Academic Decathlon is a national competition in the United States that involves teams from each school competing in 10 academic events, the curriculum of which vary from year to year. Several states already have Academic Decathlon as High School curriculum.
The activities consist of a Scrimmage or practice meet, a Regional competition, a State competition and a National competition. The top 3 ranking winners of each non-practice competition advance to the next competition until the winners at the National competition claim championship. Additionally, awards are given to the players and teams for remarkable achievement and rank among all other contestants.
The ten topics of competition are: Art, Economics, Essay, Interview, Language and Literature, Mathematics, Music, Science, Speech and Super Quiz (a special interest topic that is different each year).
Six topics (Art, Economics, Language and Literature, Mathematics, Music, Science) consist of only written tests, Super Quiz has a written and a competitive round, Interview is a formal interview, Essay consists of a timed essay, and Speech is a prepared speech on any topic the student chooses.
Points are given based upon the scores in each of the 10 competitions for the 9 participating students and tallied for the whole team. The team with the most points wins the competition.
Each team consists of 3 A or Honor students, 3 B or Scholastic students, 3 C or Varsity students, and can also have up to 2 alternates. A team also has a coach and optionally one assistant coach to train the students in the topics of competition.
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