An online and live competition open to teams of high school students across the Commonwealth.  There is no charge to compete! Get your students fired up about economics and personal finance. Motivate them to learn and excel.  Encourage healthy competition and school pride.

How Does the Online Challenge Work?

Free to all high school students.  Teachers and students throughout Virginia may participate without leaving their school.  Teams of up to four students may compete in one or two divisions: Personal Finance, or one of two Economics divisions as described below.   Each team member will have 35 minutes to complete a 30-question online exam with questions that align with Virginia's economics and personal finance standards of learning.  Registration begins after January 1, 2012 and students can log in to compete anytime between March 7 and April 4.

The winning high school team in each division in eight regions in the state will be acknowledged and awarded a trophy.  Regions are based on the regional study groups set by the Virginia Department of Education.

How Does the Championship Competition Work? Up to 12 teams in each division will be invited to participate in the Championship competition to be held in Richmond, April 20, 2012.  Regional winners in the Online Challenge as well as the top scoring teams (not to exceed one team per teacher in that division) will be invited.   In the Personal Finance division, students will prepare a presentation in advance providing advice based on a case scenario that will be posted in January.  More details will be provided at that time. In each of the economics divisions (Adam Smith and David Ricardo) students will take tests in the morning.  Students from the top scoring teams will face off in a quiz bowl to determine the top team.

Divisions

Competitions are conducted at three levels. Teachers may enter multiple student teams in their qualifying divisions.

Division Level Qualifying courses Personal Finance High School For students enrolled in a course that includes some personal finance content Adam Smith High School IB, AP, honors, college-level or two-semester general economics course David Ricardo High School One-semester general economics course - including courses taught to satisfy the new Economics and Personal Finance requirement - or any course that teaches economics-related content not labeled as AP, IB, honors, differentiated, or college level, e.g. Government, Business, World Geography. Teams that participated in a previous State Championship must compete at the Adam Smith level.

Register Online

Teachers can register online beginning January 1, 2012.  For Adam Smith and David Ricardo (economics divisions) go to www.econchallenge.org. For Personal Finance go to www.financechallenge.org. Once registered, teachers can create their student teams of 3-4 students per team.

Contact

Ruth Cookson - rcookson@odu.edu or 757-683-5570 for questions regarding the Online Challenges.