The Arkansas high school quiz bowl game is divided into 4 quarters. The only two quarters in which the gameplay is identical are the 1st and 4th. There are 45 tossup questions written for general gameplay, 5 for tie breaking at the end of the game, three sets of 60-second round questions, and 4 sets of 4-part bonus questions.
The 1st quarter consists of 20 tossup questions. In these, the question is read aloud, and a team member buzzes in to answer. He can buzz in at any point of the question, but once he has buzzed and answered, neither he nor his team get anyother chance to answer that particular question. Once that team has answered, if the answer is correct, the reader either finishes the rest of the question or reads the question again in it's enitirety. Each correctly answered question is worth 10 points.
The 2nd quarter is the toss-up/bonus round. The quarter begins like the 1st, with a tossup question that either side can answer. If the tossup is answered incorrectly, then another is asked until one is correctly answered. Once there is a correctly answered tossup, a bonus question is offered to the entire team that anwered the tossup correctly. There are 4 parts to the bonus question, each part worth 5 points each for a total of 20 points possible. The entire team is allowed to confer and discuss the answer to each part of the bonus, but only the team captain can give the answer the team deduced. Any of the parts that are answered incorrectly "bounce" to the other team, and that team gets a chance to answer it, again for 5 points. Whether or not this "Bounce back" rule is employed varies from area to area, but it is used in Northside's invitational. This round lasts until either 10 tossups are spent, or 4 bonus questions have been spent. Again, this is a rule that is variable from area to area, but the general preference is to play until 4 bonus questions are asked. Northside's invitational will play until 4 bonuses are asked.
The 3rd quarter is the 60-second, or lightening, round. In this round the buzzers are not used. The teams are offered three sets of ten questions of different subject matter for each set. The team who has a lower score ending the 2nd quarter gets the first choice of set. If there is a tie between the two teams at the end of the 2nd quarter, a tossup question is asked, and the team that buzzes in and answers it correctly gets choice. The team has then 60 seconds to answer the ten questions given. If the team answers all 10 of the questions, the team gets a 20 point bonus. Whatever questions the team answers incorrectly turn over to the other team.
The last quarter is identical to the 1st, except the remaining of the 45 tosups is used. These questions used to count for 20 points, but a rule this summer lowered the point value to 10 points. Northside's invitational will not adopt this point decrease, and final quarter tossups will count for 20 points.