Our school’s AcaDeca (Academic Decathlon) team won 1st place in Division Two and second place in this year’s Super Quiz at Oxnard High School on Saturday, February 4. Academic Decathlon is a team academic competition that allows you to test your strengths against schools from across California. AcaDeca is a campus club available to any and all students who want to earn medals and trophies and stand out on college applications.

Academic Decathlon is a ten-event competition that includes: Math, Science, History, Economics, Literature, Art, Music, Speech, Interview, and Essay.  Each year the competition is based on a theme. The theme for the year, 2022-2023 was the American Revolution. This means that we have learned how the American Revolution has shaped history, art, music, and literature. This year for the Math segment of the competition was Algebra 2 Trigonometry, and the Science segment of this competition was Chemistry.

AcaDeca is a nationally recognized academic competition. Students who compete in AcaDeca tend to be more prepared for success in college. Academic Decathlon is a chance to meet new people and have a great time learning. The team competition is split into three groups or teams. Each team consists of students ranging in GPA. The Honors Division has students with an unweighted GPA of 3.8 and above in these three divisions. The Scholastic Division has students with an unweighted GPA of 3.2 to 3.79. Then there is the Varsity Division which has students with an unweighted GPA of less than 3.2.

All three teams go to five competitions: the Scrimmage (mandatory practice tests), essay, objective tests (like English, art, and math), Speech and Interview, and the Super Quiz (a short quiz of all the subjects studied). On February 4, our school’s AcaDeca team won first place in our Division two and second place in this year’s Super Quiz at Oxnard High School.

During the scrimmage and essay, the team got to enjoy pizza and eat chips while working together. Throughout the winter, the team had meetings to help prepare students for the upcoming competitions, the students set up days to teach their teammates the subjects they knew best like Chemistry, Literature, and Math. During the speech and interview portion of the competition, the team went all the way to the countywide competition in Oxnard wearing business casual clothes. Two students in particular made the judges cry with their moving speeches.

For the super quiz, in the Scholastic team, there were only two students Freshmans Priyal Choudhary and Ava Budrys, who earned seven points. The Honors Team had Juniors Acira Tawakley, Sanjukta Thokakuri, and Rebecca Hise, seniors Aayush Kumar and Daniel Situ, sophomores Karen Truong, Carolina Acosta, Simran Dhillon, Christian Lim, Alexandria May, Ariana Garcia scored six points. In the Varsity Team, seniors Hiral Choudhary and Kevin Barajas, sophomore Emily Montalvo, and junior Maria Villa lead the team with a total number of eight points with the majority of super quiz points from our school. The crew showed up in red, white, and blue tutus, wigs, beads, hats, and capes to the super quiz to match this year’s team the American Revolution. The students won many individual awards in subject categories like math, literature, and science.

Senior President of the AcaDeca Club Hiral Choudhary said, “I do AcaDeca to challenge myself and join a diverse team. Not all of us have to be the smartest students on campus. Most of us joined to try something new.” When Choudhary was asked how she felt about leading the AcaDeca team she said, “It’s fun to see people push themselves outside of their comfort zones and students who have never met each other before, supporting one another, I’m really really proud of the team this year.” Choudhary also added, “For the seniors, we went through a rough period during covid, and being able to graduate with such success means a lot. This is only the beginning for Royal.” Academic Decathlon is a great chance to meet new people and have a great time learning and snacking! If you are interested in joining the team stop by Ms. Goldmans room 8-11 for more information.