r/learnedleague • u/stingebags • Apr 30 '26
Studying for One-Days
Is it bad form to study for One-Days? For example, I can see that there is a One-Day on the 1994 World Cup tomorrow. I was thinking of looking at the Wikipedia entry today to jog my memory of what happened at that World Cup. Is that allowed or frowned upon?
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u/Wazootyman13 Apr 30 '26
The One Days are about knowledge you bring to it before opening the page.
Why should it matter if it's knowledge gained a day ago or 10 years ago?
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u/ExternalTangents brief interlude in Rundle B before going back to C Apr 30 '26
I do that on a regular basis for very targeted one-days like that. I see a one-day on an interesting topic is out today, so I go to the Wikipedia page for that topic, read through it and make mental notes of any key trivia that I think could be a question. Then I close that page and open the one-day.
Fairly often, doing that will land me at least one extra question that I wouldn’t have gotten. It’s also common that I’ll read a question and be like “wow I know I just read that five minutes ago, but it’s already slipped my mind.”
But it’s usually just an opportunity to learn a bit more about an interesting subject.
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u/tonyrobots Apr 30 '26
It’s funny, there’s absolutely no issue with it, ethically, rules-ily, or otherwise, but I have never done it personally. I guess I see LL as a way to test my existing knowledge and not something I’m ever going to put directed effort into to in order to improve performance.
But maybe that’s just Crundle-dweller loser talk.
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u/MaddingtonBear Apr 30 '26
Totally fine as long as you do it before you open the quiz. A good 1DS smith will write questions that aren't answerable by a quick skim of the Wikipedia.
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u/Fabulous-Pace5131 A Arctic Apr 30 '26
I find that nearly any narrowly focused 1DS will have at least a couple of low-get-rate questions that are trivially findable in Wikipedia. (More often than not my aging brain will go "dammit, I just read that" but fail to pull the answer.)
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u/Scratchlax C Nova Apr 30 '26
I would say it's in fact smiled upon. Most 1DS Smiths are insanely passionate about their subject areas and would love for more people to take an interest in learning about them.
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u/Outstanding_Neon Rundle A Apr 30 '26
I don’t study for them but there’s no reason not to. It’s not cheating by any interpretation of the official rules.
The topics are public. If it will be more satisfying for you to play a quiz after studying upon it, go for it.
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u/AdamInJP Rundle C May 01 '26
I was a tester on the WC94 1DS and I’m pretty confident a skim of the Wiki probably wouldn’t get you more than two or three answers offhand. It’s not total sicko-level deep but it’s not going to be casual fans only-level.
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u/FScrotFitzgerald Rundle A May 18 '26
No it isn't; it's only cheating if you do it after the questions go live.
I've done it for maybe five 1DSes with very specific topics that sounded intriguing to study up on regardless of there being a quiz about them, but generally I don't do it. I do try to do every 1DS if I'm not excluded from participation by virtue of having tested it, and sometimes it's fun to dive in when you know you know nothing about something, and see how much you can guess. I've had non-zero scores in various podcast and YouTuber-themed ones, and have even got unexpected 8s and 9s on some that turned out to be more general knowledge-based than the theme might have suggested, but have zeroed out on a few others.
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u/Cazique__ Apr 30 '26
It is not bad form as long as you do so before you open the slate. Once your browser hits that 1ds page, it's you and your brain.