For most teams, their first year is a building year—one very prone to mistakes, but filled with learning from those blunders along the way.

However, Carlisle High School’s new Academic Decathlon team overcame any mistakes they may have made to reach second place in the central Pennsylvania Decathlon competition. This qualified them for the Pennsylvania state competition.

“It’s kind of inexplicable why you enjoy it,” said member Patrick Myers. “[But] although it’s basically taking tests all day…it’s a good group and a fun atmosphere.”

Academic Decathlon teams test in math, science, social science, literature, economics, art history, and music. There are also speech, essay, and interview components.

“The hardest part of the competition is the broad range of questions [asked],” said team member Matt Wisner. “There are close to 90 page study guides that questions can be asked from.”

The team won a total of 55 medals and seven individual trophies at the regional competition, and won four medals at states.

“I was surprised at how many medals we got, but I expected everyone to do really well,” said Sean Collins, a senior on the team.

The team did not have practice together until regionals came around, and even then only practiced twice to prepare speeches and interviews. Much of their practice is done individually.

“You can’t just study for one aspect [of the tests] and be really good at just that,” said Collins. “The spectrum of education [tested] ranges from speech to economics and art.”

Periscope congratulates Sean Collins, Patrick Myers, Matt Wisner, Griffin Mann, Kate Anderson, Karina Ciocca, Alexis VanMeter, and Devin Stossmeister for their impressive finish at the competition!