Herdbook A field guide to the World Scholar's Cup
Keep it smallA library of forty documents is a library nobody opens.

Library

Everything worth having open, and the templates your team should be filling in.

Where to read

Team templates

Copy these into a shared document. They're the four that actually change scores.

Debate case sheet

One page per motion. Fill it in during prep, then never read off it while speaking.

  1. Motion, and our side.
  2. Definition: the version of the world we're arguing about, in one sentence.
  3. Argument one: claim, mechanism, example, impact.
  4. Argument two: claim, mechanism, example, impact.
  5. Their best two arguments, and our answer to each.
  6. The weighing line: why our harm outranks theirs.
  7. Who speaks when, and the first twenty seconds of speech one.

Examples bank

Twenty rows, built as you study. This one document feeds the writing event and every debate round you'll argue.

  • What happened, in one sentence.
  • Date and place.
  • Which section it belongs to.
  • One claim it supports.
  • One claim it undermines. The row isn't finished until you have this.

Bowl protocol card

Agreed once, before the tournament. Read it out in the five minutes before the round.

  • Device: named person, no swapping mid-round.
  • Clock: named person, calls "five seconds" every time.
  • Final call: named person, decides when the three of you disagree.
  • Rule: ten seconds of discussion, then the caller decides.
  • Rule: a specific reason outranks a strong feeling.
  • Rule: when unsure, select two.

Twelve-week plan

Squash it down proportionally if you have less time. The last fortnight never changes.

  • Weeks 1–2: split the fifteen sections three ways, read properly, summarise.
  • Weeks 3–4: teach your sections to each other. Start the examples bank.
  • Weeks 5–8: two practice preps a week, one timed essay a week, one Challenge set a fortnight.
  • Weeks 9–10: full mock day. Debate rounds back to back, then a Bowl round while tired.
  • Week 11: fix whatever the mock exposed. No new material after this point.
  • Week 12: light revision, protocol card, early nights.

Of the two community guides up there, Beijing Alpacas is the one to trust first. Also: only publish what's yours. Your own notes and practice essays are yours. The official curriculum and past Challenge papers aren't, so link to those where they live and leave them there.

Every community site on this page, Herdbook included, was written by students who competed in one particular year under rules that have since moved. They're excellent on technique and on what a round actually feels like. For anything that decides a score, go to the handbook.