On March 25, after two days of rigorous testing, it was announced that the South Pasadena Academic Decathlon Team finished 3rd in state competition.
South Pasadena made history along the way, becoming the first non-LAUSD school in California’s entire history of Academic Decathlon competition to achieve an overall team score (without including the Super Quiz portion) of more than 53,500.
From morning till night on the 23rd and 24th, students were tested on their knowledge of art, economics, music, language and literature, mathematics, science, social science, speech, interview, and essay. The final event, Super Quiz, concluded after 7 p.m. last Saturday. The questions theme for the 2018 competition was Africa.
Finishing 1st was El Camino Real Charter High School, also winners of the 2018 regional Los Angeles Unified School District competition. Right behind it was Granada Hills Charter High School, another LAUSD academic decathlon powerhouse.
South Pasadena squeezed in between Franklin High School in Highland Park and Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra, 4th and 5th respectively.
The California state championship is arguably more competitive than the national competition. Only state champions continue to nationals, so California teams with higher scores than most of the teams in the national competition are left out.
California boasts the last 15 winners of the national competition, and has never finished outside of the top two since nationals began. South Pasadena’s 3rd place finish, therefore, makes it one of the best academic decathlon teams at the national level.