World Scholar's Cup

The World Scholar's Cup is an international academic competition akin to the Academic Decathlon of the United States. The first international finals for the competition took place May 25–26, 2007, in Seoul, South Korea. The competition was founded by DemiDec, in particular by Daniel Berdichevsky, DemiDec's president and the former all-time highest scorer in the US Academic Decathlon. The international program director is Brent Russo.

Competition Format

A team for the World Scholar's Cup is composed of three students of the same school. Teams of the same school compete against one another in school-wide competitions. The 3 highest scoring teams of each school proceed to their country's national finals. From there, the six highest scoring teams advance to the international finals, to compete with the best teams of all other participating countries. [ [http://www.scholarscup.org World Scholar's Cup] ]

There are three components to the World Scholar's Cup: testing, debate, and essay. The debate and essay are both based upon the materials which students have studied for the testing events. Team scores are determined by adding the two highest scores in each area, thus allowing a limited amount of specialization.

Testing

Competitors are tested in six subjects, which vary from year to year, and are given study guides outlining the information to be tested.The public testing event is the Scholar's Quiz, in which students are given fifteen seconds to answer a multiple choice question as a team, and are told the answer immediately afterwards.

The Scholar's Challenge consists of 100 multiple choice questions (twenty in each subject), which students have 90 minutes to complete, and may therefore appropriate their time as deemed necessary.

Debate

In the debate event, teams are pitted directly against one another in a debate similar to a modified version of parliamentary debate. Teams are given a resolution and sides (Affirmative or Negative), and have 15 minutes to prepare for the debate. The debate proceeds as follows:

*Affirmative 1 (3-4 minutes): Constructs the affirmative case
*Negative 1 (3-4 minutes): Constructs the negative case; refutes affirmative points
*Affirmative 2 (3-4 minutes): Reinforces affirmative arguments, refutes negative points
*Negative 2 (3-4 minutes): Reinforces negative points, further refutes affirmative arguments
*Affirmative 3 (3-4 minutes): Tells judge why affirmative has won the round
*Negative 3 (3-4 minutes): Tells judge why negative has won the round

Speakers are rated based on their fluency, on their organization of time, and on their use of information from the study guides. The 2 highest rated teams with undefeated records compete before an audience in an event known as the Debate Showcase.

Essay

The World Scholar's Cup's essay event is similar to the Document Based Question of several historical AP Exams. Students are required to synthesize the primary-source documents provided with their background knowledge of the subject in order to compose an essay.

2007 Competition

The 2007 International Finals for the World Scholar's Cup was held in the English village in Seoul, South Korea, and was the first ever International Finals for this competition. Teams from Australia, Singapore, South Korea, and the United States participated. (Teams from the United States were not from a single school for this inaugural year, rather, they were made of "all stars" from the US Academic Decathlon.) The testing events included history (the ancient world), literature (Hesse's Siddhartha and the poetry of England), mathematics (general), science (anatomy), and economics (general).

2007 Results

Overall Champions:

1. Eastern US All Stars

2. Western US All Stars

3. Hankuk Academy of Foreign Studies II

Debate Champions:

1. Western US All Stars

2. Hankuk Academy of Foreign Studies II

Scholar's Challenge Champions:

1. Eastern US All Stars

2. Western US All Stars

3. 2006 US All Stars

Scholar's Quiz Champions:

1. Eastern US All Stars

2. 2006 All Stars

3. Taft High School

2008 Competition

The 2008 International Finals for the World Scholar's Cup will take place in Korea on May 30-June 1, 2008.

2008 Curriculum

The 2008 Curriculum Topic is "The Frontier".Subjects include Science, Social Studies, Economics, English, Mathematics, and an all new Fine Arts section. Each subject (save for Mathematics) deals with some aspect of the idea of the frontier. All materials will be made available to participants on December 1, 2007, and the 2008 international competition will be held in May. The U.S. National competition is in Tucson in April.

2008 United States National Results:

References

External links

* [http://www.scholarscup.org World Scholar's Cup] - The official website of the World Scholar's Cup
* [http://acadecscores.gilslotd.com/wiki/Scholar%27s_Cup_Section_for_Scores_and_Information Scores] - Detailed Scores for Scholar's Cup competitions
* [http://acadectalk.com/index.php?showforum=23 Discussion] - Discussion regarding the World Scholar's Cup