The Greatness of Academic U.I.L.
Academic U.I.L., which stands for Academic University Interscholastic League, is an organization that competes in eight different subjects. The subjects are calculator skills; dictionary skills; maps, graphs, and charts; math; number sense; science; social studies; and spelling. Each subject’s competition consists of taking a test and being scored on how well you perform on the test. Academic U.I.L. is awesome because you can do multiple subjects. You can even do all of them!
Each subject has its own field of knowledge it focuses on, but some subjects are similar. Math, number sense, and calculator skills are all math-related, and they each focus on different things: math is about knowledge, number sense is a mix of knowledge and speed, and calculator skills is pure speed. Social studies and science are also similar in a different way, because both of the tests are taken with a mix of background knowledge and inductive reasoning. Dictionary skills and maps, graphs, and charts are also almost the same: one is searching for words, while the other is searching for geographic features. Spelling is kind of the odd one out, though it could be compared to dictionary skills. All in all, the variety of subjects allows for most students to do something they like.
Every week, students on the U.I.L. team prepare by going to practices. Each subject has its own practice on one day of the week. It gives students the opportunity to practice on their subject or subjects of choice. Because the content matter of each test is different, the format of the tests is also different. Each subject has its own way of practicing, working on techniques to help U.I.L. members become effective test takers. On the other hand, it gives people another chance to hang out with their friends.
At U.I.L. meets, the top 15 scores for each subject receive recognition. Places 4 to 15 receive ribbons and the top 3 places are awarded with medals. On November 15th, the Bradley Academic U.I.L. team went to Harris Middle School to compete in their second meet. At this meet, Bradley competitors received many ribbons and medals, with most of them coming out with at least one. They didn’t go to win awards though. Most of the people in U.I.L. went to have a chance to spend time with their friends and participate in enjoyable activities. That’s really the true meaning of U.I.L.: to have an enjoyable experience.