What's a Power Search?

A Power Search is a testing mechanism for potential players. They answer 30 short questions, 20 multiple choice and 10 short answer questions. Students see what it takes to answer HCASC questions and coaches have the opportunity to assess players knowledge in a wide range of content areas:

Business -- Current Events -- Fine Arts -- General Knowledge --

Geography -- History -- Literature

Pop Culture -- Religion -- Science -- Social Science -- Sports

Use the Power Search to reach a large number of possible players in a time-efficient manner. Each Power Search takes just 20-30 minutes to run and you can involve as many students as the room can accommodate.

There are 10 Power Search quizzes supplied, so you can take the game to the students -- in classrooms, at fraternity, sorority and club meetings, in the dormatories or cafeteria, the student union, etc. The more students you involve, the greater opportunity to recruit the best, brightest and fastest players for your HCASC club and team.

Effective with the 2011-12 season, each HBCU has two options for meeting the campus game play requirement:

1. Conduct one or more Power Search quizzes (with a minimum of 50 students total) , record their contact information and scores and submit that along with a roster of at least 12 students who are part of your HCASC Club.
2. Conduct a campus tournament with a minimum of eight teams, submit the contact information on the players, a tournament chart and scoresheets.

With the number of students serving internships and externships and having many extra-curricular activities, it is difficult to get the attention of students all at once, such as when you conduct a campus tournament. As an alternative or to augment the campus tournament, using the Power Search allows you to consider a student for the team who was not available when you ran a campus tournament or after the initial Power Searches were run.

Conducting a Power Search is like giving a short written quiz. Here are the steps:

1. Once you've decided when and where your Power Search(es) will be done, print the Power Search(es) you will need from the Game Play Database. Then photocopy and staple them.
2. A faculty or staff member or an HCASC Club member must proctor the Power Search to ensure that all the contact information is completed and collect the documents from the students at the end of the session.
3. We recommend allowing 20-30 minutes for students to take the Power Search.
4. The answer sheets for each Power Search are in the Game Play Database. After the Power Search(es), print the relevant Power Search(es) with answers.
5. You may need to recruit some faculty or staff or Club members to help you mark the Power Searches. Administrative personnel whose jobs involve detail are excellent prospects. The number of people needed to help you will depend on the number of students who have taken the Power Search. If you have just 50, that requires fewer people than if you have 200 or more.
6. We recommend using a large conference table or other work table to accommodate each scorer having three or more stacks of completed Power Search quizzes in front of them. One question at a time, you read off the correct answer and they mark each question (0 for incorrect and 1 for correct). Scorers total the number of correct answers at the end of each page and at the end of the quiz. After you've run through all 30 questions, you start again with the same Power Search scoring exercise until all have been marked.
7. Once you're done with the scoring, you enter each student's contact information and score into the Game Play Database. When it comes time to submit your paperwork for NCT Qualification Part 1, print the Power Search Submission Report out of the Game Play Database as a pdf and email it to HCASC headquarters.
8. Decide in advance how and when you will notify students who did well on the Power Search to invite them to your HCASC Club or campus tournament. Make the students taking the Power Search aware of when and how they should expect to hear from you.