For many students, taking tests is the most dreaded part of the school day. For the Academic Decathlon (AcaDec) team, that would be everyday.

AcaDec is a nationwide competition in which teams of students study ten subjects revolving around a specific theme. They then display their knowledge at the end of January and the beginning of February, taking a variety of tests in addition to delivering a speech, partaking in an interview and writing an essay.

United States Academic Decathlon (USAD) teams consist of up to nine students in three divisions by GPA: Honors for 3.75-4.00, Scholastic for 3.00-3.749 and Varsity for 0.00-2.999. Students may compete in divisions higher than their GPA but may not compete in lower divisions.

Students prepare for competition by reading given material and going to lectures held by California State University (CSU), Fresno. Furthermore, on Nov. 12, AcaDec students participated in the annual Practice Day held at Reedley High School, where they rehearsed the competition day they would later be involved in.

This year’s subject is The Age of Imperialism and the novel is Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

After being an after-school club last year, AcaDec is once again offered as a class at the end of the day. This allows students to spend more time working on the material with everyone instead of studying on their own.

“Having a class allows us to be consistent and prepare for the competition every day of the week,” AcaDec coach Molly Sargent said. “That way, people involved in after-school sports or activities can still participate. Our team is much more motivated if we have a daily class.”

Currently, there are 11 members with three returning veterans on the FC squad. One of the newcomers, junior Ashley Erickson, says she joined AcaDec after being encouraged by Sargent.

“The homework is very difficult, but not anything I didn’t expect,” Erickson said. “I felt a bit lost during the Practice Day, because it was different than I imagined it would be.”

FC has been moved down to Division 3 this year due to having earned overall lower scores in the past two years, largely caused by the transition from being a class to being an extracurricular activity. Sargent has mixed feelings about the change.

“It’s great for individual students, who now have a better chance of winning medals,” Sargent said. “But our school has an academic reputation above Division 3.”

She hopes that the team score this year will be high enough to move the school back into Division 2. Students also have high hopes for this year’s competition, as senior Gigi Thao explains.

“I think that we’re going to do better this year because we’re putting in more time,” Thao said. “Last year, we just met whenever, which kind of screwed us up. I also like the theme a lot more this year, it’s much more interesting. Hopefully, if we do well, we’ll move up a division.”

Overall, Sargent says, students need motivation in order to accomplish anything on the team.

“In the end, it’s all about motivation like any sport,” Sargent said. “Every individual has to be motivated and willing to work hard for the team to succeed.”

The competition is split into two days. The speech, interview and essay will be given at CSU, Fresno, Jan 28. The rest of the seven tests are taken on the following Saturday, this year at Glacier Point Middle School, Feb. 4.

For more information on AcaDec, read the Feb. 5 article, BREAKING: AcaDec places 4th in D2, or the Oct. 7, 2010 article, AcaDec investigates Great Depression.