BEDA 20: Glee and AcaDeca

Do people at other schools call it AcaDeca? I'm sure at least some people do. Anyway, this week's Glee prominently McKinley's Academic Decathlon team, which is entirely made up of Glee Club members. Their portrayal of Academic Decathlon was, however, almost entirely inaccurate. They used the name, Academic Decathlon, but then showed something entirely different. As someone whose High School years were more or less defined by AcaDeca, I found this somewhere between annoying and offensive. So let's clear a few things up:

Things Academic Decathlon is:

Academic Decathlon is a competitive academic High School club, which is ideally made up of nine members, three in each of 3 defined GPA ranges, though a school can compete and win with as few as six members.

Academic Decathlon consists of ten separate subjects, nine of which are subjective (Math, Science, Social Science, Economics, Literature, Art, and Music), and three of which are objective (Essay, Speech, and Interview). Each is equally weighed. The subjective parts are all multiple-choice tests. Speech and Interview are done in closed rooms, with only the competitor a few judges, and maybe a timekeeper present.

The material tested is set for each subject and revolves around a central theme each year, with each individual subject having something to do with that theme.

Academic Decathlon has competition on the county, state, and national levels. A school generally has to get first place to move on to the next level.

Things Academic Decathlon is NOT:

Academic Decathlon is not a quiz show, with the exception of part of the super quiz (which alternates between Science and Social Science each year). Even that is multiple choice, with all competitors answering at the same time. No one gets buzzers.

Academic Decathlon is not a test of random knowledge. Those who do well are usually those who study the most, not those who know a lot about some obscure topic. It's also not something you join at the last minute and expect to be much more than a placeholder.

Anyway, if you are an author or scriptwriter and want to have your characters do Academic Decathlon, you should probably speak to someone who has done it. Or, alternately, you could call your high school game show thing something else. As it was presented on Glee, it really didn't need to be called any kind of Decathlon.