A bead of sweat drops onto Junior Antonio Passos’s paper as he rushes to do last minute studying in an effort to maximize the points his team can get. Him and his teammates hurry to answer the last of the questions as the final countdown begins. Papers fly from how fast they flip the pages at the amount of paperwork given.

“It’s really stressful because we are doing last minute studying to maximize the points we can get,” Passos said. “Once the tests start I get less nervous because once I start answering questions I get into a flow state and stop overthinking.”

Finally, pencils and pens come to a halt as their time runs out. It’s out of their hands now and the waiting game begins.

For many students, waiting for the score results is one of the worst parts as it takes about three weeks for any other events to occur and the results to appear. Students are anxious, constantly wondering if they either did good or bad.

“Everyone’s anxious because you have to wait a while for the other events to occur and the scores to come back,” Passos said.

This high stakes academic competition is called Academic Decathlon (ACADEC) where teams from various high schools travel around the world to compete with each other on various subjects.

In ACADEC, there are three divisions, varsity being the lowest division of a 3.2 gpa and below, scholastic, 3.2 to 3.9 and honors, 3.9 and above. ACADEC focuses on 7 subject areas: math, science, literature, social, economics, music and art.

Students prepare by studying the summer before school because of the massive amount of content and memorization. Social studies teacher Mr. Jonathan Mitchel, ACADEC’s coach, provides reviews and quizzes that guide students for success in the competitions.

“In competitions, some questions are really easy and I’m thinking ‘wow good thing i remember this, its exactly from the packet i studied’ but others are insanely hard which can be frustrating,” Passos said.

Competitions can range up to 3 separate days where the tests are split into different categories. Once the competitions are complete, students have to wait about 3 weeks for scores to be released. The top two scores from each division are taken and used as the score for the team.

“During the breaks between the seven tests we take, we get to talk to each other so we’re asking each other how we think we did so far and doing even more last minute studying for the remaining tests,” Passos said.

Upcoming is the regionals, the second round of the competitions counts the most, as it qualifies teams for the state level.

Leading the team takes more than just a teacher. ACADEC also has three captains Antonio Passos, Sasada Mudalidge and Rosemary Varkey. The captains organize practices, deal with paperwork and have direct communication with Mr. Mitchel to relay information to the rest of the team.

“As captain, I help out with organizing practices, checking in on people and doing paperwork,” Passos said.

This program looks good on college applications and can improve your GPA and overall academic performance.

“Last year, all three of our captains went to UCLA,” Passos said.

Another perk is that everything is paid for from the funding when students go to competitions out of state including air tickets, accommodations and hotels.

“When we go out of state we get everything paid for,” Passos said.

There is a lot of support going into ACADEC as they try to recruit dedicated students in late spring to start practicing during summer. All in preparation for next fall and spring when the season enters its finals.

“Everyone on the team really likes it,” Passos said. “We’re all really dedicated and it’s a lot of fun.”