Ranked in the top 1% of national high schools, West students are competitive in many fields. One competition students excel in is the Academic Decathlon (AcDec), which measures intelligence levels of some of the smartest students.

“This is actually my first year to coach AcDec,” AcDec coach Keri Connelly said. “It is a little bit of craziness every day but these are good kids.”

As a coach, Connelly gives her students practice tests to help them prepare for the real competition, which consists of 10 components.

“We take tests over seven written subjects and then there is an essay, an interview and a speech,” AcDec member junior Meg Gannon said.

The competition is designed to challenge students’ knowledge and critical thinking. In order to get ready, a lot of time and work is required from the students.

“Students have to be willing to work hard,” Connelly said. “By the time the students are done, they’ve completed well over 1,000 pages of reading, numerous tests and lots of activities and presentations. They have worked really hard to get to competition.”

Each year, there is a different topic which the AcDec team must focus on and study in great depth.

“This year, the subject is World War I,” AcDec member junior Matthew Barrios said. “We go over economics, history, art—basically everything about the war. Then we take tests over that and compete against other schools.”

The workload may sound tedious but Barrios enjoys learning about the subject in great detail.

“Learning everything about one certain topic makes you feel as though you have really covered it in depth instead of just learning a couple of things about it,” Barrios said.

The team went to the Regional competition in January, but did not qualify for State. However, Connelly remains optimistic for the next year.

“We’re done for the year but I am getting these guys a little bit ahead of the game by preparing for next year,” Connelly said. “We all have the same goal in mind. We all want to do the best that we can.”