Rules
The Rules
Team Composition:
1) Teams shall be comprised of three (3) or four (4) members.
2) Competing with only three (3) members, if necessary, is possible and permissible.
3) All members of a team must be from the same public school, private school, community organization, club, or afterschool program. This means that students from different schools are eligible to be on the same team if they are all part of one of the groups mentioned in this section.
- If students are competing as members of an organization, the organization must be an established organization that has an economics or personal finance focus. The coach of the team must be an adult who is a member of the organization and who is responsible for organizing the team and proctoring the online test. The coach will be contacted to confirm that the coach is able to carry out these responsibilities.
- Home-based high school students are encouraged to join teams from local high schools. If this is not practical, they may join teams of any of the other groups mentioned in this section or they may start a team with other home-based high school students if the students reside either in the same county or within a twenty-mile radius of each other. The coach of the home-based team must be an adult who is responsible for organizing the team and proctoring the online test. The coach will be contacted to confirm that the coach is able to carry out these responsibilities.
4) A team that qualifies for the National Finals may reconstitute the members of its team prior to the competition. However, if a team must reconstitute members, the team must retain a minimum of two original team members. All team members of the reconstituted team must meet the team composition conditions, and students must meet the general student eligibility conditions noted above.
5) All teams must have a coach, who is an associate (e.g. employee or volunteer) of the team school, organization, or program; and who is fit to accompany students should the team advance to the finals.
Test Procedure Rules:
Students and teachers are required to abide by the following rules for a successful challenge:
- Each student must take the test alone; meaning students cannot work as a group.
- Students may not utilize any outside materials or testing aids (i.e. calculators) during their challenge exam.
- The teacher/advisor is not to help the students by guiding them or re-phrasing a question.
- Each student will have a maximum of 35 minutes to complete the exam.
- Students may take the online test one time only.
- Students may not compete on more than one team.
- Teachers are to share the access codes with the students at the start of the testing session. They are not to give out access codes in advance.
- Testing sessions must be proctored by the teacher/coach or his/her designee. If the online test is not proctored, the team will be disqualified.
- From the time that the first student on a team begins the online test, all members of the team must complete the test within three hours. If extenuating circumstances such as illness or family emergency make it impossible for a team member to take the test within the three hour window, the teacher/coach must request approval from the Council for Economic Education to extend the testing window for that student.
Scoring:
A team’s final score is determined by the sum of the top three (3) individual scores of its members. If the team consists of four (4) students, the lowest score will not be counted.
- Students are awarded 10 points for each correct answer.
- The highest individual score possible is 300, while the highest team score possible is 900.
In case of a tie, the first tie breaker for placement is the team with the highest score when counting the scores of all four members will advance. In the event of a continued tie, the second tie breaker for placement is the team with the member who has the highest total individual score will advance, with the subsequent team member scores used if both teams have an equivalent highest individual score. In the event of a continued tie, the final tie breaker will be the team with the least combined time to complete the exam will advance.
Once students have completed testing, teachers may log into their account to obtain individual student and team scores.
When the Challenge is over, participants will be notified via email of their team ranking.