Alli Blonski

Alli Blonski

The Academic Decathlon (USAD; often referred to as Academic Decathlon and abbreviated to AcDec, Acadec and AD, among other names) is an annual high school academic competition organized by the non-profit United States Academic Decathlon Association. The competition consists of seven multiple choice tests, two performance events, and an essay. Academic Decathlon was created by Robert Peterson in Orange County, California for local schools in 1968 and expanded to a nationwide setting in 1981. That year, 17 states and the District of Columbia participated, a number which has grown to include most of the United States as well as occasional international schools since then.Once known as United States Academic Decathlon, on March 1, 2013, the United States Academic Decathlon announced that it would begin operating as the Academic Decathlon.

A unique aspect of Academic Decathlon is that it is designed to include students from all achievement levels. Teams generally consist of nine members, who are divided into three divisions based on grade point average: Honors (3.75–4.00 GPA), Scholastic (3.00–3.74 GPA), and Varsity (0.00–2.99 GPA). Each team member competes in all ten events against other students in his or her division, and team scores are calculated using the top two overall individual scores from each team in all three divisions. Gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded for individual events as well as for overall scores. To earn a spot at the national competition in April, teams must advance through local, regional, and state competitions, though some levels of competition may be bypassed for smaller states. Online competitions, separated into small, medium, and large categories, are also offered. USAD has also recently experimented with an International Academic Decathlon and has created an Academic Pentathlon for middle schools.

The ten events require knowledge in many academic disciplines. Students must take seven multiple choice tests in art, economics, language and literature, math, music, science and social science. These topics, with the exception of math, are thematically linked each year. One of the multiple choice events, alternating between science or social science, is chosen for the Super Quiz. In addition to the seven objective events, there are three subjective events graded by judges: essay, interview and speech.

Over the years, there have been various small controversies, the most infamous being the scandal involving the Steinmetz High School team, which was caught cheating at the 1995 Illinois state finals. This event was later dramatized in the 2000 film Cheaters. Academic Decathlon has also been criticized by educators for the large amount of time it forces students to spend on the material, as it is an entire curriculum outside of the one provided by the school. Around the turn of the millennium, several coaches protested the USAD's decision to publish error-ridden Resource Guides rather than provide topics for students to research.