Not only a class, but a competition, Academic Decathlon takes on the best in Texas Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Collin College for the state meet.

“At state, only the top 30 get in and this year we barely made it, we were in 29th, but making it is actually an accomplishment,” Academic Decathlon teacher Mumford said. “So far we’ve made state every year and in the past we have actually won the state championship, so we have had some successes in the past.”

Getting to state takes all year, and for some students preparation starts a year early.

“Preparing is a year long process, the longer the students have to prepare the better they are going to score,” Mumford said. “ Some students actually started an entire year ahead and they’ll study through the summer. Some of the students have been on the team for multiple years but some are just starting out, and you don’t have to be in the class to join the team, it does help though.”

After working hard to prepare for state, sophomore Sophia Calderon isn’t worried about the competition itself.

“We’ve worked hard for this, Calderon said. “For state we have to take seven tests at that point we just pull through it because it’s a lot of testing, so the only thing to be nervous about are the interviews and speech because you’ll actually have to be talking to people.”

Unlike UIL academic competitions, which allow student to specialize in certain subjects, AcDec students are tested on many different subjects.  

“It’s different from other competitions because we have to do all 10 events,” Calderon said. “You can’t just choose whatever subjects we’re strongest at, we have to be good at everything and we can cat individual metals in every category and if you’re in this class it helps a lot because we’d be taking quizzes like every class over the readings so it keeps you on track.”

Although students can be on the AcDec team without being in the class, sophomore Ella Gong thinks that would be challenging.

“A lot of it is studying outside of class,” Gong said. “If I wasn’t in this class it would be harder to manage, because I’d be wanting to finish homework for other subjects before studying for this. That’s why being in this class is so helpful because then there’d be designated time to study while if I wasn’t in the class, it would be harder to manage studying.”