Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Academic Decathalon

Anyone's high schooler do this? I'm really curious about it. I just served as a volunteer judge for a local contest for that (my kids are in grade school, so not for them).

Hi,
I hadn't heard of this but looked it up and found an entry on Wikipedia that included the following:

"The USAD requires a diversity of achievement within each team; teams must have students who fall into three categories determined by GPA. The Honors category is composed of students with GPAs between 3.75 and 4.0. The Scholastic category consists of students with GPAs between 3.0 and 3.74. The final group, the Varsity category, contains students whose GPA ranges from 0.00 to 2.99. USAD uses a modified GPA scale in which performance-based classes such as music, art or physical education are omitted from the GPA calculation. A grade counts for face value regardless of whether it is from an advanced placement, honors, regular or remedial class. An A is counted as a 4.0, a B as a 3.0, a C as a 2.0, a D as a 1.0, and a F as a 0. Only final grades taken from the previous two complete school years are used to calculate GPA.[43]

A team typically consists of nine competitors: three honors, three scholastic and three varsity. However, since only the top two scores from each category count towards the team's total score, a team can compete with as few as six students without any point deduction."

Another part of the Wikipedia entry indicated that one of the reasons the founder started it to 'change 'C' students' lives.' I am just starting to learn about academic competitions, but the ones I've learned about are usually focused on the top performers. So maybe it's good that students who maybe aren't as accomplished academically can participate in this. But I seriously wonder whether a kid with a very low GPA would benefit from such a competition, unless they had some 2e issue that was normally a handicap (perhaps dyslexia?) and could show through this competition that they could accomplish just as much as kids with a higher GPA. But perhaps I'm missing the point, and I'm kind of puzzled about the unusual structure. Since you were a volunteer judge, maybe you got a better idea of what is involved--did you get the sense that it was a positive exercise for the kids?

I had never heard of academic decathlon but apparently it's a big, national high-school competition. Kids on the team must come from three GPA groups- A, B, and C. Each high schooler competes by taking 10 tests- you can win individual and team medals, also for an individual event or for the whole team. You can go to state and nationals for it.
The 10 events are- 6 are written multiple choice exams (science, literature, math,e tc.). One is a interview (I was a judge for that), one is a prepared speech, and one is a quiz bowl. Another is an essay you must write.
The overall topic this year is Russia. one of the kids told me for the literature part they had to read the novel Dr. Zhivago!
I don't know- it sounds like a ton of work for not a big pay-off. I had alot of fun being a judge but I don't know if I would recommend it.

I did Academic Decathlon all four years in high school, and went to the state competition twice.

Our C students on the team were amazing, and I think competing was really transformative for them. Most had never been "picked" for any academic competition before. The A and B students were totally focused on helping them learn the material (which incidentally was good for the A and B students' learning, I think), and we really competed together as a team.

It was a lot of work, but I would definitely recommend it.

My brother-in-law coached a team that made it to nationals over several years. I always wished our kids' school did it, I am sure D2 in particular would have loved it. We do have Quiz Bowl (different, but also academic competition), which she loves.

I was on an Academic Pentathlon team when I was in 6th grade, which was the last year of elementary school in the area back then. It's the same principle, just fewer tests. I found that taking tests and then sitting through a lengthy awards ceremony is a pretty lousy way for an 11yo to spend a Saturday, and I turned down the invitation to join the team in junior high.

For my 9th grade year (last year of junior high back then) they introduced Quiz Bowl, some of my friends badgered me into accepting the invitation this time, and I found the experience to be a significant improvement.

In high school, the only option was Decathlon. Yeah. Thanks, but no thanks.