

The Arithmetic segment turned out to be the brightest spot in the round with both schools hitting correct answers.

Holy Child’s Abigail was the stand-out performer with more attempts at the questions than any contestant from both schools.

Even when Holico decided against buzzing for Kumasi Academy’s bonus question, the expression on her face and that of her colleagues showed they had the correct answer.

In response, quiz mistress , Madam Evelyn Agyepong, urged them to be more daring if they are to be successful in the Senior Sharks 5.

Thus, this turbulent round ended with Holy Child School having ten(10) points while Kumaca earned five(5) points.

 Round 3

Louisa exited the competition at this stage, and in her place, Stephen Owusu-Achiaw came to give Kumaca an all boys outlook.

Without further ado, questions to which contestants could buzz to at any time in the course of reading were conducted.

Abigail once again was sharply alert as she buzzed to give Holy Child the first correct answer of the round.

A series of correct and incorrect answers from both schools followed.

Even though Abigail appeared unable to shake off her nervousness, little by little she was bringing Holy Child home to victory.

At the end of Round 3, Holy Child were quite content to score twenty(20) points as Kumasi Academy lagged with a negative score of ten(-10).

Round 4

This is the one-on-one round, which pits specialists in English, Math, Science and General Knowledge against each other.

Eugenia, was to have her first real taste of the competition as the English expert for Holy Child School.

She faced Sampson, the English expert from Kumaca.

For their first task, they were to find the synonym of the word, “obloquy”.

While Sampson was wandering like “Ajala the traveller", Sheena was equally wondering like “Alice in Wonderland”.

They were both lost.

The second question, which also required an acronym to the word “enthral” was neatly delivered with a correct answer by Eugenia.

Mathematicians: Abigail and Obed for Holy Child and Kumaca respectively were paired up next.

Abigail was unlucky on the first attempt, as Obed's guesswork also failed.

Obed was, however, successful on the second question as Abigail missed the first attempt.

It was the turn of Science ‘Sharks’ to contribute their mite to the victory of their schools.

Stephen and Sheena, representing Kumasi Academy and Holy Child respectively walked into the arena.

The attempts by both contestants on the first question were adjudged to be incorrect.

Obed took the initiative and buzzed fastest to the second question, but once again he missed it.

An opportunity was presented to Sheena and this time, she did not miss.

Social Literacy experts were Christian and Christel for Kumaca and Holy Child respectively.

The picture of Dame Sandra Prunella Mason, the President of the Caribbean island, Barbados, was uploaded for identification.

Whereas Christian took a wild guess and mentioned Hollywood talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, Christel was clueless.

On to the second photo where Christel showed quick thinking to identify the photo of South African comedian and TV host, Trevor Noah, to bring the contest to a close.

Scores at the end of the fourth round had Holy Child with thirty(30) points while Kumasi Academy scored ten(10) points.

And at the end of the third preliminary contest, Holy Child School were comfortable winners with one hundred and twenty(120) points.

Kumasi Academy parted with sixty-five (65) points.

Scores at a glance!

The Senior Sharks Season 5 is headlined by Kellogg’s and supported by Indomie, Vivo, Fortune Rice and Schweppes.

Academic sponsors are Academic City University College, Ashesi University, Family Health University College, Lewis University, University of the Free State, Moringa School.

Media partners of The Sharks Quiz Season 5 are supadupanews.com, TV3, 3news, Pulse Ghana, Kwadwo Sheldon, and High Schools Society.

The Sharks Quiz is part of the Academic Talent Development Program (ATDP) Foundation.