From left to right: ASEAN quiz bee winners Jericho Villarico, champion; Wynkqui Anne Cruz, second runner-up; and Kim Eric Delicano, third runner-up.
MANILA -- Acing a national quiz bee is more than just studying hard. It requires certain traits that set apart champions from all the participants.
In an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA), coaches of the 8th ASEAN National Quiz Bee winners shared the distinctive traits of their respective trainees.
The coaches emphasized that these distinct qualities had helped their students pull through the demands of preparing for the competition and the stress that comes with it.
Systematic
For coach Eva Lagayan, being an organized student had helped Jericho Villarico, this year's national champion, ace the quiz bee.
Layagan explained that Villarico did not have a lot of time to prepare for the quiz bee because of several academic responsibilities he had to accomplish as a Grade 10 student, but he knew which tasks were needed to be prioritized.
“We did not review right away because this child said he needs to prepare for everything, and that he needs to prepare for the last quarter examination first. So I said we will review after your exam,” Layagan said.
Layagan added that Villarico knows and accepts his weaknesses, and tries to focus and face them in order to boost his potentials.
“He does not reject a thing he’s not good at but he sees it as an opportunity, whether he fails or he succeeds. Victory is not his aim, rather he aims to gain other strengths and he is obedient, (and) good at listening,” she said.
Eagerness
For Coach Alson Fernandez, Wynkqui Anne Cruz’s curiosity to try her skills on everything landed her in the first runner position of the competition.
“I never thought that she can excel in social studies and could memorize and understand the ASEAN organization as a whole in such a short time but she accepted the challenge,” Fernandez said.
He explained that his original bet backed out a month before the quiz bee. His co-educators advised him to try Cruz, who later had her thinking if she could bring home the bacon.
“As a first timer in quiz bees like this, her edge is that she is curious about everything. So I told her to take it one at a time and she obeyed everything I said. So luckily, we entered top 3,” he added.
Purpose-driven
Elsa Sasuman, coach of Kim Eric Delicano, said her student seemed to have a specific goal in mind which pushed him to do his best.
Sasuman shared that during quiz bee reviews, Delicano would check the scores and standings of their region in the past ASEAN qualifying competitions.
“We viewed the result of Region 11. He watched previous contests in YouTube, then he told me: 'Ma’am, why does Region 11 earn very low scores?',” she said, recounting what Delicano asked her.
Sasuman added that Delicano took the responsibility of raising the ranking of Region 11 upon himself.
“'Ma’am we have to do something for Region 11 to go up in the rankings.' He took so much pity in our region so I said, you must study hard because what your mind can conceive, your body will achieve, she said.
Sasuman concluded that Delicano’s goal gave direction to his preparations for the competition and eventually bag the second runner position. (With Jomari Castigador/OJT-PNA)
