Mike Hoey-Lukakis wrote: " It's called the MA Academic Championship, and it's a bizarre written test consisting of several loooong sections on various disciplines (Arts & Letters and Science & Math are the only ones I remember off-hand). Several members of the Concord-Carlisle faculty compose the tests, and they base the tests on their own curriculum (thereby pissing off everyone not affiliated with the host school, but Concord-Carlisle doesn't seem to care about this)." As coach of a Massachusetts team I can clear up a few things here. The Massachusetts Academic Championship is not run by Concord Carlisle; it's only graciously hosted by them. The championship is constructed by two businessmen who just love the game. There are not too many schools which participate because few teams exist in the state and many of them only participate in the Academic Decathalon program. The rest of us who just enjoy this for fun and not as an addition to the curriculum try to find tournaments around like those at Boston University and Yale (Thanks to you both for giving us such a great venue!) As for the format of the Mass Academic Championship, there are three rounds: Science, Arts & Letters, and Social Sciences & Trivia. Each round consists of 50 written team questions and it becomes quite a bit tedious for the students on a Sunday afternoon. My students prefer the buzzers and so we didn't even attend this year. My guess would be that the second place winner was St. John's Prep. I don't think things will change up here until we get some Pied Piper teacher who has the energy to construct a real state organization. Any takers? Michael McGarty, Coach The Bromfield School Academic Bowl Team
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