​It’s time to encourage students in Colorado to compete in the Academic Decathlon. For those of us that don’t yet understand how an academic decathlon occurs, it is very similar to the athletic decathlon. Rather than sports, though, nine students are tested on how they excel in ten academic subjects. The subjects in academic decathlons are Art History, Interview, Music, Mathematics, Social Science, Speech, Economics, Essay, Language and Literature, and Science. The teams are made up of 3 distinct groups: 3 “A” or Honors students, 3 “B” or Scholastic students, and 3 “C” or Varsity students. 

​Though the overwhelming majority of students today are only going to have the scene in Billy Madison as their major academic decathlon reference point, more and more high schoolers are getting into the academic decathlon action to dramatically improve their odds of getting into top tier schools – especially since admission criteria have gotten increasingly more competitive in the last 5 years.