FERRIDAY &8212; All the preparation in the world won&8217;t give you all the answers.

Concordia Parish junior high school students learned that lesson the hard way Wednesday at the parish-wide quiz bowl.

Questions like &8220;how many provinces are in Canada,&8221; and &8220;name the largest river in London&8221; drew a deafening silence.

But there were answers they knew too &8212; Sherlock Holmes&8217; address, the history of Lief Erickson.

Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders from Monterey, Vidalia, Ferriday and Ridgecrest competed against each other for the overall quiz bowl title. Vidalia eighth-graders walked away with the prize.

And everyone learned, organizer and Ferriday Junior High Guidance Counselor Delores Thomas said.

&8220;The children seem to be enjoying it,&8221; she said. &8220;Learning doesn&8217;t just take place in the classroom. It&8217;s good for them to come together and do this.&8221;

Teams of four and one alternate from each grade level at each school used practice books to prepare for the event.

&8220;I studied three times a day,&8221; Monterey&8217;s Cade Crum said. &8220;It&8217;s completely different when you come.&8221;

The Monterey teams only started studying a few days ago, they said, but felt good about their skill. The questions were harder than they expected.

&8220;On some of them I said, &8216;I hope they know the answer, because I don&8217;t,&8217;&8221; team sponsor Gayla Crum said.

The Ferriday teams did more preparation, they said.

&8220;We studied at school, at home, on the phone with each other, anywhere we went,&8221; Arteius Jefferson said.

Monterey&8217;s sixth- and seventh- graders &8212; who outperformed the eighth-graders &8212; even practiced the quiz bowl setting.

&8220;We have a book and we have a buzzer at school,&8221; Kirsten Blake said. &8220;We competed against each other.&8221;

Vidalia&8217;s eighth-grade team competed against its seventh-grade team in the final.