The Rockford Quiz Bowl Company’s Novice sets began in 2010 as SCOP Novice. RQBCo Novice questions are written for young high school students who have not played quiz bowl in high school yet. These questions use very common and easy clues, and will be best for freshmen or sophomores who are just learning the game.
Past question sets can be downloaded from quizbowlpackets.com or from the bottom of the page. These free questions may be used for practice, but must not be used for competitions under any circumstances. Read our licensing policy here.
Available Dates
The Rockford Quiz Bowl Company is offering two novice-level question sets in 2026-2027.
RQBCo Novice 2026-27 is available from October 31, 2026 through the end of April 2027.
RQBCo Second Set 2026-27 is available from January 30, 2027 through the end of April 2027.
Question Set Format
The Novice set includes eleven rounds of 20/20 (tossups/bonuses) and a half-packet of 10/10 replacement questions.
Second Set, which has nine rounds of 20/20 and a half-packet of 10/10 replacement questions.
In both sets, tossups are powermarked. Bonuses have three parts, which are designed to be read one part at a time. If you are planning to use one of these sets in a non-standard format (e.g. if you’re planning to run your tournament in timed format or with more than two teams per room, or if you want to use a local match format that only uses bonuses in the second half, etc.), you must confirm this with the set editor prior to receiving the set or incur financial penalties.
Subject Distribution
Both sets use the following distribution per round:
5/5 Science (including 1/1 non-computational math)
4/4 Literature
4/4 History
2/2 Religion and Myth
2/2 Fine Arts
1/1 Geography
1/1 Philosophy, Social Science, and Government/Civics
1/1 Pop Culture
Fees
The fee to use RQBCo Novice or RQBCo Second Set is $17/team. This includes “house” teams representing the host school.
There is a $1/team discount for complete statistics posted publicly or emailed to the set editor within one week of your tournament date. Complete statistics must include full statistics for each individual player on every team for every round, and must be recorded either in YellowFruit or in SQBS with round report enabled. Because Neg5 does not validate game data effectively, Neg5 statistics are not accepted for the stat discount. Spreadsheets are not accepted for the stat discount.
There is a $1/team discount if you choose to email or snail mail your raw scoresheets to the set editor within one week of your tournament date.
Read our licensing policy here for more information about hosting requirements.
Illinois
RQBCo Novice may only be used in Illinois by tournament hosts working with the Illinois High School Scholastic Bowl Coaches Association‘s Novice tournament series. Illinois middle schools may still use the set, although we recommend it only for experienced middle school teams who have some familiarity with the high school canon.
RQBCo Second Set may be used by Illinois high schools.
Contact us to reserve either question set for an upcoming tournament.
Download Past Question Sets
2025-2026 RQBCo Second Set
Download Second Set 2025-2026 (9 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The RQBCo Second Set 2025-2026 set was written by Brad Fischer, Jamie Fischer, Sophia Lind, Adam Silverman, and Kristin A. Strey
2025-2026 RQBCo Novice
Download Novice 2025-2026 (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The RQBCo Novice 2025-2026 set was written by Brad Fischer, Jamie Fischer, Adam Silverman, Kristin A. Strey, and Linnea York, with special thanks to Greg Peterson, James Smith, and Elizabeth Strey
2024-2025 RQBCo Novice
Download Novice 2024-2025 (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The RQBCo Novice 2024-2025 set was written by Brad Fischer, Jamie Fischer, and Kristin A. Strey.
2023-24 SCOP Novice 13
Download Novice 13 (10 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The SCOP Novice 13 set was written by Brad Fischer, Charlotte Maher, Sinecio Morales, Adam Silverman, and Kristin A. Strey.
2022-23 SCOP Novice 12
Download Novice 12 (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The SCOP Novice 12 set was written by Brad Fischer, Charlotte Maher, Adam Silverman, and Kristin Strey.
2021-22 SCOP Novice 11
Download Novice 11 (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The SCOP Novice 11 set was written by Justin Abel, Brad Fischer, Jimmy Fischer, Pavithr Goli, Mike Laudermith, Jessica Markley, Sophie Netzel, Kristin Strey, Ethan Strombeck, Lana Kay Tutterow, and Tyler Vaughan.
2020-21 SCOP Novice B
Download Novice B (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
Novice A and B were tossups-only sets used in online tournaments during the COVID pandemic. The SCOP Novice B set was written by Brad Fischer, James Fischer, Alec Krueger, Kristin Strey, and Tyler Vaughan.
2020-21 SCOP Novice A
Download Novice A (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
Novice A and B were tossups-only sets used in online tournaments during the COVID pandemic. The SCOP Novice A set was written by Brad Fischer, Mike Laudermith, Kristin Strey, and Tyler Vaughan.
2019-20 SCOP Novice 10
Download Novice 10 (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The SCOP Novice 10 set was written by Lilly Chavez, Brad Fischer, James Fischer, Mike Laudermith, Jessica Markley, Sophie Netzel, Cooper Roh, Kristin Strey, Ethan Strombeck, Lana Kay Tutterow, Tyler Vaughan, and Justin Zhang.
2018-19 SCOP Novice 9
Download Novice 9 (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The SCOP Novice 9 set was written by Lilly Chavez, Brad Fischer, Natalie Howell, Clare Keenan, Mike Laudermith, Sophie Netzel, Lauren Onel, Aleija Rodriguez, Zane Smalley, Kristin Strey, Ethan Strombeck, Lana Kay Tutterow, Tyler Vaughan, and Trevor Vice
2017-18 SCOP Novice 8
Download Novice 8 (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The SCOP Novice 8 set was written by Michael Etzkorn, Brad Fischer, Clare Keenan, Mike Laudermith, Lauren Onel, Noah Prince, Jacob Simmons, Kristin Strey, and Tyler Vaughan
2016-17 SCOP Novice 7
Download Novice 7 (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The SCOP Novice 7 set was written by Brad Fischer, Clare Keenan, Alec Krueger, Lauren Onel, Noah Prince, Allison Salach, Zohra Sattar, Kristin Strey, and Tyler Vaughan.
2015-16 SCOP Novice 6
Download Novice 6 (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The SCOP Novice 6 set was written by Waleed Ali, Alston Boyd, Brad Fischer, Clare Keenan, Alec Krueger, Mike Laudermith, Elissa Pape, Anna Phillips, Allison Salach, Andrew Salij, Kristin A. Strey, Tyler Vaughan, Morgan Venkus, Mike Withey, and Michael H. Wong.
2014-15 SCOP Novice 5
Download Novice 5 (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The SCOP Novice 5 set was written by Alston Boyd, Brad Fischer, Becca Kobernat, Alec Krueger, Sabrina Lato, Mike Laudermith, Dylan Minarik, Dr. Noah Prince, Kristin A. Strey, Brittany Trang, Tyler Vaughan, Shreyas Vissapragada, Michael H. Wong, and Yinga Xia.
2013-14 SCOP Novice 4
Download Novice 4 (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The SCOP Novice 4 set was written by Brad Fischer, Jonah Greenthal, Becca Kobernat, Sabrina Lato, Greg Peterson, Jay Shirodkar, Kristin A. Strey, Mark Taylor, Brittany Trang, Tristan Willey, and Michael H. Wong.
2012-13 SCOP Novice 3
Download Novice 3 (11 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The SCOP Novice 3 set was written by Ben Chametzky, Megan Chen, Garrett Combs, Nick Conder, Lael Costa, Brad Fischer, Jonah Greenthal, Danielle Long, Dylan Minarik, Kristin A. Strey, Mark Taylor, Andrew Wang, Tristan Willey, and Michael H. Wong.
2011-12 SCOP Novice 2
Download Novice 2 (10 rounds, 1 replacement round)
The SCOP Novice 2 set was written by Ben Chametzky, Nick Conder, Brad Fischer, Webster Guan, Danielle Long, Nolan Maloney, Saieesh Rao, Kristin A. Strey, Tristan Willey, and Michael H. Wong.
2010-11 SCOP Novice 1
Download Novice 1 (10 rounds, 2 finals, 1 all-star round)
The SCOP Novice 1 set was written by Zach Blumenfeld, Ben Carbery, Ben Chametzky, Dan Donohue, Greg Dzuricsko, Brad Fischer, Jeff Geringer, Jonah Greenthal, Charles Hang, Abid Haseeb, Neal Kfoury, Mike Laudermith, Danielle Long, Kevin Malis, Eric Ordonez, Caleb Robbins, Kristin A. Strey, and a number of other volunteers.