Academic Decathlon is a team and academic competition where students are rigorously tested in economics, music, language and literature, art, mathematics, science, and social science. This past weekend, Emerson’s Academic Decathlon attended the state tournament held at Collin College and Lebanon Trail High School. AcDec secured many wins, with the team earning the ‘bronze medal’ and students obtaining individual awards and scholarship money.
The AcDec state tournament is a very anticipated event, as contestants put forward a lot of effort and dedication in order to achieve their goals at the tournament.
“There are a great number of ways in which we prepare,” AcDec coach, Kyle Wenokur said. “Through Canvas, we organize lots of quizzes and tests that are aligned with the resource guides that they have to study.”
Consistent review and application of the study material is fundamental for AcDec students to acquire proficiency.
“We have Wednesday practices after school,” Wenokur said. “This is a time where we dedicate an hour every week to nothing but studying for Academic Decathlon. Several Saturdays leading up to the tournament, we have 4 hour practices. During those practices, students mainly practice the different subjects such as speech and interview. So, those outside of school practices were immensely helpful.”
Sophomore Ridah Farooqi, who placed 2nd out of every contestant in the tournament and won $1,500 in scholarship money shares the opportunities that AcDec and the tournament itself have given her.
“One thing that I gained from this competition was having the ability to obtain more knowledge about the world,” Farooqi said. “The biggest example of this was one time I was in my room and I woke up and I looked out my window and there was this thing where the house across my house was projected onto my wall because of the way my curtains were set up. I knew what that phenomena was called because I learnt it from AcDec. Additionally, I met an amazing group of friends and a community that I can reach out to and be a part of.”
Sophomore Briana Elegbede draws attention to the importance of time management to develop stellar study habits.
“The whole preparation process that went into this tournament has definitely helped me be more studious.” Elegbede said. “It ultimately taught me that procrastination and being lazy will just bring you failure. If you have work that needs to be completed, just do it. It’s better to get it done sooner than later.”
Michael Garcia, AcDec’s assistant coach, promised his students he would surprise them with something ‘big’ if they win the tournament – and he did just that by completely shaving off his beard.
