- The Academic Decathlon® competition is comprised of ten events. There are seven multiple-choice exams—one in each of the following subject areas: Art, Economics, Language and Literature, Mathematics, Music, Science, and Super Quiz™ (Social Science). The Super Quiz™ event includes an oral relay portion in addition to the written exam. Both the Super Quiz™ written exam and the Super Quiz™ oral relay are in multiple-choice format. Students will also take an Essay exam and will be judged in a Speech event as well as an Interview event.
- The multiple-choice exams in Art, Economics, Language and Literature, Music, and Science each have 50 questions. The Math exam has 35 questions. The written Super Quiz exam has 40 questions, and the Super Quiz oral relay has either 5 or 10 questions per student. (Coaches can contact their State Director to find out whether the 5- or 10-question format will be used for the Super Quiz oral relay.)
- USAD permits students to use calculators for the Math exam only. USAD now permits students to use graphing calculators, provided they have none of the features listed in Section III of the USAD Calculator Policy. Coaches can view USAD’s calculator policy or contact USAD to receive a copy of the calculator policy.
- The subject area outlines contained in USAD's Academic Decathlon® Study Guide will indicate specifically which topics in each subject area will require independent research beyond the USAD Resource Guides.
- The Language and Literature test items will largely be derived from the selected works of literature, though some test items may also be based on information provided in the Language and Literature Resource Guide.
- The USAD competition tests will be written in accordance with the topics and percentages noted in the subject area outlines that are published in the USAD's Academic Decathlon® Study Guide.
- All of the Super Quiz test items—both oral and written—will be derived from the Super Quiz Resource Guide. The student’s oral Super Quiz score accounts for 40 percent of his/her overall Super Quiz score. The student’s written Super Quiz score accounts for 60 percent of his/her overall Super Quiz score.
- USAD offers Resource Guides in Art, Economics, Language and Literature, Music, Science, and Super Quiz (Social Science). Whereas the Super Quiz Resource Guide is a compendium of previously published articles, the other Resource Guides are written by individual writers under contract with USAD. The Resource Guides will assist students in their study of the topics listed in the subject area outlines.
- USAD offers Basic Guides in Art, Economics, Language and Literature, Math, and Music. Whereas the Resource Guides focus on the specific topics listed in this year’s subject area outlines, the Basic Guides offer a reference that can be used by teams year after year. The Basic Guides provide an enduring resource for fundamental subject matter information and concepts that generally do not change from year to year.
- The content of the Art Basic Guide, the Economics Basic Guide, the Math Basic Guide, the Language and Literature Basic Guide, and the Music Basic Guide is the same as it was for the 2008–09 season. Therefore, if you or your students retained your copies of these guides, you do NOT need to purchase these guides again for the 2009–10 season.
- The Math Basic Guide can be downloaded at no cost here. The Math Basic Guide will not be a direct source of any USAD math test questions.
- While the Art Resource Guide includes information relevant to the 18 selected artworks, this guide contains text only and does NOT include images of the artworks.
- The Art Reproductions Booklet contains reproductions of the 18 artworks that are included in this year’s art outline. However, please be aware that no text beyond the title, artist, date, etc., accompanies these reprints.
- USAD will offer a Music CD that will include the 14 selected musical works discussed in the Music Resource Guide. Podcasts of certain selections from this year’s CD will also be available.
- USAD is now offering Research Guides in Art, Music, and Science. The Research Guides offer comprehensive coverage of all independent research topics in art, music, and science, except for those topics that already receive coverage in the USAD Basic Guides (i.e., art fundamentals and basic elements of music theory). In an effort to ensure that students who research these topics independently are not put at a disadvantage, USAD’s test writers will not be given the Research Guides, and the Research Guides will not be a direct source of any USAD test questions.
- Test writers have been instructed to construct tests such that at least 10–20% of the questions on each test require the use of higher-order thinking skills.
- Students will be given 30 minutes to complete each of the written multiple-choice exams. Students will have 50 minutes to complete the Essay exam.
- In each of the subject areas except for Super Quiz™, a percentage of the test items will require students to do some independent research beyond the USAD Resource Guides. The percentage breakdown of guide-based versus research-based test items for each subject area is indicated below.
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Percentage of Resource Guide-Based Items per Test
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Percentage of Research-Based Items per Test
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Art
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75%
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25%
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Economics
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15%
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85%
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Language and Literature*
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NA
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NA
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Mathematics
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100%
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Music
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75%
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25%
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Science
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75%
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25%
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Super Quiz™ (Social Science)
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100%
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*The Language and Literature test items will largely be derived from the selected works of literature, though some test items may also be based on information provided in the Language and Literature Resource Guide. Furthermore, Language and Literature tests will include a critical reading passage with accompanying test items. The Language and Literature test will also expect students to be able to analyze the selected works of literature as well as the critical reading passage and will expect students to be familiar with literary terms and devices.
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