National Geographic Bee

School competitions

The competition begins at the elementary school level (4th grade - 8th grade) and usually commences in November, December, or January. This competition requires at least 6 people to enter. Private, public, and homeschooled students are allowed to enter. Typically, between five and six million students are entered each year (any number of competitors may enter this competition). The two major stages in this competition are called the preliminary and the final stages. Often, the preliminary competition is further split into preliminary rounds and a semi-final. In the event of a tie, a tiebreaker round is held at the end of the preliminary rounds.

In the preliminary rounds, competitors are divided into groups of twenty and each contestant is asked one question from each of the eight themed rounds. Past categories have included:

Contestants are awarded 1 point per question. At the end of seven rounds, players with the top ten scores advance to the finals. In addition to the game, a player may ask for a repeat of a spelling during these rounds. However, they are restricted to only asking twice in duration of the entire geographic bee.

Quite often there is a tie, in which case a semi-final tiebreaker round is needed. For example, if six players finished the preliminary rounds with eight points and fifteen finished with seven points, the six who finished with eight points automatically advance to the final competition. The fifteen with seven points move into the semi-final round where the top four are determined to fill the remainder of the seats in the finals. This is done by asking every player the same question at the same time and giving each player twelve seconds to write down the answer. Each question is automatically repeated twice. Everyone reveals their answer at the end of the twelve seconds and players are eliminated on a single-elimination basis. If, using the above example of four open seats in the finals, there is a question where eight players are left in the semi-final round and three players get the question right, those three advance to the finals. The other five who got the question wrong will continue with the single-elimination procedure to determine which competitor will take the last open seat in the finals. A player cannot ask judges to spell or repeat words in the semi-final round.

The final competition consists of two parts: the final round and the championship round. Each of the ten finalists starts with a clean slate and is eliminated after two misses. This continues until the number of contestants drops from ten to two and a third-place finisher is determined. A player is not officially eliminated until the end of a series of questions, since if all but one competitor makes their second miss in that round, all the players stay in the competition. Again, a player may ask for a spelling or repeat on any question, but only once per question. Earlier in the round, questions may require oral answers or written answers from all the competitors at one time. Quite often, many of the earlier questions in this round contain visuals as part of the question, such as maps or pictures. Question examples in the past have included pictures of state quarters with the name rubbed off and maps of the US with national forests shown and numbered. Contestants, at the time, were given the name of the national forest and (he or she) must match states with trees. At the national level, competitions may include items such as flags, musical instruments, hats, and even live animals. After a certain round, all questions must require oral answers only.

If there is a tie for the championship round or third place, there will be an elimination round. For example, if four players are left and three make their second mistake, the fourth advances to the championship round and the other three enter the tiebreaker. The moderator will then ask each of the three players, at the same time, to write their answers to the same question. In this special round, questions can be repeated by players but they cannot ask how to spell the given word. As a result, if one of three responses are correct, he or she will rise to the championship round and the other two will move to the tiebreaker round until a third-place winner determined.

In the championship round, both players start with a clean slate again. The moderator asks both contestants the same question at the same time, repeated twice, and both players have fifteen seconds to write their answer. Both players then show their answers and each player who wrote a correct answer receives one point. There are three questions in the championship round. The player with the most points at the end is the champion. If both players are tied at the end, the competition enters the championship tiebreaker round. The rules are the same as for the championship round, except that the last player to answer a question incorrectly is the school champion (single elimination round).

In 2010, National Geographic partnered with mobile development company Concentric Sky to launch a series of official app-based study tools titled Geobee Challenge.

Qualifying Test

The Qualifying Test is the only part of the bee that is entirely written. Every winner from each school takes this test to see if he or she can qualify for the state bee. The test comprises 70 multiple choice questions, which must be completed in 60 minutes. The top 100 scorers in each state or territory advance to the state level competition. As of the 2016 Bee, the Qualifying test is online, and no longer is administered on paper.

State and national competitions

The winner of each school-level competition takes an online test, and the top 100 in each state or territory qualify for the State Bee. If there is a tie in the State Qualifying Test, all students in the tie get an invitation to the State Bee (i.e. there were 104 State Bee Qualifiers in the 2017 Florida Geographic Bee). The rules at the state level are same as that at the school level, except that there are eight preliminary rounds instead of seven and each player is limited to two repeats or spelling for all eight preliminary rounds. Players are also limited to two repeats or spellings in the final round if they qualify. All the state bees are held on the same date, at the same time (in early April or late March) at all locations. The 2017 National Geographic State Bees will be held on March 31, 2017. State bees originally occurred for the fifty states, five U.S. territories (Guam, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands), Washington D.C., and the Department of Defense Dependent Schools (DoDDS), for a total of 57. The third-place finisher from each state receives $50, the second-place finisher $75, and the winner $100. In 1999 the state competitions for Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands were merged into one state competition known as the Pacific Territories, bringing the number down to 55. In 2009, the Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands competitions were merged into a single competition known as the Atlantic Territories, and since then there have only been 54 state competitions. The 54 state champions receive an all-expense paid trip to Washington D.C. for the national competition.

The rules at the national level are the same as those at the state, except that there are ten preliminary rounds instead of eight. The championship round can also consist of five questions instead of three. The competition is held over four days, with the preliminary rounds on the first day and the final rounds on the third. The national finals are held in late May at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C. and are hosted by Mo Rocca. The ten finalists are guaranteed $500. The third-place finisher receives a $10,000 college scholarship, the second-place finisher receives a $25,000 college scholarship, and the National Champion receives a $50,000 college scholarship, as well as a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society. From 2009 to 2015, the National Champion also won a trip to the Galápagos Islands. In 2016, National Champion Rishi Nair won a trip to southeast Alaska, including a stop at Glacier Bay National Park. This was because 2016 was the centenary of the U.S. National Park Service. The 2017 National Champion will receive a trip to the Galápagos Islands.

International competition

There was an international competition, which was also moderated by Alex Trebek, but it was run differently. The top finishers from each country's national competition formed a team representing their country and participated in an Olympics-style event which included a team written competition and a team oral competition. The 2013 competition was held in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The 2015 National Geographic World Championship, originally planned to take place in Stockholm, Sweden, was canceled, and the competition was since put on hiatus.

Criticism

The selection process of the National Geographic Bee competition is not well designed to reliably promote the most qualified contestants as it leaves significant room for chance. This is due to the small number of questions and the fact that each contestant answers different questions. Particularly, during the preliminary rounds contestants are eliminated with a single mistake if there are more than 9 perfect scores. That a single mistake is not a reliable indicator for a contestant's overall strength was demonstrated during the 2014 National competition. The preliminary rounds resulted in 9 contestants with perfect score who accordingly became finalists. The 10th spot was filled by tie breaker rounds between contestants who made a single mistake during the preliminaries and went to the Virginia champion Akhil Rekulapelli, who then went on to win the finals.

National Champions

Of the twenty-eight National Geographic Bee champions, twenty-six are male and two are female. Five are from the state of Washington, four are from the state of Michigan, three are from Texas, two are from Kansas, two are from New Jersey, two are from Florida, and various other states have been home to one champion each.

Prizes

Rishi Nair of Florida, the 2016 National Geographic Bee Champion, received a $50,000 scholarship, a lifetime membership to the National Geographic Society, and a trip for 2 to southeast Alaska, including Glacier Bay National Park. Saketh Jonnalagadda of Massachusetts, the second-place finisher received $25,000. And Kapil Nathan of Alabama, the third-place finisher, received $10,000. Grace Rembert of Montana and Rishi Kumar of Maryland were tied for 4th place. All Top 10 finishers received $500. Champions and other top finishers are invited to apply to the three-member U.S. team sent to the biannual National Geographic World Championship.

Recent competitions