<p>What is academic decathlon?</p>
<p>Google, is your friend.</p>
<p>I know, I did and I am at the website. but like is anyone in the club. I wanted to know their experience in the club.</p>
<p>It’s crap. It’s crap compared to Quiz Bowl, IMO of course :)</p>
<p>^^Seriously, cause I was going to join quiz bowl but just found about this and was like hmmm… but I’ll take your opinion for consideration. thanks.:)</p>
<p>Academic Decathlon is a team competition that has three stages. The first stage is Logic. This is where the teams do lots of logic puzzles. The second stage is the individual competitions in different subjects such as english, math, science, social studies, music and fine arts, etc. My subject for three years was Current Events. The final stage is called the Super Quiz. This is where the teams are asked series of questions. After each question, each team holds up a letter (A,B,C,D,or E) which corresponds to their answer. Each team that has the right answer gets points. At the end, awards are given out. I am not sure if this is how all competitions are, but this is how they tended to be when I was on the Decathlon team.</p>
<p>I like Quiz Bowl more because you go to tournaments and you’re tested Jeopardy-style. Whereas in academic decathlon, you study for a few months, take a bunch of tests and then score high enough to earn a medal. </p>
<p>People tend to focus more on few subjects, just to get a medal. There’s no teamwork in it because everybody is off on their own studying.</p>
<p>Although in Quiz Bowl a person may have strengths in literature, or history, or math, etc., you’ll still try to get as much of a wide base of knowledge as you can. Plus there’s big teamwork, since you need to rely on other peoples’ strengths to win.</p>
<p>The only fun part is the super quiz, in academic decathlon. Anyway, my opinion is very, very biased. Take it with a large grain of salt.</p>
<p>That’s cool crimsonivy. So it’s just asking and answering questions. Is it good for colleges?-like is it preferred?</p>
<p>Best experience of my life, IMO of course. :)</p>
<p>Quiz bowl isn’t offered at my school, so I can’t compare it to that, but the AcDec program is really strong and I love it.</p>
<p>It’s ten events, mostly multiple choice quizzes focused on a social science topic (The Great Depression this year) as well as a science topic. There is also a speech and interview portion, which are really great experiences.</p>
<p>I think people’s experiences will depend both on their coach/class and on how much effort they put into it, personally.</p>
<p>So I guess they are both advantages and disadvantages to both. I appreciate your opinions guys(shakespear92 and phoenixpop). It has helped me in my decision to make a AcaDEc program in my school. Let’s say if my school already has quizbowl, would it be better if I join it or create a AcaDec program in my school.</p>
<p>I think it would look great on a college application. It shows that you are willing to go the extra mile and study a subject in depth. It also shows that you are good at multiple things like logic, history, and music. A good decathlete always knows their subjects and others as well. It especially looks good if you win awards.</p>
<p>^hmm…Omygosh, that’s really helpful. I am really good in math and science and math so maybe it’ll be good along with quizbowl.</p>
<p>You can win awards in Quiz Bowl as well. There are awards given to the top teams and top individuals who score the most points. You need to have a wide range of knowledge (although, admittedly quiz bowl seems to be a little more literature heavy, as in, who wrote this book, name the characters, etc.) and be quick on the buzzer. </p>
<p>I think it might take a while to start up an academic decathlon team. You’ll have to find a coach, dedicated members, register, etc. Not impossible, but I think you’d be better off just joining Quiz Bowl :)</p>
<p>With quiz bowl, you never know exactly what you need to study. Through experience, you’ll start to notice some questions are asked more frequently than other questions, so you’ll start to remember those. There are suggested You Gotta Know lists on the quiz bowl website. </p>
<p>In academic decathlon, you pretty much know exactly what you have to study. And then your job is to study it well.</p>
<p>Thanks Phoenixpop, I guess I might be busy next year and might have intrest in other clubs along with quizbowl. Thank you guys for anyone who have posted in this little thread. THANKS ALL!!!</p>
<p>acadeca ftw</p>
<p>I’m in Academic Decathlon. Like Shakespeare, my school doesn’t have a Quiz Bowl so I can’t compare the two. However, I have absolutely LOVED my experience in AD. I think it’s because AD seems to attract smart oddballs at my school. Personally, I love the activity because I love my team members and coaches. Also, studying a specific topic for so many months tends to stick with you. I’ve used examples I learned from AD in my SAT essay 
Last year, I studied about the French Revolution and A Tale of Two Cities so many times I could’ve put any kind of spin on it to fit it into my SAT essay. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’d be easy to start up an Academic Decathlon team. Although, I’m not sure if there are two different Academic Decathlon competitions and I’m just getting confused. I’ve never been in the Academic Decathlon crimsonivy speaks of - the competition I partake in has no logic component, it’s all straightforward studying. But if you mean the USAD Academic Decathlon competition, then first off, you’re going to need money. The USAD materials (which the tests are derived from) cost money. You have to be able to get to competitions (regional, state, national). There are optional study guide materials from DemiDec and Acalon which can be insane expensive.
You’ll also need to find dedicated team members, as phoenixpop said. You’ll need people who are willing to study so much material (hundreds of pages) and you need them to have a variety of GPAs because you need an “A-team”, “B-team”, and “C-team”. C team members are particularly hard to find because when someone with a C GPA is smart, they usually aren’t interested in academics to this extent.</p>
<p>Good luck in which ever activity you decide to pursue.</p>
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<h2>Wait what? No no no wrong.</h2>
<p>But both are basically study competitions, though Quiz Bowl probably relies more on previous knowledge. Quiz Bowl is more fun; AcaDeca is a more rewarding process. In my experience.</p>