Lab Placement Survey

I have sent the following survey to all emails I currently have for UTNIF LD students. If you are attending the LD program at UTNIF but didn't receive this survey, please complete it and email it back to me at: sthomas@mail.hockaday.org. I need all surveys by June 15.

This survey is being sent to you to gather information so that we can best determine lab placement for our students. For those of you who are new to camp, labs are the classes you will be divided into for instruction. Please answer the following questions and email them back to me by June 15 or sooner.

1. Student's Name:

2. Coach's Name:

3. School:

4. Grade you will be during 2008-2009 school year:

5. Have you previously attended any debate camps? Please tell us which camps, when you attended, and who were your lab instructors.

6. Please describe your debate experience. Tell us how many years you have competed in LD and approximately in how many tournaments in novice and varsity. Also describe to us any experience you have in other forensics events. Please be clear so that we can get an accurate picture of your background and experience.

7. Please give us your record at your five best tournaments this year. Please tell us your preliminary record, elimination round reached if it applies, and division (novice, JV, or varsity). Here is an example: Hockaday TFA Tournament, 3-1, octofinals, varsity LD.

8. Describe the debate style in your region. If you are from Texas, tell us if your team focuses more on TFA or UIL or both. Does your team travel or stay in its region? Also, tell us if you plan to compete at TOC tournaments next year. If you plan to travel, please tell us where you hope to go.

9. What are your competitive goals for next year? What do you hope to achieve?

10. Describe your strengths as a debater.

11. Describe your weaknesses as a debater that you hope to improve upon at camp.

12. Place yourself in one of the following categories and explain why you placed yourself there:

A: Advanced -- You have qualified for championships before such as TFA State, UIL State, NFL Nationals, or TOC. You've competed in LD for 2-3 years already and break regularly to elimination rounds.

B: Varsity -- You've competed in debate 2-3 years already. You have an average varsity record. Sometimes you win, but you aren't yet consistent. If you are from Texas, you may have come close to qualifying for TFA State, such as getting 6-8 of the needed 10 points.

C: Intermediate -- Most of your prior debate experience was as a novice. You have been a successful novice debater, regularly reaching elimination at this level. You've competed steady for at least a year. You might have a few varsity competitions under your belt, but you most likely struggled when debating higher level kids. For the most part, you feel comfortable with the foundational skills.

D: Beginning -- You are a beginner with little to no experience in LD prior to coming to camp. If you have competed before, it has been at only a few competitions at the novice level, and you may have struggled in terms of your win-loss record. You feel you still could benefit from learning the foundational skills to build upon them.

BE HONEST in answering this question. The goal is for you to learn and improve this summer. You don't want to be in a lab that is either below your skill level or over your head, making it difficult for you to follow instruction. You will get the most out of camp and improve the greatest if you are properly placed and don't feel overwhelmed.

13. Please look over our staff list on our website (http://www.utdebatecamp.com/staff-ld.html). Are there any staff members with whom you specifically would like to request to work? Are there any staff members with whom you know you do not want to work? This information will be kept confidential. (Note: We recently added Oklahoma State Champion Garner Lanier to the UTNIF staff. He attended UTNIF as a student. His bio is on the blog.)

14. If there are any other emails that we should include when sending out information about camp, please list here.

15. Do you have any other concerns or information you would like to share? If you are a repeater to UTNIF, are there any changes you hope to see at the camp?

Thank you! We look forward to meeting you in July.

Stacy Thomas
UTNIF LD Director
Hockaday Debate Coach