AHS Academic Decathlon Concludes Season, Continues Focus

DIANA LI
News Editor

After a grueling season, AHS’ Academic Decathlon (AcaDec) team placed 12th out of 45 schools in the two-day Los Angeles County Competition held at El Rancho High School and the University of Southern California. Though the team did not qualify to compete at the state competition, the team nevertheless committed a tremendous amount of time and effort.
According to the California Academic Decathlon (CAD) webpage, the program is designed to “provide an effective academic enrichment program” for high school students and to “encourage, acknowledge and reward academic excellence” by motivating these students to achieve more through competition.
“AcaDec has taught me how to both manage my time well and to cooperate with my teammates,” junior Norman Hsieh said. “Aside from studying the subjects in AcaDec, students have to also be able to focus on their own grades in school.”
AcaDec began in 1968 in Orange County by Superintendent Dr. Robert D. Peterson as a forum for academic achievement through a team effort; its success led to the establishment of the California Academic Decathlon Association in 1979, and eventually the United States Academic Decathlon (U.S.A.D.) formed in 1982. Topics that contestants are quizzed on include science, music and economics.
“We have an event called Super Quiz Relay, [which] is a thrilling experience,” senior Vivien Le said. “Decathletes have seven seconds to answer each question that a special guest reads.”
The AcaDec teams consist of nine members, who are divided into the three categories of Honors, Scholastic and Varsity based on their GPAs. This encourages growth in all of the students’ academics, but provides a greater push for those of lower academic standing. According to CAD, “the most dramatic change is typically seen in the inevitable improvement of the ‘C’ students.”
Additionally, the U.S.A.D. annually announces a new theme, or an overall curricular topic, that teams focus on in their studies. The central theme for 2012-2013 is Russia; some areas of study include the Space Race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Russian art and architecture, the history of Russia and the economy of communist and post-communist Russia.
Though AcaDec focuses primarily on scholastic merit, there is still plenty of teamwork and group bonding involved in the process.
“We have traveled out of town for lectures and study-retreats. We spend a great amount of time […] together to the point where we feel like family,” Le said.