Yeah, that's where I did really well. My grades weren't great, but I had fun with Ac Dec and did really well on those tests. (Well, except for speech and interview, where I was generally the lowest-scoring of the native English speakers.) But we had a pretty small school, and there just weren't nine kids that we could find to put in the effort.

in the I.B. breakroom

I'd never even heard of I.B. until I started teaching at a school that participated and had to help prep students.

Anyway, I remember themes being Global Economy and Technology. Books as Jane Eyre and Remains of the Day and Siddhartha. Not sure what years those all correspond to.

1998 and 1999, as those were my years!

Since the team had to have people with a range of GPAs, slackers like me were like a secret weapon.

Heh, yeah, we had one really great C student who also did a lot of Math/Science team stuff.

1998 and 1999, as those were my years!

That would be my junior and senior years, then. So my memory hasn't totally gone.

Heh, yeah, we had one really great C student who also did a lot of Math/Science team stuff.

At my school, that was me.

Since the team had to have people with a range of GPAs, slackers like me were like a secret weapon.

This conversation made me look up 2006's winners. My school no longer competes (we won States for 17 years in a row, then the coaches retired and nobody kept it up. Sigh.) but the Mississippi winners last year had a Scholastic (kid with an average GPA of 3.0-3.75) who got the fourth highest score in the nation, apparently. Brought the team to 7th overall in the nation, and 1st in their division ("Medium" sized schools). I was impressed.

(I'm also feeling like the only Buffista who wasn't in AD, but if my school or state had had it, I would've been! Really!)

I don't think my school thought knowledge was competitive. I'd never heard of these competitions till recently. I graduated high school in '79, so maybe I predate these things?

I don't think we had any of these things when I was in high school, or my school didn't participate. I was in AP English senior year, so I feel like my teacher would have encouraged us to do it otherwise.

Possibly I was too busy smoking out in the parking lot.

I was in AP English senior year, so I feel like my teacher would have encouraged us to do it otherwise

Oh, yeah, if Mr. Berryhill had had a way to show off his star students, he'd have done it.

I graduated high school in '79, so maybe I predate these things?

I just checked the website -- Academic Decathlon started in 1981.

The only knowledge-based competition I can recall from my high school was the Math team. Not quite the same as the stuff you folks mentioned...