Student radio station KURE 88.5 presents Kaleidoquiz 2014 this Friday and Saturday across the Iowa State campus and Ames.

The 26 hour radio competition, marking its 47-year anniversary, pits teams made up of students from residence halls, majors and general interest, in a series of on-campus games as well as questions fielded to them through the radio station. Each event and question earns competitors points for their teams. In order to prepare for this year’s KQ, the organizing staff began preparing immediately after last year’s competition.

“When we finished last year, our first thoughts were how well it went,” said 2014 KQ director Rebecca Park. “We decide to keep or remove certain events depending on how well they went this year.”

Afterwards, the committee is done until next school year, when it is reorganized with both past and new staff. Preparation for the upcoming KQ starts immediately, asking for volunteers, advertising registration for students and creating the radio questions.

“We have our committee make up a lot of the questions,” Park said. “I also ask my personal friends to write these questions too. That way it’s fair for all the teams.”

According to Collin Schmidt, a senior in mechanical engineering, there is no real way to prepare for the questions. Schmidt will be doing his third year of KQ this year, having previously competed with a group named “Crazy Train” and “Thundercats,” now called “Quiz In My Pants.”

“The questions are all over the place,” Schmidt said. “Some of our team devotes their entire time to solving the questions on their computers.”

However, the questions are not ones that will pop up on the first page results on Google. Schmidt explains that the key to finding the answers are the questions put on the air by KURE DJs themselves every six or so minutes.

“They drop small hints while they talk, so you have to listen carefully,” Schmidt said. “We use that to decide which sites to go to for answers.”

Park also said not to use Wikipedia for the competition.

“Some teams in the past have changed the answers to help their teams win,” Park said.

In addition to the events and questions, teams may also create video montages for points. DJs announce a topic, for which the team must make a video based off the topic before times up. For Schmidt’s group last year, the montages involved the Harlem Shake and Angry Birds.

“This competition is about how anything can happen,” Schmidt said. “Always having a big team helps, and there needs to be different people for these events and montages.”

With about thirty to forty people in “Quiz In My Pants” competing this year, Schmidt feels that they have a chance to go far this year, aiming for the top three. These three times get to pick from three packages titled geek, food or bling. The top team picks first, followed by the second place winners and the third team gets what’s left.

Although KQ might not be the easiest for the public to watch, as the events are not disclosed to the public, they might be the unsuspecting witness to a KQ flash mob. What these flash mobs do and where they are completely depends on where the organizers send them.

“We typically tell teams to send someone in for the flash mobs with a certain quality, like know the fight song,” Park said. “It can be a dress up event as well and its a great way to get points. The public loves seeing them out for that.”

Here are some tips from Park about how teams can succeed in KQ.

“1. Organization: Somebody needs to be in charge of everything, but only have someone manage events, montages, questions, etc.

2. Get to know Friley Hall: There are a lot of events in Friley, and KURE is located in it as well. Friley is large, and it can be easy to get lost in there. Time is critical for these events, so don’t waste it finding your way around.

3. Read, read, read: Read everything that KQ sends your way. Emails, event descriptions, judging rules, and your team packet. Park also recommends keep an eye on their Facebook page and the Iowa State Daily. Call and shout ‘Pupperoni, woof woof!’

4. Get sleep: Get a good night’s sleep on Thursday before you compete. Have coffee and/or soda to keep you awake during the competition, but only have healthy snacks as well.

5. Be prepared for anything: KQ likes to throw in “curve balls” to keep things interesting. Teams in the past didn’t expect to have some events, and were totally unprepared.

6. Be flexible: If someone falls asleep on your team, find someone else to cover for them or do their work yourself. It is not the end of the world if someone takes a small snooze.”