Often teachers have a debate about which is harder: high, middle, or elementary school. Having taught both high and middle school I usually say the following: "In Catholic high school you have few classes to prep for, and many students. In Catholic elementary school you have many classes to prep for, and few students. But in Catholic middle school you have both many class to prep for, and many students" since in middle school you are often prepping for 6 or 7 classes and have three (or four!) grades of students. In addition, in the competitive environment for students that most school exist in now, they are required to put forth as many activities as possible outside of the classroom. As a Catholic middle school teacher one is usually called to coach a sport or academic decathlon - often carrying only the best wishes for their decathletes but not much experience.
So, this post is for those hard working middle school teachers who were suddenly called by their principal to be an academic decathlon coach. This post will:
I. Give you a summary of what Academic Decathlon
II. Give you a short analysis of the distribution of Academic Decathlon events
I. What is Academic Decathlon?
Academic Junior High Decathlon (also known as Junior High Academic Decathlon, JHAD, AJHD) is an annual academic event for Catholic middle school students across the (arch)dioceses of California (and occasionally other places too.) There are a few key elements to it:
- Each team has ten decathletes from grades 6-8
- There are various methods to pick these ten decathletes, which will be the topic of another post
- There are a total of 14 different subject areas
- The Logic Quiz - which itself often has up to 10 sub-areas
- The Super Quiz consisting of the following subjects
- Literature (a book)
- Science (sometimes California Standards or a book)
- Religion (the Youth Catechism has been popular in prior years)
- Social Studies (California Standards or a book)
- Fine Arts (usually an artist or a book to be memorized)
- Individual Events
- English (which includes spelling) (note: not literature, more like ELA)
- Science
- Religion
- Social Studies
- Fine Arts (in the "old days" it used to include music)
- Literature
- Current Events (replaced speech in 2003)
- Math (always 8th grade algebra)
- While all ten members compete in the Logic and Super Quiz, only eight will compete in individual events. Two extra decathletes (refereed to as "Super Quiz Experts," "Logic Quiz Experts ," or "Alternates") just sit out during this competition
- The study materials for each subject are usually one of the following:
- California Standards for that Subject
- Common Core Standards (especially for English and math individual, since Common Core does not exist for other subjects yet)
- A selected book
- A periodical (for current events, usually Junior Scholastic magazine)
- The information about what the Super Quiz and Individual subjects are is usually released in October (ish)
- When they are released, a study guide will be posted on http://academicdecathlon.wikispaces.com/l
- Make sure you check that subject often after the year's study guide has been released, the AJHD committee reguarly makes clarifications about the study guide throughout the year
- There is a local [(arch) diocesan] event and a state championship where the top team from each (arch) diocese goes to a location in California to play the top teams in the state
- Los Angeles gets to send the top two teams because they regularly have over 100 teams compete
- Scores are out of 24,000. 8,000 points each are alloted for the Logic Quiz, the Super Quiz, and the Individual Events
- Exactly who gets medals varies by (arch) diocese. In some it is the top six, in others the top ten.
II. An analysis of the Academic Decathlon events
Like I wrote above, Academic Junior High Decathlon has three events: the Logic Quiz, the Super Quiz, and the Individual Events. Each of them have smaller subject areas within them. Since there is a total of 24,000 points, and they are evenly divided between the three subject areas, each event is worth 1/3 of the total points.
I'm a visual learner, so here's a little diagram of what the weight of each event and its relation to scores:
The Logic Quiz is worth 8,000 points, each Super Quiz subject is worth 1,600 points, and each individual subject is worth 1,000 points. A further analysis of the points per question ratio would be:
Logic: 20 questions - about 400 points each question (though this requires more explanation, see below)
Super Quiz: 50 questions - 160 points per question
Individual Events: 50 questions per test - 20 points per question
I will write more on this later, but obviously you can see you get the most "bang for your buck" in the Logic Quiz and Super Quiz.
Now, an analysis of each event in the order of which they usually appear on the day of competition
Logic Quiz
This is well known as the most difficult subject each year in Academic Decathlon because of its nature as a logic test. Similar to math, a proper training in logic involves learning concepts as opposed to memorization. This also makes it a unique decathlon subject as the sub-areas within the Logic Quiz do not change much, and it is the only subject that can truly be studied all year long. The teams that want to win work on this subject all year long. Even this last summer I spent two hours a day for five weeks on this area and only scratched the surface of this subject.
This test which usually occurs as the first event of the day is a "non-public" event. This means the decathletes will take this test at their table of ten. In some (arch)dioceses they move all of the spectators out of the room for this event, and in other (arch)dioceses the spectators are allowed to stay (I suppose you could spend 50 min of your life watching the decathletes fill out papers from a distance.)
There are traditionally 20 questions to be completed in 50 min. There are a variety of ways to set this up with the team - a topic for another day. There are 10 copies of the Logic Quiz passed out to each team. Additionally, there will be an answer sheet given to a single member of the team. Most teams appoint a scribe to be the student who writes down the answers on the answer sheet. The answer sheet is the only paper graded from this event. Students are not allowed to keep their packets after the end of the test, which means that the AJHD committee reuses questions (more on this another day.)
I say that each question is worth 400 points because it is possible for questions to be worth more or less. However it will always add up to 8,000 points.
As far as I know, there are no tie-breakers for this event.
Individual Events
This part of the decathlon is much more straightforward than the others. The two alternates (also called Super Quiz or Logic Experts) are excused from the floor of the event. In some (arch)dioceses the eight remaining members of the team will go to different rooms on the campus of the school where the event is taking place to take their tests. In some other (arch)dioceses (namely Los Angeles) they will remain at their table. Wherever they are, they will take a 50 question multiple choice Scantron test in their subject area.
There are not usually subjective questions, except when it comes to tie-breakers. The number of and nature of tie-breakers in each individual event varies by area.
Super Quiz
After lunch, all ten decathletes will return to their table and partake in what is the pinnacle of Academic Decathlon. As a team, they will work to answer 50 questions, ten questions on each of the five subject areas, in public. The way this works is that a question is read aloud by a reader. In some (arch)dioceses the question options will be read too (there are five options, A,B,C,D,E for each question.) The decathletes will then have anywhere from 10-20 seconds to answer the question and tell the team captain the answer. Then the team captain will raise a 8x11 sheet of paper with one of the letter choices printed on it when the reader says "answers please."
Now the logistics behind this event: which members of the team do specialize in what subjects (or not), is a topic worth of another post (or two) due to the multitude of possibilities. The only real requirement is that someone (the team captain) raise the lettered sheet when time is called. In addition, as the only really public event, this is by far the highest steaks. A counter in the form of a binder is kept next to the team table. One of the two proctors (from other schools) will turn the sheets in the binder to signify to the crowd how many points that team has.
There is a tie-breaker for this event, in the form of a subjective question. It can be something open ended "Write down every fact about Benedict XVI you know" to a single sheet of fill in the blank questions.
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Well, I think that is about it for now. Check back in soon for some more Topic in Academic Junior High Decathlon. You can follow me on Google+ to see the next post!
