On Thursday, April 3rd, Choaties took the Economics Challenge by storm, winning both first and second place and then facing off in a quiz bowl for the chance to attend the Regional Economics Challenge held in Philadelphia. Nineteen Choate students traveled to the UConn Business School in Hartford, CT to compete in the State Economics Challenge. This is the 7th time in 8 years that a Choate team has won the State Economics Challenge. Choate economics teacher Mr. Hartsoe coaches both teams; he was “very pleased” with the results of this year’s State Economics Challenge and said that “it was exciting to the see the teams go head to head.”
The Economics Challenge is a national competition funded and run by the National Council on Economics Education. The program is sponsored by Goldman Sachs, the investment banking firm based in New York. Each level of competition consists of two individual tests designed to guage the student’s ability and knowledge of microeconomics and macroeconomics concepts at the AP level, and one group test on various concepts with a focus on international economics. The two highest-scoring teams compete in a final quiz bowl. Students must have a working knowledge of current events and general historic economic trends as well as a sound understanding of numerous economics concepts to perform well on these two tests. “All of our kids did very well on the tests,” said Mr. Hartsoe. This year’s performance was consistent with the high scores students have earned in previous competitions.
The participants in the Economics Challenge met frequently before the state competition to review some key concepts, and took numerous practice tests to decide the composition of the teams. Mr. Hartsoe also held a few quiz bowls to help students prepare and advised the students to review their notes and their textbooks.
Schools from across the state brought teams to compete. After the first three rounds, the top two teams faced each other in a competitive quiz bowl. The winning team, consisting of Stephanie Choi ’09, Daniel Hartsoe ’09, Charlotte McCurdy ’08, and Amy Xie ’08, came back from a 7-2 deficit to win the quiz bowl with a final score of 12-9 against their classmates, Jenny Jang ’09, Jennifer Kim ’08, Nikhith Naidu ’09, and Min Yeoh ’09. Daniel Hartsoe, a member of the winning team, said that when he won he felt “a tad bit of relief, a tad bit of joy.” Jennifer Kim, a member of the second place team, said, “Losing was definitely disappointing especially since it was really close, but I was still glad that another Choate team would be going on to the regional competition.”
The next stage in the Economics Challenge for the team that qualified is the Regional Economics Challenge held in Philadelphia, which will be significantly harder than the state challenge. In preparation for the Regional Economics Challenge, Mr. Hartsoe will “help them review a couple of topics that we didn’t go over in the AP courses.” He added that he will give numerous practices tests and a few practice quiz bowls. Daniel Hartsoe ’09 said that he is “confident that this team is as talented as last year’s.”
Most students enjoyed the Economics Challenge and felt that it was a good experience. Jennifer Kim ’08 said that her success in the econ challenge has “motivated [her] to seek out economics.” “I think all of the kids enjoyed that day,” said Mr. Hartsoe.
The Econ Challenge Teams traveled to Hartford for the state competition. PHOTO/Mr. Hartsoe
