Basics Options

[Cody]

I know if I looked at a lot of threads, I could probably find what I want, but I'm sure this will apply to others soon if not now anyway, so it will be nice to have a thread for it.

My state competition was yesterday and we're going to e-nationals, but I'm not too interested in preparing for an online competition, so I'm going to start for next year. After I read Doctor Zhivago, I need something to study, and since I have basically skipped the basics all year this year, I think learning them will help me more than reading random Wikipedia articles on the Space Race. My problem is, what ones will stay the same or mostly the same? I know economics is 85% basics, but will there be a big change? I'm decent at economics, so after I'm done with that, what about art history? Music theory? Also, should I just start learning statistics or should I wait for a guide/outlines?

[BearMan]

Math, Econ, Art Fundamentals, Music Fundamentals, and Novel are really all you can study for at this point.

If you can get good at those by the end of May, you'll have a huge boost over the competition

[AK_WDB]

Art, Econ, and Music fundamentals generally stay the same from year to year, although you never know when USAD will pull a fast one. If you have the Basic Guides from previous years those are a good place to start, and the Study Guide outline will probably be the same from one year to the next.

[Stanley Tree]

Art and music fundies changed a few years back to more of a music/art history from the actual applications of art and music (although a lot of that is still in there, just not as much). So I would go ahead and say that those should be fine. Econ will probably always be the same, and it's most of the curriculum, so if you're going to get ahead in something I would suggest econ.

[JackLosiStrader]

Our number one honors this year took that exact path and it's working very well for him. Do not simply read the fundamentals from this year and skim over the guides for next year, because while there are very few changes, especially early in the year I got tripped up by a few changes they made in Econ especially.

[madcap]

Some people are surprised to realize more than 50% of Academic Decathlon rolls over from year to year. You're absolutely not at a loss without the materials. In decreasing order of importance, you definitely want to train:

-Math (statistics, permutations and combinations, etc.)
-Economics
-Music fundamentals (especially theory)
-Essay writing
-Interviewing
-Impromptu speaking (DemiDec has a gazillion practice topics and I did one every morning on the way to school.)
-Art fundamentals

Another tip on impromptus: To get comfortable speaking to strangers, Moorpark would go to fast food restaurants and do public impromptus there. They won Nationals four times, so...

This post has been edited by madcap: Mar 6 2012, 01:36 AM

[kdarrow]

I know if I looked at a lot of threads, I could probably find what I want, but I'm sure this will apply to others soon if not now anyway, so it will be nice to have a thread for it.

My state competition was yesterday and we're going to e-nationals, but I'm not too interested in preparing for an online competition, so I'm going to start for next year. After I read Doctor Zhivago, I need something to study, and since I have basically skipped the basics all year this year, I think learning them will help me more than reading random Wikipedia articles on the Space Race. My problem is, what ones will stay the same or mostly the same? I know economics is 85% basics, but will there be a big change? I'm decent at economics, so after I'm done with that, what about art history? Music theory? Also, should I just start learning statistics or should I wait for a guide/outlines?

Please consider studying for the online nationals and rallying your team to not quit studying. This will be my fifth year competing in the online event and we have approached it differently every year. The first year we only met 2-3 times between state and nationals, our score went down. The second year we had one student that studied like crazy and placed fourth in the nation, winning four medals. The next two years the team decided that they wanted to make a strong showing so we studied as vigorously as we did for state. Our study sessions were more laid back, but I think we got more out of them. There is money to be won online. Top scorer on the team gets $250 and top three get money as well.
If you look at the locales for the next several years, places like Hawaii and Alaska pop up. I am a firm believer, conspiracy theory warning, that AD is doing this in order to do away with "live nationals" and to replace it with an all online competition.
Your team did very well this year. I did not keep a medal count, but Des Moines North earned several medals. This is an improvement over years previous. Keep up the good work.

[Cody]

I know if I looked at a lot of threads, I could probably find what I want, but I'm sure this will apply to others soon if not now anyway, so it will be nice to have a thread for it.

My state competition was yesterday and we're going to e-nationals, but I'm not too interested in preparing for an online competition, so I'm going to start for next year. After I read Doctor Zhivago, I need something to study, and since I have basically skipped the basics all year this year, I think learning them will help me more than reading random Wikipedia articles on the Space Race. My problem is, what ones will stay the same or mostly the same? I know economics is 85% basics, but will there be a big change? I'm decent at economics, so after I'm done with that, what about art history? Music theory? Also, should I just start learning statistics or should I wait for a guide/outlines?

Please consider studying for the online nationals and rallying your team to not quit studying. This will be my fifth year competing in the online event and we have approached it differently every year. The first year we only met 2-3 times between state and nationals, our score went down. The second year we had one student that studied like crazy and placed fourth in the nation, winning four medals. The next two years the team decided that they wanted to make a strong showing so we studied as vigorously as we did for state. Our study sessions were more laid back, but I think we got more out of them. There is money to be won online. Top scorer on the team gets $250 and top three get money as well.
If you look at the locales for the next several years, places like Hawaii and Alaska pop up. I am a firm believer, conspiracy theory warning, that AD is doing this in order to do away with "live nationals" and to replace it with an all online competition.
Your team did very well this year. I did not keep a medal count, but Des Moines North earned several medals. This is an improvement over years previous. Keep up the good work.

Oh, don't take that the wrong way, we're definitely going to be studying for it, but I know where I can improve with little effort and where it will be almost impossible to do without the basics, like music. I plan to max out my score where I can and the rest of my team is ready to redeem themselves for state (especially the varsities that didn't break 5000), but I can't do it without basics, which is what brought on this question - I want to score high this year and I want to have something I can build off of for next year... and since I asked this question, I've had a little bit of a change in my opinion of e-nationals anyway.

[acadecker]

Although my team is preparing for State right now (this coming weekend) the non-competitors are reading Dr. Zhivago and writing questions (mult. choice) for everyone to use after break. Different people are working on different sections, just pulling out potential question areas. Two of my sons will be doing this during spring break, and I told them I would pay them 25 cents a question (it has to be a GOOD question). That's $25 for two 50 question tests, and that's not bad spending money. In the process, they'll learn the material well.

[BearMan]

Although my team is preparing for State right now (this coming weekend) the non-competitors are reading Dr. Zhivago and writing questions (mult. choice) for everyone to use after break. Different people are working on different sections, just pulling out potential question areas. Two of my sons will be doing this during spring break, and I told them I would pay them 25 cents a question (it has to be a GOOD question). That's $25 for two 50 question tests, and that's not bad spending money. In the process, they'll learn the material well.

You're going to go poor Mr. Decker!