AMS Basha welcomes any 6^th, 7^th and 8^th graders who have an interest in Academics to join our very successful club and competitive team. 

When do we meet?

We can expect to travel to a hotel/conference center somewhere in the Phoenix, AZ area on May 16 - 18, 2024 (tentative) to attend another 3 day National Championship Event!  

Students attending nationals in the individual invited, runner-up, or champions bracket will stay in the hotel where the competition is being held.  

Competition Format: 

Subject              Description
Fine Arts               50 question multiple-choice test (25 minutes) =1000 points
Literature             35 question multiple-choice test (20 minutes) = 600 points                                                                                                                                                             +                                                  Essay:        40 minutes = 400 points          600 pt literature + 400 pt. Essay =1000 points combined literature score
Mathematics       35 question multiple-choice test (30 minutes) = 1000 points
Science                 50 question multiple-choice test (30 minutes) = 1000 points
Social Science      50 question multiple-choice test (25 minutes) = 1000 points 

5000 points possible per individual - individual medals awarded per subject based on individual scores. Overall medals are awarded for the top combined scores out of x/5000. (Usual top scorer is in the 3800-4300 range).

30,000 points possible per team (sum of individual scores) - team trophies awarded for state/nationals top 3 teams, banners for national champion teams.

Students can join at any time up until the state competition. However, those that spend their time studying throughout the year usually score higher. 

Curriculum Announcement for 2023-2024:

   Humanity and Technology

▪ LITERATURE: The literature curriculum will include critical reading, one long work of
literature, and selected shorter works. The long work of literature will be Cinder, by Marissa Meyer.

    ISBN-10: 1250768888 
▪ MATHEMATICS: The mathematics curriculum will cover general mathematics, geometry and an introduction to differential calculus.

▪ ART: The art curriculum will explore depicting or using technological advances.

▪ MUSIC: The music curriculum will present the music of science fiction film.

▪ SCIENCE: The science topic will be an introduction to neurology.

▪ SOCIAL SCIENCE: The social science topic will be the history of computers.

• • *All test questions will be derived from the USAP curriculum and resource guides. Critical thinking is key. It is not possible to only memorize material and score well. It is also not possible to never read the resource guides and score well.

AcPen, as we affectionately call it, is a competition where students have the year to study specific materials under a unified curriculum and are then tested in a competition format. Much like swimming or track and field, there are 5 events (Math, Science, Social Studies, Literature and Fine Arts). Some students may be specialists. They can win medals in areas where their strengths lie. Others are true pentathletes and do well in all subjects. All students MUST compete in all 5 disciplines. They cannot pick and choose.  Like wrestling, they compete in weight divisions, with the weight being GPA levels. 

Our three GPA groups are: 

Honors:      3.8-4.0 unweighted 

Scholastic: 3.2 -3.79 

Varsity:       Any GPA below 3.19

A team can only win with teammates in all three weight divisions. A full team consists of 3 honors, 3 scholastic and 3 varsity students.  This provides an opportunity for students who are academically interested, but for some reason, have B or C grades to succeed. It also shows students at a young age that grades are not necessarily an indicator of intelligence and that they should strive to work with other students at all levels. Students also experience that often the person with the highest GPA is not necessarily the smartest person in the room. I have been pleasantly surprised at how some of our "C" students have scored higher than many of the "A" students. This develops a tolerance for different talents in peers and a greater ability for collaboration.

All students will need to acquire and read the following book: 

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

   ISBN-10: 1250768888   

Much like Battle of the Books, this should be read a few times to do well on the tests, but one reading will earn points for sure.

Resource guides for the 2023-2024 season are posted in the Google Classroom. Please start reading them in your free time if possible. DO NOT SHARE these with anyone outside of AMS or their parents. We pay for a site license and are only authorized to use them within our own school. We also do not want to give any advantage to potential competitors. Do not share any of our study materials outside of our AMS team.

We suggest you download these materials so that you can access them offline if necessary. Load them onto your phone, tablet, home computer, laptop and/or USB drive. I strongly encourage you to print the resource guides and put them in a binder with dividers for study; especially if you learn better on paper than electronically. Hard copies also give you a format where you can highlight important points for review right before a competition.  If you prefer digital format, I highly recommend that you highlight your PDF as you are reading and remember to save each time you close the file, so that the highlighting is saved and you can review key points, dates, words or ideas before a competition.

This year we will be splitting up into study groups similar to what we did last year. There will be designated group leaders. Please let me know if you wish to be a group leader. There will be responsibilities associated with this position that will include reporting back to me. 

I know this is a lot of information. Please ask any questions that you have. I am happy to answer what I can.  

Fees - Tax Credit Eligible - Do not pay yet, pending set up for the 2023-2024 school year.

There is a $45 fee that helps to pay for the curriculum that we purchase (found in the Google classroom) and the competition fees for each student. This $45 does NOT cover all Academic Pentathlon costs. For this reason, we ask families to donate generously as they are able using tax credit where it is possible.