2023 USGC Middle and Elementary School Division Nationals Information
International Academic Competitions is excited to announce that the 2023 Middle and Elementary School US National Championships of the US Geography Championships will be held as part of the IAC Middle and Elementary School National Championships, being held June 1 – 4, 2023 in Arlington, Virginia. Please visit https://ems.iacnationals.com/ for more information.
Format of Middle School and Elementary Division of USGC Nationals
The 2023 US Geography Championships Middle School and Elementary Division National Championships will consist of 3 separate parts, a multiple choice exam, a written response exam, and a cartographic skills exam. Sample questions for the written exam are available here and samples of the geography skills exam questions are available here. For samples for the multiple choice exams, as well as additional samples for the other two exams, please also see the exams used at the 2017, 2018, and 2019 National Championships which are available for download here along with their answer keys.
From a timing standpoint, the US Geography Championships exams will be split into 2 parts: a part with the written exam and the first half of the multiple choice exam (45 minutes total), then a 10 minute break, and then the second half will be the map exam and the second half of the multiple choice exam (another 45 minutes total). Students will be ranked on all 3 exams on the rank points principle:
For the Overall USGC rank, scores will be determined by giving participating students a rank of 1 to N, with N being the number of overall competing students, on each of the three exams. Tied students will split the average of their ranks (e.g. – if there are two students tied for second place, each would receive 2.5 points). Students thus earn a number of placement points equivalent to their ranks. The students with the lowest overall number of placement points from all portions combined will thus be the highest ranking students, and that will be used to determine the overall scores. If students tie on the overall placement, the tiebreaks will be (in respective order):
1. Final placement on Multiple Choice Exam
2. Final placement on Written Exam
3. Final placement on Geography Skills Exam
4. Additional 5 question Tiebreaker Multiple Choice Exams (this process may be repeated as needed until a winner is determined).
Students who wish to compete in a buzzer-based quiz competition should register for the International Geography Bee’s US National Championships as well.
For further questions, please contact info@iacompetitions.com