Dominate the Decathlon: USAD Success Unleashed

Train for USAD Team Competition through a unique combination of individual study sessions, direct challenges, and national scrimmages featuring more than 7,000 questions in art, economics, language and literature, mathematics, music, science, and social science categories. A powerful new USAD competition resource to work daily for preparation to match intellects with students from around the country through Academic Decathlon® Team Competitions.

GO TO THE ONLINE TRAINING CENTER 
The online test system uses the same interface as the Official Online National Competition. Get up to 35 subscriptions for one low price. The system features additional bonuses for the coach and student, which includes the ability to:
 - Build tests to assist in the team selection process
 - Administer tests in a group setting
 - Set up competitions between teams and states
 - Take an unlimited number of on-screen USAD-format tests, randomly created in each subject area
 - Access the test program from any Internet-connected handheld computer or cell phone with full web browser
- Access test reports in seven different formats
- Access the online practice test program with assigned username and password

Includes:
- Online Practice Tests—1300 test items: 200 each in art, music, language and literature, science, social studies and economics; 100 math questions. Tests will focus on each subject area, section-by-section of the Study Guide outlines, to reinforce mastery of the material.
 - Online Subject Assortment Tests—700 test items. This includes fourteen 50-item tests that consist of an assortment of questions from each of the seven objective subject areas.
 - Online Bonus Questions—1400 multiple-choice questions that go beyond the scope of the USAD Resource Guides for additional mastery of the curriculum materials.

Study Features:
 - Online Flash Cards and Online Quick Quiz: Test your knowledge by subject category.
 - Online Scrimmage: Participate in national scrimmages.
 - Head-to-Head Challenge: Challenge another current user to a direct competition.
 - Online Puzzle Maker: Access to this software program quickly allows you to create word search and cross-word puzzles using word lists and clues directly from the USAD curriculum.

Purchase your subscription now to get access to hundreds of online test questions. (10 subscriptions are included in each Practice Test Package.)

Special Recognition

Does your team include a decathlete who has overcome great challenges and has inspired others?   See below how the USAD "village" can honor those accomplishments.

The Roberts/Caperton Inspiration Award was established by the United States Academic Decathlon Board of Directors to honor two Board members. Both individuals demonstrated great commitment and dedication to the Academic Decathlon, even during difficult years of their personal lifetimes. This award is presented to student decathletes at any level or category of competition who demonstrates a high degree of dedication, strength of character, team leadership, perseverance and commitment while overcoming significant obstacles or unusual circumstances to participate in the United States Academic Decathlon. The Board welcomes nominations from USAD coaches during the course of each competition year, and appropriate public recognition will be determined for the most deserving nominees.

Kristin Caperton created the award in 1984 to recognize student decathletes who demonstrate a high degree of dedication, strength of character, team leadership, and perseverance while overcoming significant obstacles or unusual circumstances in their lives. She continued to work on funding for the Decathlon securing funding even while she was hospitalized with an illness that eventually took her life.

Suzanne Roberts served as a Board member for many years and assumed oversight of the award upon the passing of Kristin Caperton. Suzanne provided leadership in advertising the award and ensuring continual financial support for it for over three decades.  She did so even as she battled a terminal illness during the last years of her life. Consequently, it seemed very fitting for the Board to rename the award the Roberts-Caperton Award in 2023 in recognition of the strength of character, leadership, and perseverance of both women who were very dedicated to honoring exceptional student decathletes.

Often the winner has been an important catalyst in her or his team's strong performance during the USAD competition. Some winners have successes in USAD despite significant physical and/or emotional challenges.  Meeting these courageous students who have overcome blindness, deafness, and debilitating or terminal illnesses, has been an inspirational aspect of the competition.  The first recipient set a high standard. An alternate on the Louisiana team, he walked door to door to raise money for his teammates to travel to Nationals---in a full body cast on crutches! Some examples of previous winners include the following:
 -  A blind decathlete successfully competed and, in the process, pioneered techniques allowing other students to do so.
 - A student with Stage 3 Hodgkin's Lymphoma disease remained devoted to the USAD while undergoing aggressive chemotherapy.
 - Both winners one year were foster children, and both were feted at the banquet thanks to the coach providing transportation.
 - Despite severe visual problems from juvenile macular degeneration, a student was the highest scorer overall in the small school honor category.
 - A disadvantaged decathlete overcame homelessness, abuse, neglect, and life-threatening medical problems to become the rock of his team. He expressed his joy by doing cartwheels in the hotel lobby.
 - Even with a pathological speech disorder, a participant was selected for speech showcase.  She presented the award to another Roberts/Caperton winner in a subsequent year with a flawless delivery.  She is now a lawyer with the Department of Education's disability unit.

Testimonials:

Recipient: Jesus Gomez - Dobie High School, TX

Academic Decathlon has truly been a life-changing experience throughout my high school career. From my first invitational competition as a sophomore to my final state competition as a senior, the memories and knowledge I’ve gained through AcDec are unforgettable. It combined my love of learning with my competitive and cooperative nature and offered opportunities that other extracurriculars couldn’t have with my medical issues. Once I joined, I knew I could not step away. I remember as a sophomore when I would put on headphones during my sociology class because I preferred to study AcDec chemistry, or my study sessions at two in the morning as a junior, reading about Cantina Band from Star Wars. AcDec challenged me and reminded me how much there is to learn, and in turn, how little I know about the world I walk in and the people who live in it.

Academic Decathlon gave me more than niche facts about niche topics. It’s given me public speaking abilities that help me connect with and inspire future Decathletes, speaking to over 100 people at a time about my experiences in AcDec. It sharpened my critical thinking skills for my quantitative and qualitative research, allowing me to apply multidisciplinary methods and stand out from others. Most importantly, though, Academic Decathlon gave me a community—teammates with shared experiences, goals, and mindsets, and friendships I know will last for life.

To everyone I’ve met through Academic Decathlon: my teammates, my coaches—Dr. Selene Verhofstad, Jessica Priestly, Bob Daugherty—and the USAD program, thank you for the experiences, skills, and wisdom you’ve given me over the past three years.

Recipient: Isak Autrey - Oakwood High School, OH
I am extremely grateful that I was nominated by my coach and selected by USAD for the Roberts/Caperton Award. It is truly an honor to be considered an inspiration to the best teammates I could ask for.

In addition to the prestige, the award includes a plaque and $1,500 from the USAD Board of Directors. To nominate a decathlete, coaches should complete and submit a nomination form to awards@usad.org by the deadline.