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World Scholar's Cup

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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 Daniel Berdichevsky, founder of DemiDec and the all-time highest scorer in the US Academic Decathlon, as well as David Kimel and Scott Lichtenstein, directors of DemiDec's international division.

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.[1]

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 five subjects, which vary from year to year, and are given study guides outlining the information to be tested. At the school and national levels, the sole testing event is the Scholar's Quiz, in which students are given seven seconds to answer a multiple choice question, and are told the answer immediately afterwards. There are twenty questions in each of the five subjects for the Scholar's Quiz; however, for the final five questions of each subject, teams may collaborate and must give a single answer. Such collaborative questions are worth twenty points, where individual questions are worth only ten points. The Scholar's Quiz event is therefore worth a total of 1250 points for each student

For the international finals, however, a second testing event is added: the Scholar's Challenge. This 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. This event, taken in addition to the Scholar's Quiz, is worth a total of 1000.

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. The essay event is worth 750 points.

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 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 most likely take place in South Korea once again, but the final decision has not yet been made, and Singapore is still being considered.

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.

References

  1. ^ World Scholar's Cup
  • Scores - Detailed Scores for Scholar's Cup competitions
  • World Scholar's Cup - The official website of the World Scholar's Cup
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