<p>Does anyone here do Academic Decathlon? </p>
<p>How hard is it/how much work is involved, what kinds of things do you do throughout the year, what do you do at meetings, and how hard is it to win awards? </p>
<p>Is it like a club or is it a program that is sponsored by your school? </p>
<p>By the way, my state doesn't have it and I think your school can only do it if your state participates. Should I ask my state to participate in it, or does it involve too much money/other things?</p>
<p>I have an unreasonable amount of questions but I'd be grateful if could anyone could even answer 1. :) </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I'm not in it, but many of my friends are. Two of them are co-presidents.</p>
<p>It's A LOT of studying. They met in the summer twice a week for a few hours and got all the material. It's like ~500 pages of material to read and I hear the questions are detailed (ask for certain dates & etc.)</p>
<p>They also have an interview and speech section. They usually practice in front of the class a few times.</p>
<p>For our school it's a class, but they still meet afterschool at least once a week. They do pretty good in the competitions (top 10 almost every year) and last year one guy got to have lunch with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger because he did really well.</p>
<p>My friends tried to get me to join every year, but I never did. They still have fun, but it takes up a lot of your life.
The second semester they do almost nothing, but prepare and recruit for next year.</p>
<p>Our school sounds a lot more laid back. We have study sessions where various teachers teach us info from the packets they give us. We do have many pages, but only like 200-300. Ours is an afterschool club, wish it was a class. We make it to states occasionally (like yesterday!) but yea, it's a lot of fun, but you have to be ready to absorb a lot of material.</p>
<p>our school is even more laid-back... to the extent of absurdity. i mean, we haven't even started studying yet. i guess that's mostly because we don't have any money for the materials, but still, our coach doesn't begin until december.</p>
<p>Academic Decathlon is not a class at my school.</p>
<p>From September to November, we have one two-hour meeting per week. In December, it's two two-hour meetings. In January, it's two three-hour meetings. Then, it's time for regionals. It's my first year, and I haven't been briefed on what happens beyond that.</p>
<p>There's a lot of work to do outside of meetings, none of which I ever really complete, but our coach isn't very strict.</p>
<p>Apparently it is very easy to win awards. Our coach said that everyone wins something.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the helpful info. :)</p>
<p>However my state doesn't sponsor Academic Decathlon.<br>
Do you think I should contact my governor about it?</p>
<p>If it's not too late to jump in...</p>
<p>All US states take part in USAD, as far as I can tell. The problem is just with your school/district, I think, not having a team. If that's it, ask a teacher to sponsor it. May be too late for this year (at least in Arizona, regionals are in less than two months), but you still have a shot, and can definately participate next year. If you get supplies from DemiDec, they're pretty expensive, but that shouldn't hold a team back. (Tax credits, donations, fundraisers, you know.)</p>
<p>My school is somewhat laid-back. We're a tiny school and rarely have enough members for alternates. We study about 7 hours a week together, and varying amounts for each member outside of class. I think it's great fun, at least!</p>