Who?	Students in grades 6 through 8 from registered Junior High or Middle Schools or from Intermediate Schools with 6th grade students who wish to have an all 6th grade team
		What?	An exciting, fast-paced contest, in a quiz bowl format to highlight the knowledge and thinking skills of middle school students
		When?	See Academic Rodeo General Schedule or Academic Rodeo Timelines for general schedule of dates and deadlines. See Academic Challenge Quiz Bracket for specific match times.
“Promoting excellence in education and showcasing the talents of all our youth.”		Where?	Academic Challenge Quiz matches will take place at the fairgrounds.

The Academic Challenge Quiz seeks to give academically gifted students the same type of recognition given to athletically gifted students and call attention to the importance of quality education. Our goal is to bridge the gap between the excellent student, on the one hand, and the masses on the other. This is achieved by offering a broad range of questions - some challenging enough for the academically gifted participants and others easy enough for the average adult or student watching the program to answer.

See General Guidelines for general event rules and award information.

Contest Rules

(Revised June 2008)

Content Questions are of a general academic mix in the following categories:
Current Events English and Literature Geography History and Social Science	Language and Vocabulary Mathematics Potpourri Science
Source Materials for some Academic Challenge Quiz questions: Triple Q Questions Junior Varsity Colossal Book of Questions – Volume 1 Junior Varsity Tossup Book #1 - Limited Use Junior Varsity Tossup Book #3 Junior Varsity Tossup Book #4 166 Junior Varsity Rapid Fire Rounds 167 Junior Varsity Rapid Fire Rounds Brain Quest Kits covering general curriculum questions for 6th and 7th grades. Information about specific schools in the contest provided by their coaches and posted as a resource online for competing schools. Other questions will be taken from general knowledge information and/or curriculum designed for middle school students. The Junior Varsity materials can be ordered from Triple Q Questions, P. O. Box 305, Vienna, IL 62995-0305. The phone number for Triple Q Questions is 888-461-7572.   Products are shown on their web site. Brain Quest Kits may be obtained from stores carrying books and games. There may be stores in your area that carry these kits. Current events questions will be taken from current issues of newspapers, magazines and television/radio news, but will only be asked about events that have State, National or International significance. No local current events questions will be used unless prior notice is given. Current events questions in business and finance may be taken from the business section of the daily newspapers or the Wall Street Journal.

 

Teams

All Junior High and Middle Schools are invited to participate. Intermediate schools with 6th grade on their campuses may also compete with an all 6th grade team. 

The school should select one team composed of six (6) students. Each team should have a designated captain. No more than two (2) eighth grade students may compete.The team captain and three (3) other team members must be identified prior to the start of any competition. The other two (2) team members will act as alternates. Any of the six representatives may serve on the four-person team in any match, but no substitutions may be made during a match.

Teams must have a teacher/sponsor present at the event. The teacher/sponsor will certify contestants and alternates present at the event. Any and all necessary grievances with the judges MUST be filed by the teacher/sponsor. All teams will remain seated until a winner has been identified in each tournament. School personnel, family members and friends are encouraged to attend.

General Arrangements

Competing teams will be seated at a table with a hand-held buzzer for each player. A quick press of the button on the hand-held buzzer will be sufficient to activate the buzzer. Each player will have a microphone. Alternates will be seated on the stage or in the audience. A moderator will be either seated or standing at a visible spot to each team member.

Panel of Judges

Each school must provide one (1) scorekeeper for each match in which the school is competing. An additional neutral scorekeeper will join the team scorekeepers to comprise the panel of judges who will resolve issues that might arise pertaining to rules of the Academic Challenge Quiz and questions and answers for the match. It is recommended that the school scorekeepers become familiar with the rules prior to the match.

Seeding

Pairings in the tournament matches are by random selection conducted by the Academic Challenge Quiz Committee. If byes are necessary to complete the draw, they will be awarded to the highest scoring teams in the previous year’s contest. When necessary, seeding in the final round will be determined by total points scored in the prior session. The teams with the highest number of points will be paired against the teams with the lowest number of points, beginning with the highest point team in each group. Should byes be necessary to complete the draw, they will be awarded to the teams scoring the highest points in the qualifying tournament. Ties will be broken by comparing 1) high points, 2) smallest margin of losses in all matches, or 3) blind draw.

Protest Provision

The decision of the panel of judges will be the final word on questions and answers that are protested. If the panel of judges cannot reach a consensus on a particular question, that question will be eliminated and another question will be asked. If more than one answer to a question might be correct, each team should receive points for its correct answers. Please note the following three points:

1. Protest for any reason must be lodged before the winning team is announced in any round of competition.
2. Only the team sponsor may lodge a protest.
3. The moderator will clarify this protest provision at the beginning of each competition.

The judges will retain the right to disqualify any team when parent(s) or representatives other than the team sponsor/teacher interfere with the flow of the competition. Team coaches should review rules with parents attending the contest.

Winning Team(s)

The team with the highest number of points at the conclusion of the match will be declared winner and will proceed to the next level in the tournament bracket. Advancement of each team is laid out in the Academic Challenge Quiz Bracket and will be a double-elimination tournament with teams moving into a second chance bracket after a loss.

The tournament will proceed with matches until first, second, and third place teams have been determined.

Head to Head Competition

Each match will be conducted in the following academic quiz format. Rules for each level of competition will be the same.

First Quarter - Toss-up Round (Approximately ten minutes)

The moderator will read a toss-up question in its entirety. If a team member buzzes in before a question is completed, the moderator will stop reading. The first team to buzz in will answer immediately upon being recognized, to determine which team goes first. Teams will be given ten (10) seconds to buzz in to answer a toss-up question. Team members may consult freely, but the official team answer must come from the team captain. Toss-up questions will continue to be asked until a question is answered correctly.

The team winning the toss-up round is given exactly two (2) minutes to answer twenty questions (20), each with a value of ten (10) points. Only one answer from the team captain is allowed per question. Team members may consult freely, but the official team answer must come from the team captain. The team captain must verbally "pass" on a question to be asked the next question if the team cannot answer the current one. If all twenty (20) questions are asked in less than two (2) minutes, the team will be asked any passed questions in the order originally asked. A twenty-(20) point bonus is awarded if all twenty (20) questions are answered correctly. After the first team completes its two (2) minutes (120 seconds) the opposing team takes its turn.

Second Quarter Round (Approximately ten minutes)

This will be an exciting round with a lot of team interaction. It will consist of six (6) sets of four (4) questions, one set from each category of geography, science, history, English, mathematics and current events. The moderator will read a toss-up question in its entirety to determine which team will answer each set of questions. The first team to buzz in will be given ten (10) seconds to answer this toss-up question. Team members may consult freely, but the first team to buzz in will answer within ten (10) seconds of being recognized.

If the first team cannot answer the toss-up question, the second team will be given a chance to give an immediate answer. The official team answer for the toss-up question, as well as questions in each set, must come from the team captain. Each question in a set will be allotted ten (10) seconds to be answered. Teams are allowed to pass, but if a team answers any question incorrectly in a set, the moderator will move on to the next toss-up question. Questions will not be repeated because of the time factor involved. Questions in each set have a value of ten (10) points each.

Third Quarter - Toss-up Round (Approximately six minutes)

Any team member may answer questions in this toss-up round. The first player to buzz in answers the question immediately. If the answer given is incorrect, the moderator rereads the entire question, and the opposing team must answer the question immediately. If the second team fails to answer or answers incorrectly, the moderator will ask the next question. Questions will count twenty (20) points. The maximum number of questions in this round will be twenty (20). A twenty-(20) point bonus will be awarded if the same team answers all twenty (20) questions.

Fourth Quarter – Rapid Fire Round

This round consists of short, rapid-fire questions requiring quick answers. A toss-up question will be asked to determine which team answers each set of rapid-fire questions. Any team member may interrupt the toss-up question to answer after buzzing in. Questions will be in six (6) sets of eleven (11), with each answer counting five (5) points. Any team member may answer the rapid-fire questions. The team may pass on any question.  Passed questions will be repeated in the order originally presented if time remains. Any team answering all questions in a set will be given a twenty-(20) point bonus for that set.

One and one-half (1 1/2) minutes, or ninety (90) seconds will be given for each set of questions.

In Case of Tie

In case of a tie at the conclusion of a match, competition will continue in the same manner as in the third quarter toss-up round, with sets of 20 questions, until the tie is broken.

For the final match, the tie-breaker sets may include 30 questions.

Contest Timeline

(See Academic Rodeo Timeline for specific dates and deadlines.)

• Primary Contact for the school or organization will submit the School/Organization Registration Form by the deadline. See the Academic Rodeo Timeline for specific date.  Click here to see if your school is registered.
• Sponsor will select team members to submit for the contest.
• Sponsor will register students selected for Academic Challenge Quiz using the Student Registration Form by the designated deadline.  This can be coordinated with sponsors for other contests.

• Registered teams will be notified when the tournament bracket has been set. The Academic Challenge Quiz Bracket will show specific match dates and times and will be updated regularly throughout the contest to indicate the progress of the tournament.
• An Educator's Academic Challenge Quiz may be held at the Awards Celebration.  Contact the Academic Rodeo Coordinator to register for this contest.
• Winning teams will be recognized at the Academic Rodeo Awards Celebration. Students and/or sponsors should attend to accept awards.