2008 MindGames
Washington, D.C., May 6, 2008

RULES:

MindGames is intended to stimulate and challenge the residents in their medical knowledge and patients care with mental illness and substance abuse disorders. Competitors are expected to exhibit professionalism, good sportsmanship and fair play.

General Game Rules and Regulations:

• Players must be current members of the American Psychiatric Association and is in good standing with their residency program.
• Only ACGME- and RCPSC-accredited general psychiatry residency programs are eligible to participate. Subspecialty fellows and combined-specialty residents must join their general psychiatry residency program teams.

Online Qualifying Competition

1. The Online Exam will be available from February 11 to 25, 2008. Teams can take the exam only once within this two-week window.
2. Teams will log in the MINDGAMES website using their unique log-in ID and password and will not be allowed to take the exam more than once. 
3. Teams will have a maximum of 60 minutes to answer 150 questions. 
4. The clock starts ticking after the first question appears and ends when 60 minutes has elapsed or the team completes the 150 questions whichever comes first. 
5. Teams are not allowed to go back to a skipped question nor go back to change a previous answer.
6. Test should be taken without any assistance (books, internet, or any and all other forms of help are prohibited during the taking of the test). 
7. Each program’s director is responsible for encouraging rules compliance.
8. Score will be determined based on the number of correct questions. There is a 0.25 point penalty for wrong answer and skipped/unanswered questions. 
9. All scores are confidential – only the scores of the top three teams will be made public. 
10. After the exam has closed, the top three programs will be invited to the national live competition. In case of tied scores, the teams with the fastest posted time will advance. The selected teams will have ten (10) days to accept the invitation. If they fail to reply, their slot will go to the next highest scoring team. The final programs will be announced at the 2008 AADPRT meeting.

National Live Competition

1. The live competition will consist of three teams with three members for each team. The top three scoring programs from the qualifying competition will receive a $5,000 grant to send any three APA resident members from their program. The final team roster must be submitted to the MINDGAMES coordinator in advance for verification. 
2. The moderator will read the question. Teams can buzz after the question is read. If a team buzzes before that, they are disqualified from answering that question. 
3. The team that buzzes first shall have 10 seconds to begin an answer. Failing that, a score deduction will be taken and the opposing team will have an opportunity to answer. 
4. The moderator will select the first question. The team that answers correctly will choose the category and point value for the next question. 
5. There will be five categories for each round with five questions each. Each question will have point values ranging from 100 to 500 by order of difficulty. The team that answers a question correctly will get the points for that question. A team that fails to answer correctly after buzzing will get the points deducted from their score. 
6. During game play, the moderator is in charge and has the authority to accept or reject an answer. If there is a dispute, the moderator can request judges to rule. The judges’ decision is final. 
7. The team with the highest accumulated score after game play wins. If there is a tie after regular game play, the game will go to “sudden death” and the first team to score will be declared the winner. 
8. If there is a challenge, the judges will make a decision onsite. No challenges will be accepted once the winner has been declared.

“Sudden Death” Rules 
The game will go to “sudden death” if there is a tie after the regular game play has ended. 
The moderator will read questions from randomly chosen categories. The first team to answer correctly will win.

** The decision of the judges is final.

In collaboration with
Supported by an unrestricted educational grant by

http://www.psychbowl.org/