Bible Bee Competition Study Materials
The Bible Bee study guide is referred to as the Bee-liever’s Handbook. The same guide is distributed to all three age groups, but it contains four difficulty categories for Bible Memory Questions and Bible Knowledge Questions. These four categories will be the source for all contest questions and the number of questions from each category will be proportioned according to the age group of the contestant. While enrolling online, contestants are asked to select one of five Bible versions to use in answering Bible Memory Questions. The five versions from which to choose are the King James Version, New King James Version, New American Standard Version, the New International Version, and the English Standard Version. Please Note: Because of the variations found within different copyrights of the selected Bible versions, Bible Bee Headquarters will use the Bible text provided on its free downloadable quiz cards for judging memorization questions in all of its contests, both Local and National. While preparing for the competition, contestants should always check their memorization using these quiz cards.
Bible Memory Questions
Each Bible Memory Question will require the contestant to accurately learn a Bible passage. While the questions are all tied to specific memory passages, the way that those questions are formatted will vary, depending upon whether the questions are part of a Written Test Round or part of an Oral Round. Examples of both types of questions will be given below.
When a Bible Memory passage is part of the Written Test Round, contestant knowledge will be assessed by whether or not the contestant is able to correctly answer a multiple-choice question based on the passage. These questions are meant to assess whether the contestant understands the passage that has been memorized. They will be written so that the translation studied by the contestant will not affect his/her ability to answer these questions.
When a Bible Memory passage is part of an Oral Round, contestant knowledge is assessed by his/her ability to correctly repeat a specific Bible passage. Points will be subtracted from a possible score when the contestant omits words or recites words erroneously, or when the contestant cannot complete the passage. Judges will be prepared to assess the answer’s accuracy in whichever of five approved translations the contestant has selected.
A complete list of all of the contest Bible Memory Questions will be included in the Bee-liever's Handbook and published in the five versions on the Bible Bee quiz cards.
Examples
Let's pretend that In the Bee-liever's Handbook and on the Bible Bee Quiz Cards, the Contestant is instructed to learn Joshua 1:9.Sample Oral Round Question:
Q: Recite Joshua 1:9.
Sample of Written Test Question:
Q: According to Joshua 1:9, what character quality was Joshua commanded to demonstrate?
b. Humility
c. Courage
d.Kindness
Bible Knowledge Questions
Bible Knowledge Questions require the contestants to give answers related to facts. It is easiest to understand these questions if we divide them into two groups: Categories 1-2 and Categories 3-4.
Categories 1-2
Bible Knowledge Questions in this group are drawn from throughout the Bible, and even from outside the Bible, as in the case of Orientation questions ("In what language was most of the Old Testament written?" is an important detail for believers to know, but it is not drawn directly from any Bible passage). Questions from Categories One and Two contain important Bible truths which are valuable for all believers to know. Because of this, these questions (and their answers) will all be provided as part of the Bee-liever's Handbook and will also be included on the Bible Bee Quiz Cards. Most of these questions will be phrased in the same manner in the study materials as they do in the contest materials, but their answers will be in multiple-choice format, with the answers embedded with a number of "distracter" answers; Contestants will need to be able to distinguish the correct answer from the incorrect ones.
Example 1:
Let's pretend that In the Bee-liever's Handbook and on the Bible Bee Quiz Cards, the contestants are instructed to learn
Q: In what language was the Old Testament written?
There may also be some Bible Knowledge Questions that are broader and from which a number of multiple choice questions might be developed.
Example 2:
Q: Learn the books of the New Testament in order.
As part of the competition materials (in both oral and written rounds), an associated question might look like this:
Q: Which of the following books comes right before Ephesians?
b. Galatians
c. Acts
d. Jude
Categories 3-4
Questions belonging to Categories Three and Four are tougher to answer, because only content information, not specific questions, is given to the contestants ahead of time. Bible Knowledge Questions in this group are drawn from just six books of the Bible whose identities will be revealed in the Bee-liever's Handbook. Contestants will be provided with instruction on general Bible study practices and then will be able to read introductory materials related to each of the selected books. (The content of these introductions is likely to show up in contest questions.) These questions will appear in competition materials phrased in multiple-choice format, with the answers embedded with a number of "distracter" answers; Contestants will need to be able to identify the correct answer from the incorrect ones.
Let's pretend that one of the selected books was the Gospel of John. Here, then, is a possible question that might be used in the competition:
Q: What are Jesus' last words in the Gospel of John?
What to Study
The Bee-liever’s Handbook lists a total of 350 Bible Memory Questions (Categories One through Three contain 100 Bible Memory Questions each; Category Four contains 50 Bible Memory Questions) and 200 Bible Knowledge Questions (100 each for Categories One and Two). Guidance as to what should be studied in preparation for the Bible Knowledge Questions from Categories Three and Four is included as well.
Contestants in the Primary Age Group (ages 7–10) will only be asked questions from Categories One through Three; Junior and Senior Age contestants should prepare to answer questions from all four difficulty categories. Each test/round will consist of 50% Bible Memory Questions and 50% Bible Knowledge Questions.
The Bible Bee Quiz Cards are the other important part of the contestant study materials. As mentioned before, the passages that make up every Bible Memory Question are printed on cards. In addition, all 200 Category 1-2 Bible Knowledge Questions will be published in card form as well. These questions are accompanied by the correct answers, but the cards do not provide the distracters that will be used with the questions as part of the competition.
Bonus questions will be asked on both written and oral tests and will not be included in the Bee-liever’s Handbook. They will be comprised only of Bible Knowledge Questions. These questions will tend to be much harder to answer than the regular questions in each category and may come from any book of the Bible. The purpose of having Bonus Questions is to increase the likelihood of a wider spread of scores, thus minimizing the potential of a large group of contestants receiving the exact same scores.
Bee-liever’s Handbook Availability
The Bee-liever’s Handbook and the Bible Bee Quiz Cards will both be ready for download on May 1, 2009.
Contest Rules
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