Academic Decathlon

 

2023- St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - Diocesan and National Champions

 

2022 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - Diocese Champions

 

2021 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - Diocese Champions & State/National Champions

 

2020 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - Diocese Champions & State/National Champions 

 

2019 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - Diocese Champions & 2nd Place overall at the State Competition 

 

2018 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - Diocese Champions & State Champions

 

2017 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - Diocese Champions & 2nd Place overall at the State Competition 

 

VIDEO: 2017 Diocesan Competition Video

 

2016 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - Diocese Champions & State Champions

 

2015 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School – Diocese & State Champions

 

2014 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School – 2nd Place Overall at the Diocese 

 

2013 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - Diocese & State Champions 

 

2012 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School – 2nd Place Overall at the Diocese 

 

2011 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School – 2nd Place Overall at the Diocese 

 

2010 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - Diocese Champion & 2nd Place at State

 

2009 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - 2nd Place Overall at the Diocese 

 

2008 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - Diocese & State Champions

 

2007 - St. Edward the Confessor Parish School - Diocese & State Champions

 

The Academic Junior High Decathlon is an academic competition designed for Catholic students in grades 6-8. There are ten events that take place within the one-day competition. Two of the events are collaborative, team efforts including the 5,000 point Logic Quiz and the 5,000 point Super Quiz.  The other eight events are individual events that are each worth 1,000 points including Religion, English and Spelling, Literature, Science, Mathematics, Current Events, Social Studies, and Fine Arts (Art and or Music).  The ten team members work together on both the Logic Quiz and the Super Quiz.  There are eight team members who also take individual tests and two team members which are designated as the Members at Large who only compete in the team events. 

 

Participants in the program including parents, siblings, coaches, and team members often remark that this experience not only celebrates Catholic education, but it is life-changing.  This program is also one that the more a person puts into it, the more they get out of the program. 

 

The Logic Test is typically the first event of the competition.  It is facilitated in a space that is large enough to host all of the teams and the audience.  The test coordinator will provide oral directions for the teams and then the event proctors will distribute the paper tests.  Each team member will obtain one copy of the Logic Quiz to use.  The team answer choices will be recorded on the one official answer document that the Logic Team Captain maintains.  There are 20 logic questions with varied degrees of difficulty on the test.  These problems include verbal, non-verbal, and quantitative logic. They are rigorous and require the team to think critically.  The team oriented nature of this event means that each of the ten team members will work together to ensure that the talents of each team member are best put to use.  In the past the St. Edward team has been organized by team member area of strength.  For example, the team members who demonstrate talent in the area of verbal logic may sit together while the more quantitatively minded team members are placed together.  Each team member will be given a pencil to use and is permitted to mark their quiz booklet as needed.  The quiz booklets will be collected at the end of the quiz. 

 

The Logic Quiz is a timed event.  The event lasts for fifty (50) minutes. When time is called the team captain will turn in the official team answer document to the event proctors. The results of the Logic Quiz are not immediately known by the team as the answer documents are taken to a panel of educators who grade each team’s responses for full and or partial credit.  The results of the Logic Quiz are made public at the event award ceremony in the afternoon.  The teams that earn first place through fourth place are recognized.  Ties are not broken in this event.

 

Individual Events:  Each of the eight individual events takes place in a designated classroom that is supervised by two proctors who read the directions, distribute the assessment, and monitor the competition.  The team member designated to each test will be called by subject to join the various delegations that move from the Logic Quiz into the individual classrooms.  Each individual event includes fifty (50) questions. 

 

The individual events are timed and last for fifty (50) minutes. Each participant marks his or her answer choices on a Scantron document for easy scoring and so the test questions include the following formats:  multiple choice, true or false, and matching.   Each individual event also includes a tie-breaker.  Individual ties are only broken in the event that there is a tie for the overall winner in the entire competition because only one school can represent the Diocese of Orange in the state competition.  The results of the Individual Events are made public at the event award ceremony in the afternoon.  Students who earn first place through fourth place are recognized.   Because ties are not broken for this event multiple winners may be recognized at each level (1st – 4th) and in each of the eight events.

 

Super Quiz: The Super Quiz is typically the last event of the competition and it takes place in a very interactive team format.  The test consists of fifty (50) questions that are organized into groups of ten (10).  Each of the groups of questions covers one of five (5) topics including religion, science, social studies, literature, and fine arts.   For this quiz each of the team members will have a written copy of the test in front of them.  The test is printed in a manner which allows the team member to only view one question at a time.  The teams progress through the test as prompted by the reader. 

 

Each question is read aloud to the teams and the audience.  Following the reading of the question the team will have fifteen to twenty (15-20) seconds to deliberate over their response.  Teams may talk and deliberate only from the time that the reader concludes reading the question until time is called and the reader announces, “Answers please”.   When time is called the team and audience will first hear a chime, and then the reader will make the answer announcement and at that time the team captain will be required to raise the team’s answer choice.   Once each team has shown their response, the reader will announce the correct response.  The audience will have the opportunity to cheer for their teams following the reading of the answer response. 

 

The event is proctored by two people at each team table including a score-keeper and a referee of the competition.  Teams may not challenge answer responses during the competition but may seek clarification as needed when either the question or answer choices are unclear.  Questions must be asked during the team deliberation period by asking the referee to hold the red flag aloft in the air.   This event is not timed in format, but it is paced by the reader and can take anywhere from 60 minutes to 90 minutes in total for the 50 questions and the tie-breakers.  The point-by-point results of this event are very public throughout the event.  Although a tie-breaker is completed, ties will not be broken unless there is an overall award tie for the first place as only one school can represent the diocese at the state competition.  Winners in 1st through 4th place will be recognized in this event.

 

Ms. Stacie Rego [email protected]