Help & About

Both divisions follow the same overall shape: 17 rounds × 46 questions (23 toss-ups + 23 paired bonuses, ~782 per packet). Within a round the category split is essentially fixed — every round covers the full curriculum.

Categories: HS ↔ MS packets

Under the 2026 rules, middle school uses the same six subjects as high school. Middle school packets through 2021 used broader labels, and the middle school questions here come from those packets (2007–2021), so middle school practice keeps their names. Earth and Space is shared (the packets before 2010 call it Earth Science); HS Chemistry + Physics collapse into one MS bucket (Physical Science). The PRISMS Science+ Bowl adds its own Research and Engineering and Computer Science.

= shared name · ↔ direct rename · → HS buckets combined · — MS-only category

Packet composition

Real per-category counts from the most recent complete sets in our library — NSB Set 15 (2020) and NSB Set 10 (2016).

Counts include both toss-ups and bonuses (each TU is paired with a same-subject bonus). In the MS packets here, Math and Physical Science alternate between 4 and 5 toss-ups per round to satisfy the 23-toss-up constraint. Older MS sets (pre-2014) used 25 + 25 per round instead of 23 + 23.

Four practice modes track progress separately. Pick the one that matches how you want to study — see the per-mode chips on the Practice page for skill-level recommendations.

For coaches and live practice

Coach a Science Bowl club? The coach guide below takes you through it step by step.

For teachers and coaches running a club. Coach features need a coach account: on the Coach page, press Request coach access and an admin will look at it. Once you are a coach, the Coach page (Coach in the menu) shows a Getting started list that ticks off the first steps below as you do them.

1. 1Create your club

   A club is everyone you coach at one school: your players, your co-coaches and your practices. Make one club for the whole group. Inside it, players can be on team A or team B, the way you would send two teams to a tournament, and you can move them at any time: you do not need a club for each team. A second club is for a separate program, such as middle school and high school. If your school already has a club, the New club form shows it, with its coach: ask them to add you as a co-coach, so your players and practices stay in one place.

   On the Coach page, press New club (in Getting started, or under your clubs once you have one). Give it a name, choose how it usually plays, All together (everyone on the buzzer) or A vs B (team A against team B), which you can change each time you record, type your players' names in seating order, one per line, and press Create club. First names are enough, and you can add players and change names later. The club opens on its Roster tab, ready to invite your players.

2. 2Invite your players

   A name on your roster can be linked to the student's own account. Then you see their practice on the site: how often they practise, how they do in each subject, and every question they got right or wrong. Open the club's Roster tab: each name says whether it is linked, invited, or has no account yet. There are three ways to invite:

   • An invite link for one name. Press Make invite link on that player's name and send it however you usually reach them. It works once, for 14 days, whether or not they have an account yet.
   • An email invite, for a student who already has an account, under Invite players. The invite waits for them on their Your clubs page.
   • The club's join link, for everyone at once, also under Invite players. Press Turn on a join link, then Show in the room for a QR code. Turn it off once everyone has joined. Once every player is linked, Invite players folds to one line.

   Nothing is shared until the student accepts, and the page they accept on says exactly what you will see. They can leave the club whenever they like, and you stop seeing their practice straight away.

3. 3Record a practice

   On the Coach page, press Record a practice on your club: Moderate opens on the rounds your school plays (middle school or high school). Pick a set and a round, and the recording setup opens over the first question (it is also under Record a practice at the top of the reader). Choose how you are playing (All together or A vs B) and the club, tap the names of anyone not here under Who's here? (only the players here go on the recording strip), then press Start recording. Your usual and Last time skip the first two questions and open your club at Who's here?. Someone came late? Press Recording at the top (on a phone, Practice on the strip) and tap their name. As you read, tap the player who buzzed, then Correct or Wrong. If they buzzed before you finished reading the question, tap Early? on that buzz: in a match, a wrong early buzz gives the other team 4 points. In A vs B the score shows at the top of the recording strip as you go, and the line under it says what each tap added. When a team earns a bonus, the bonus opens by itself: tap Got it, Missed or Skip, and that question is done. A bonus counts for the team that won its toss-up; one read after a toss-up nobody got counts for neither team. Undo takes back the last tap, and tapped again, the one before it, even after the page reloads. To move a player, hold their name until it lifts, then drag it to where they sit or onto the other team. If the room looks back to front, use Mirror (on a phone, tap Practice on the strip and it is in the window that opens, above Finish practice). Buzzes are saved on your device first, so a dropped connection loses nothing.

4. 4Finish it and read the results

   When the round is over, press Finish practice, then See the practice grid. The grid shows which player is weak in which subject, and which subjects nobody buzzed on. It never ranks players. An A vs B practice also shows the score of team A and team B, the same one the strip showed. Every practice is on the club's Practices tab, and opens there. A practice left open says so on its page, with a Finish practice button, and when you come back to it hours later, Moderate asks whether to finish it or keep adding to it. Started one by mistake? While it has no buzzes, Delete this practice is under Finish practice. At the last question of a round the reader's button says Finish round: that ends the round, and the recording carries on into the next round until you finish the practice.

5. 5Share a practice

   On a practice's page, press Make a share link, read what the link shows, and press Make the link. Anyone with the link can open that practice without signing in. It shows the club's name, the questions read and the names of the players who buzzed, nothing else, and nobody can change anything through it. Press Stop sharing and the link stops working at once.

6. 6Students, Topics and Still don't get it

   Press Open club on the Coach page, or the club's name. A club opens on Overview: the card from the Coach page in full, with every subject at practice and on their own. Its other tabs are Students, Practices, Topics, Still don't get it, and Roster last, where you set up players and coaches. Three of them:

   • Students: each player who linked their account, with when they last practised, the days they practised in the past 28 (“4 of 6” means 4 of the 6 days since they joined the site), their answers, and how they do overall and in each subject. Right counts only answers the site checked: flashcards a player rates themselves count as practice, not as right or wrong. Click a column heading to sort by it, and Seating order to put it back. Open a player to see every question they got right or wrong.
   • Topics: where the club is weak, topic by topic, with what you recorded at practice beside what players do on their own. A model placed each question in a topic, so a few placements are debatable.
   • Still don't get it: questions players marked “Still don't get it” after seeing the answer, most marked first, with the answer and explanation. You see how many marked a question, never who. A question shows once 2 players have marked it, and nothing shows until 3 players have linked their accounts. Press Discussed once the club has talked it through, and it leaves the list until players mark it again.

   When some players are on team A or team B, Students and Topics show Everyone, Team A and Team B above the table, so you can see where your A team is weak before a tournament. One team's Topics counts its players' buzzes and their own practice; questions nobody buzzed stay under Everyone. Still don't get it is always the whole club's, because a team of five is too few to keep the marks anonymous.

   Players are told all of this when they join, including that you see only counts for “Still don't get it”. On Your clubs each player can open What your coach sees: their own record, exactly as you see it, and every coach of the club with the date they started.

7. 7Add a co-coach

   On the club's Roster tab, go to Coaches, type the coach's exact email on this site and press Invite. They need a coach account, and they accept on their Your clubs page (the people icon at the top of the site). A co-coach records practices and sees everything you see, players' own practice included, and players see every coach on Your clubs. Only the club's owner invites or removes co-coaches, deletes the club or hands it over. A co-coach can leave the club at any time.

8. 8Hand a club over

   If you stop coaching a club, hand it to a co-coach so its roster and practices stay with it. On the Roster tab under Coaches, press Hand over, choose the new owner, and decide whether to Stay on as a co-coach. You cannot undo it yourself: only the new owner, or an admin, can hand it back. To hand it to a coach who is not in the club, invite them as a co-coach first, or ask an admin.