University Academy’s 2025-2026 academic decathlon season began on Aug. 26.
People often ask: What exactly is academic decathlon? Academic decathlon is a team-based competition where students compete in written tests and performance events about a variety of academic subjects based on a theme. The theme this year is the Roaring 20s.
The team meets every Tuesday to learn together and work through material. Most recently, they have been learning about the social science aspect of the Roaring 20s.
The team of competitors consists of nine people, with three people in each GPA-determined group. There are three Honors decathletes (3.9-4.0 GPA), three Scholastic decathletes (3.4-3.89 GPA), and three Varsity decathletes (0.0-3.39 GPA).
The coach of the decathlon team is Mr. Joshua Burdette, the Upper School seminar teacher, who started working with this club because he enjoys learning new things every year and working with students to help them understand the material. He said decathlon has been around since UA opened.
Practices help prepare the team for its season, which has four competitions including a scrimmage before winter break, regional and state competitions after winter break, and nationals in late April. All competitions are held at University Academy except nationals, which is in a new location around the country each year.
Each competition consists of seven objective multiple choice tests, two subjective performance events (a prepared and impromptu speech), and an essay. Each is worth 1000 points.
The prepared speech can be about anything, while the impromptu speech must be about a topic selected by a judge. As for the essay, each participant writes this at nationals after selecting one of three topics related to the theme.
“To join, students need to talk with me and to commit to attending our weekly meetings, Tuesdays after school, and to learning the materials,” Mr. Burdette said.
A sophomore on the team, Mimoree Wells, said, “If you wanted to join, I would say you should want to be interested in reading a lot.”
This year the national competition is in Garden Grove, California, on April 23-25. In order to qualify, the team must be one the top teams in the state after the state competition.
Wells said, “I am looking forward to going to California with my friends.”
According to the nine members on the team, all of them feel confident this year.
Good luck to the UA academic decathlon team in its 2025-26 season!
