By DEBORAH FLINCHUM

By DEBORAH FLINCHUM

Rappahannock News Special Writer

“Ready for the first question?” “What is the complex con: jugate of the number -2-3i?”

“No answer?” Then try this one. ‘What is the exact four word title of the individual who prepares the budget for Great Britain?”

“Chancellor of the Exchequer,” is correct,

These are typical questions fielded by Rappahannock County High School’s academic team, usually referred to as the Pop Quiz team. The team gets its name from the television show Pop Quiz. The program has been on the air for seven years and is sponsored by WVPT Channel 51 in Harrisonburg. RCHS began participating in 1982 when the program had a cancellation and invited Rappahannock to fill in.

Coach Roger Flinchum explained, “Mr. Chappell called Cindy Wayland, Brion Patterson, and myself and asked us if we would like to become involved in coaching a Pop Quiz team. When school convened in the fall we decided how to choose teams. We weren’t sure how anyone else was doing it so we did it by our own methods. Our methods turned out to be quite different from those of a lot of the other teams.”

After observing several programs, a policy for selection of members was begun. “We started the policy of testing every student in eighth through twelfth grades early in the year. We give a written test which has thirty to forty questions,” said Mr. Flinchum. “Each homeroom teacher reads a list of questions that each child answers on an answer sheet. We take the answer sheets and sort them out and grade them.”

‘We have found that the grade level doesn’t make as big a difference as we had thought. Outstanding individuals appear on every grade level,” added Mr. Flinchum. “The winners are not always the valedictorian of their class. They are often the voracious readers, cool under pressure, extremely curious, and persons who want to know everything they can. They have a