Pentathlon (Middle School)

The rapidly-growing Academic Pentathlon program allows middle school students a chance to start experiencing the benefits of Academic Decathlon® before entering high school. Here in Alaska, the Academic Pentathlon offers small group learning opportunities, fosters a greater respect for knowledge, promotes inter-school academic competition, and further develops student communication skills. Students challenge themselves as individuals and as integral parts of a team while earning medals, trophies and scholarships.
Image

Each student experiences the decathlon challenges of rigorous team and individual competition in five events: 

  • Literature
  • Mathematics
  • Fine Arts
  • Science 
  • Social Science

Prior to regional and state competitions, students will write an essay. Forty percent of the overall Literature grade will be based on student essays - an excellent opportunity for students to not only demonstrate what they learned but how powerfully they can present an idea!

What constitutes a team?

Pentathlon teams consist of a maximum of nine team members and a minimum of six team members in grades 6–8. Each team must consist of at least two students from each GPA category: honor (3.8-4.00), scholastic (3.2-3.799) and varsity (0.0-3.199). 

State and National Competition Information

All teams are welcome to participate in Regional and State Scrimmages along with the State Competition. Medals and trophies are awarded at the State Scrimmage. Medals, trophies and scholarships are awarded at the State Competition. Alaska’s state champions will represent Alaska in the U.S. Academic Pentathlon National Competition.

All Pentathlon competitions except for the national competition take place online in a virtual testing environment so there is no in-state travel required for teams!

Register a team

Earn scholarships

Thanks to Alaska 529, the Alaska Academic Pentathlon awards $12,000 in scholarships to nine students every year.

Learn more

Academic Pentathlon docs