Keep Calm and Decode On Which tournaments are running this?
Division A Alamance: Yes Division B Brunswick: Yes Cabarrus: No Southern Wake Cumberland: Yes States Durham: Yes Nationals Harnett: Yes Johnston: Yes Possibly a few more regionals, Lenoir: Yes unclear right now New Hanover #1: Yes New Hanover #2: Yes Onslow: Yes Trial event - students get medals, but their score does not count Pender: Yes towards the team trophy. This lets us work out kinks and gauge Pitt: Yes interest before making it a real event. Unifour: Yes — Wants to run as full event Wake-Middle Creek: Yes Wake-Heritage: Yes Wilkes: Yes A little history Atbash cipher
● Reverse Alphabet ● Included on the test ● Easy once you know that is what it is ○ Bonus - these questions are labeled with the type of cipher to use, so everyone should get this question right! There should only be 1 of these on the test. Caesar Cipher
● Letter shift of no more than 3 letters in either direction Aristocrat - simple substitution, with or without a hint
● These are your “typical” cryptograms found in many newspapers ● There is not a chart to read, you must use clues in letters frequencies & common words to help solve. ● There will be several of these on the test. Vigenère Cipher
● The table consists of the alphabets written out 26 times in different rows, each alphabet shifted cyclically to the left compared to the previous alphabet, corresponding to the 26 possible Caesar Ciphers. ● This table is included on the test and a keyword ● You use the keyword over and over to solve the entire code PigPen Cipher
● This cipher is symbol- based. ● The key for this will not be on the test ● Students should do a “data dump” on their test paper as soon as it starts Tap Code
● Looks complicated, but based on a simple chart ● Students will have to do a “data dump” on this one as well ● Every 2 sets of dots make up a word ● First set of dots is row, second set is column Strategies
● Divide & conquer - tests can be taken apart, but be sure pages are put back in the right order at the end ● 2 letters in each problem can be wrong and the answer will still be correct. ● Spending time on harder questions worth more points or easier ones worth less points? ● If stuck, just try something! ● Practice, practice, practice https://www.toebes.com/codebusters/ Start with the tutorial, seriously. Only way to learn this is to jump in
● Luckily for us, John has dummy-proofed almost every step along the way! ● New instruction video in the next few weeks ● Example tests will be posted on resource page ● Pro Tip: download your test file when you are done, you can import it again to make changes, reuse parts, fix mistakes. ● You cannot save the test in the program.