New Topic

A few weeks ago USAD released the topic for the 2007-2008 Academic Decathlon year. The topic: The Civil War. Yes, USAD finally decided that we should go back to studying our own continent, after studying the European Renaissance and China for these past two years. It should be a very fun year decathletes we get to study all about the Civil War, from the causes to reconstruction. The novel for study is The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, which seems to be interesting enough. Music is music during the Civil War, which should be interesting, considering that we're not used to listening to really old music, from say over a hundred years ago. The science, on the other hand, is really interesting, and should be helpful. We will be studying diseases, who knows maybe some of the diseases discussed in the climatology resource from this year could reappear. It should be a great year, then again, it always is.

Regional Competition

Well it's almost been about a month since we competed in the Region X Academic Decathlon Competition, which was held January 19-20. We had been preparing for this competition to the stretches of Spring of 2006. We worked through a Summer. We went through a vigorous competitive stretch in the Fall. We went through our 2oth Invitational Competition to place 2nd, 3rd, and 4th with our three individual teams. We went determined and motivated to District Competition, and made history by taking first place for the very first time ever in Sunset's history. We then worked even harder, as we worked through a Winter break, where we not only worked on the 7 subjects, but we added speech, impromptu, and interview. Then regionals came.

On January 19, we gave out our speeches and went through an interview. The next day we went through several hours of testing. When the awards ceremony came Sunset was honored by having two individuals medal, in Jonathan Vines, and Leonel Garcia. Jonathan took the silver medal in literature, in the scholastic division, while Leonel took the bronze in art, in the varsity division, respectively.

Our aim for State Competition was however short. Sunset missed the cut by about 900 points, however. Respectively, we did better than any other previous AcaDec team did before. Take a look for yourself:

Sunset Regional Scores 2007

Decathletes thank you for working hard. Thank you Angelica and Gustavo for, although being alternates, and first year Decathletes, along with Andrew, still staying by and working hard. Anabel and Andrew thanks for all the hard work. For the seniors, thank you Martin for although it being your first year, you still worked hard and made it. Lisette, Jovani, Leonel thank you for those two years of hard work. Last but definately not least, thank you Noemi and Jonathan for giving AcaDec three years of hard work and endless studying. The run may have come short yes, but the memories made this year and in past years will live on forever

District Competition

Yesterday we competed in District competition, a competition which we had all been longing for, some more than others of course. We started out in the summer with a group of 40, of whom which 15 stood up to the challenge and made the district team. After a let down at invitational competition your very own Sunset Academic Decathlon came back with a vengence and made its way into the history books. Sunset, for the very first time ever, won the Academic Decathlon District competition placing first in the Super Quiz Relay and first overall. Our scholastic division did a fantastic job by sweeping it in taking the gold, silver, and bronze medals for overall individual scorer, however. Our honors and varsity divisions did nothing less, they too stepped up and helped bring Sunset to victory. Honorable mention goes to all the district team members for all of their hard work and support of their team members. Noemi Beltran (captain), Jonathan Vines, Anabel Simental, Juan Carlos Gonzalez, Leonel Garcia, Jovani Alejandro, Vanesha Reed, Karina Gonzalez, Lisette Padilla, Martin Rodriguez, Efrain Esparza, Jackie Fernandez, Andrew Lopez, Angelica Beltran, and Gustavo Vargas all competed this Saturday, and congratulations goes to every single one of them for their achievements.

Congratulations decathletes, you've done well. The road to state lies ahead now.

Review of Social Science, In Video Form

Okay, so we are gearing up for District competition, and we are trying to do every little thing that would help with that. Here is a video telling us the history of Communist China. It is out of the normal educational video sure, but hey, if it gives you the knowledge right? Well here you go,enjoy!

This one is a broad one. Compliments of Leonel


For more information about China and more Social Science visit Youtube and you can find more videos on this.

I also found the song "Revolution" by The Beatles that the video speaks of. Have a listen if you'd like.

The Finale

Well we had a wonderful year of competitive outbreak among our decathletes this year. A bunch of new faces, and some returning ones were in the mix. We officially started in the Summer, and now we have ended our yearly competition of weekly tests and ranks. We had a very promising year. Returning Decathletes surpassed their total scores from a year ago, and the new ones did very well. In this finale of ranks Noemi Beltran re-emerged as the number one ranked decathlete. This makes two consecutive years in which Noemi was able to achieve this, however props needs to be given to Leonel Garcia for finishing very close. As for the rest of the seniors, they did a great job year long. A recognition does need to be given out to all of those seniors who were in the mix this year, whether they were new or old, thanks seniors. Okay so without further ado, here are the final ranks!


Overall Individual Scores, Fall 2006, Week Twelve

Great job everybody, and remember promising results promote a promising future.

Week Eleven

Okay so after eleven weeks of testing, ranks changed, and a new number one emerged. Take a look for yourself.


Overall Individual Scores, Fall 2006, Week Eleven

Dime Week (Or Week Ten)

We are getting closer and closer to Invitationals competition as we keep on testing. This week we went over SQW and SOC, and we had the pleasure of previewing a couple of speeches as well. We are in our last couple of weeks decathletes, Invitationals is just around the corner, and this is no time for slacking off. Ranks are still changing, and congratulations to Jovani and Noemi for moving up in what seemed to be a settled area of ranks. And here are your ranks.


Overall Individual Scores, Fall 2006, Week Ten

A friendly reminder to all of you: study hard! :D

Nueve and the Milestones

Several things happened this week as per previous year scores being surpassed. Among them, Vanesha Reed, Sophia Ramirez, Gisela Gonzalez, and Jesus Velazquez have beaten their total scores from last year, while we are still two tests away from the total number we took last year (27 to 29). Vanesha destroyed hers by almost 2,000 points. Also, Noemi Beltran, Jovani Alejandro, and myself (last year ranked one, two, and three respectively) have all passed their previous year scores.

However, there are two even bigger milestones to which I'm referring.

One is the fact that all of the top five ranked Decathletes have beaten the Number One score from last year (19,890). Once again, we are still two tests short of last year's total, so this is a great accomplishment.

The other milestone is the 20,000 point mark reached by all of the top three Decathletes this week. Yet again I remind you that we have only taken 27 tests.

A special recognition goes to Noemi Beltran who, by way of two gold medals and one silver on this week's tests has closed the gap between 4th and 5th place from almost 400 points to a mere 20 points (or the equivalent of one question on an actual Acadec test).

And now, my dear Decathletes, your scores.

Overall Individual Scores, Fall 2006, Week Nine

Week The Eight

Well it has been eight weeks already. The results of ranks only promote a promising year. Of course it is hard not to say so when you have veterans who have already surpassed their total scores from last year with the testing not over yet. Congratulations goes to Anabel, Lucio, Leonel, Agustin O., Karina, Samuel, Rebecca (or Becky), and myself (funny I'm congratulating myself, heh), who have all passed their total scores from last year with many more veterans to do the same very soon A special mention, Vanesha is 100 points away from passing her total from last year. Ranks keep on tightening up, the race for the number one spot in particular. Okay, well enough of me telling you how we have been doing and how we are compared to last year, here are the scores.

Overall Individual Scores, Fall 2006, Week Eight


We are getting closer and closer to our first competition decathletes, which is November 11th. Yet another week of hard work approaches us, and it only gets funner, for it's time for plenty of super quiz.

21

I wanted to write about how we had gotten to 20 tests, but since we're at 21, I wrote that instead. We're taking about 3 tests a week; in 3 more weeks we will have eclipsed the total number of tests we took last year (29) in preparation for invitational. It is interesting to note that many of the returning decathletes have already surpassed their total scores after 21 tests from last year; for instance, I've surpassed mine by about 2,500 points. And Juan Carlos tells me he is about 500 points away from surpassing his total score from all 29 tests last year, which is a tremendous improvement. He should have that by the end of this week. The point of this is that the core of returning veterans for this year has made a huge leap in test scores, and Sunset is well on its way to doing things that haven't been done before (including, but not limited to, winning district). Anyway, enough of that. Onward with the scores:

Overall Individual Scores, Fall 2006, Week Seven

Also, I've added a Top Team Award Section based on Team Performance in each of the Individual Subjects.

Enjoy!