United States Geography Championships

Middle & Elementary School Divisions Homepage

2023 National Champions:
8th Grade – Connor Windust, Eagle Ridge Middle School, VA
7th Grade – Satvik Jain, Burleigh Manor Middle School, MD
6th Grade – Davis Hanes, Woodbury Middle School, NH
5th Grade – Jiwoo Kim, Half Day School, IL
4th Grade and Younger – Aidan Zhang, Sycamore Ridge School, CA

US Geography Championships
US Geography Championships

The US Geography Championships Middle & Elementary School Divisions Overview

US geography championships

The US Geography Championships is an exam competition for individual students, testing knowledge of geographic concepts and applications of geography to real world situations. For students competing in the Middle & Elementary School Divisions, the US Geography Championships consists solely of the National Championships, which will take place on Friday, May 24, 2024 in Orlando, FL.

  • Eligibility:  Students in 8th grade and younger. There is no younger age limit.
  • Competitors:  Individual students. Separate age divisions for 8th Graders, 7th Graders, 6th Graders, 5th Graders, 4th Graders, and for students in 3rd Grade and Younger.

  • Competition Style: Comprehensive exam with both multiple choice and written response sections.

  • Inquiries: Contact ems-info@iacompetitions.com

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Competition Format

For students competing in the Middle & Elementary School Divisions, the US Geography Championships is a one-stage competition, consisting solely of the National Championships. Students must have qualified for and be competing in the National Championships of the National Geography Bee to compete in the US Geography Championships.

Stage
1

National Championships

The US Geography Championships for the Middle & Elementary School Divisions consists solely of the National Championships, which for the 2023-24 academic year will take place at the Hyatt Regency Orlando in Orlando, FL on Friday, May 24, 2024.

Registration for the National Championships opens in November and runs through early May on this page. We are expecting approximately 400 students to compete in the National Championships of the 2024 US Geography Championships, and we hope you will be able to join us! Nationals weekend will also feature many other events, including the Opening Ceremonies, a Family Quiz Night, Universal Studios Night, Intro to Model United Nations, various talks and receptions, and the Jeopardy! Charity Games. A full schedule of the 2024 Nationals Events is available here. 

The cost to compete at the 2024 National Championships is $95 if registration takes place prior to the end of 2023; otherwise it is $99. Registration for the National Championships opens in November and runs through early May on this page.

Please note that the format of the 2024 Middle & Elementary School USGC National Championships has been changed since 2023. However, students are still advised to review past USGC National Championships Exams as the questions themselves are still good practice and cover much of the same material that will be tested in 2024.

  • 25 to 35 minutes
  • 25% of overall championship ranking
  • Supplies needed – pencil and eraser

Middle School Division (7th and 8th grade) – 40 questions, 35 minute time limit
Upper Elementary Division (5th and 6th grade) – 35 questions, 30 minute time limit
Lower Elementary Division (4th grade and below) – 30 questions, 25 minute time limit

The Multiple Choice Examination will consist of between 30 and 40 questions covering multiple aspects of geography. A majority of the questions will be in sets of 5 to 10 questions devoted to various geography topics. The final 15 questions will be based on visual stimuli, and may include maps, charts, graphs or diagrams.

Students will have between 25 and 35 minutes to complete this section of the examination based on their division, and there will be a five minute break between this section and the free-response section. The Multiple Choice Examination will be scored on the standard IAC scoring system of two points for a correct answer, no points for questions left blank, and negative one point for incorrect answers.

  • 45 to 55 minutes
  • 75% of overall championship ranking
  • Supplies needed – pen or pencil
  • Optional supplies – colored pencils, ruler, eraser

Middle School Division (7th and 8th grade) – 5 questions, 55 minute time limit
Upper Elementary Division (5th and 6th grade) – 5 questions, 50 minute time limit
Lower Elementary Division (4th grade and below) – 4 questions, 45 minute time limit

The Free-Response Examination will consist of 4 or 5 questions, each of which will have multiple parts. Topics for the free-response exam will be a mix of human and physical geography, with roughly half of the points on the exam coming from each. Topics for the examination will be drawn from the following list –

  • Geomorphology
  • Landforms and landscapes
  • Hazards and hazard management
  • Urban geography and urban planning
  • Historical geography (concentrating on the development of the United States)
  • Cultural geography
  • Economic and developmental geography
  • Population geography
  • Agriculture, resources, and environmental geography
  • Biogeography
  • Climate geography

In addition to written responses, one question will ask students to produce one of the following –

  • a mathematical calculation
  • a chart or graph based on provided data
  • a map
  • a diagram of a geographic or geological process

Questions on the Free-Response Examination will be similar in format and content to questions on the Written and Cartographic examinations at past USGC competitions. Further information on exam content will be released in the months immediately prior to Nationals.

Overall USGC Rank Calculation

For the overall USGC rank, placements will be determined on a points system using the following formula –

Multiple Choice Exam points x .25 + Free-Response Exam points x .75 = overall score (out of 100)

Overall scores will be calculated to 3 decimal places and students will be ranked based on their overall scores.  If there is a tie for any of the top ten positions in the overall rankings, ties will be broken using the following criteria (in respective order) –

  1. Points earned on the Free-Response Exam.
  2. Points earned on questions 31-50 of the Multiple Choice Exam.

If students are still tied following these two tiebreakers, an additional five question multiple choice exam will be administered, with the student earning the most points on this exam taking the higher placement.  This process may be repeated as needed until the tie is broken.

For all questions on the 2024 Middle & Elementary School National Championships, please email ems-info@iacompetitions.com.

Bonus
Stage

International Geography Championships

Students who compete in the Middle & Elementary School Divisions of the US Geography Championships can qualify for the 2024 International Geography Championships which will be held in Vienna, Austria from July 13-20! Students qualify for IGC by placing in the top 25% at a Middle & Elementary School National Geography Bee Regional Finals tournament, by placing in the top 50% at the 2023 or 2024 National Championships of the National Geography Bee, or by placing in the top 50% at the National Championships in 2023 or 2024 for the US Geography Championships. Middle & Elementary School students may also qualify for IGC by competing in qualifying events in the Junior Varsity Division.

The International Geography Championships is a week-long event with numerous competitions, field trips, family activities and more. In each event, medals are awarded to the top 3 competing students in each age division. US students compete for their state; students from other countries (or students in the USA who were born abroad or who have foreign citizenship) represent those countries. Two of the most prestigious events at IGC are the International Geography Bee World Championships and the International Geography Bowl World Championships; an overall IGC Championship title is also awarded in each age division; please view the website at www.geochampionships.com for further details on all events and to register. We are expecting 125-200 students to attend the 2024 IGC and hope that you will be able to join us!

As part of the 2024 International Geography Championships, an optional day trip to Budapest (featuring one or two official medal events) on July 13 is also offered. There will also be an optional week-long Central Europe extension trip following the conclusion of the IGC which will visit Prague, Dresden, Berlin, and other points in between Vienna and Berlin which is open to any family with a student age 9-17 (participation in IGC is not required to take part in the trip).

For all questions on the 2024 International Geography Championships and the Central Europe Trip, please email david@iacompetitions.com.

US Geography Championships Practice Resources

Past Questions

Past Questions from the National Championships

Rules & FAQs

The US Geography Championships is simply an exam competition, so there is no Official Rules file for it. Obviously, any attempt to access external help, including the internet, notes brought in advance, and/or assistance from other competitors will result in immediate disqualification, as well as a potential ban in further IAC events. It is not permitted to leave the exam room for any reason, including a bathroom break, and then return to the section of the US Geography Championships exam that one is working on. It is permitted to arrive late, though additional time will not be granted, and once any students have been released from the exam room, other students will not be allowed into the room to begin a section of the exam.
Please note that at the discretion of IAC Staff, the time allotted for all students to complete the exam may be shortened by up to 10 minutes per section. If this is done, it will be announced in person to all students at the start of the exam section in question.

No. Due to exam security requirements, all students who wish to compete in the Middle and Elementary School USGC National Championships must be physically present in Orlando, FL.

The National Geography Bee is entirely a buzzer-based competition at the National Championships. The US Geography Championships is entirely an exam-based competition at the National Championships. These are separate competitions because USGC is meant as a way to find the most competitive team members to compete for the USA at the International Geography Olympiad (iGeo). iGeo does not feature any buzzer-based competition, and it focuses much more on analytical and theoretical geography. Thus, USGC, as a qualifying competition for iGeo, emphasizes those aspects of geography, so we can find the strongest students in the country to compete on the type of questions that are found at iGeo.
Students who compete in the Varsity Division (which necessitates being at least 16 years old on July 1 of the year in which a particular USGC takes place) at the USGC National Championships are eligible to qualify for a spot on Team USA. Students in Middle and Elementary School may compete in the Junior Varsity Division at Varsity / JV USGC Nationals in April if they have qualified in the JV Division.

The hotels where we have room blocks, especially the host hotel, provide us with meeting space to hold the competitions and with sleeping accommodations for our staff, which we need to fly in from around the country. They do this in return for a commitment to fulfill a large number of sleeping room bookings over the course of Nationals weekend. For students who live near the Nationals host site for whom it would make sense to attend Nationals as a day trip and go back to their home each night, this rule does not apply.

Yes! They are actively encouraged to do so, and if they do so, they would play in the Junior Varsity Division which includes students in the 9th grade and some students in the 10th grade. Students cannot transfer qualification in the National Championships at the Junior Varsity level to the Middle or Elementary School level National Championships. For more information on how the US Geography Championships works for students in 8th grade and younger, please visit the US Geography Championships Middle & Elementary School Divisions Homepage.

The US Geography Championships, the sister competition to the National Geography Bee, is an exam-based competition on theoretical and analytical geography. At the National Championships, the top 4 Varsity students in the USGC are invited to compete as Team USA at the annual International Geography Olympiad (commonly known as iGeo). iGeo has a minimum age requirement which is set at July 1 of the year 16 years prior to the year in which it takes place. Thus for 2024, the date cutoff is July 1, 2008. Students born prior to this date are therefore eligible to compete in the Varsity Division for USGC and compete for a spot on Team USA. In practice, this means that most 10th graders are in fact considered as Varsity students for the USGC and the National Geography Bee.

USGC and the National Geography Bee share the same qualifying track, so it makes sense for us to keep the particular Varsity / JV distinction the same for both competitions for both the Qualifying Stage and the National Championships.

No. The National Geographic Bee, which was formerly run by National Geographic, was discontinued in 2021. We warmly welcome all schools and students that used to compete in it and who are looking for a new way to compete in nationwide geography competitions!

Past National Champions

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Year Division National Champion School City State
2023 8th Grade Connor Windust Eagle Ridge Middle School Ashburn VA  VA
2023 7th Grade Satvik Jain Burleigh Manor Middle School Ellicott City MD  MD
2023 6th Grade Davis Hanes Woodbury Middle School Salem NH  NH
2023 5th Grade Jiwoo Kim Half Day School Lincolnshire IL  IL
2023 4th Grade & Younger Aidan Zhang Sycamore Ridge School San Diego CA  CA
2022 8th Grade Ray Dai Fredonia Middle School Fredonia NY  NY
2022 7th Grade Anish Raja South Forsyth Middle School Cumming GA  GA
2022 6th Grade Satvik Jain Burleigh Manor Middle School Ellicott City MD  MD
2022 Elementary School Ishaan Deshmukh Blanchard Memorial School Boxborough MA  MA
2021 8th Grade John Augustyn Notre Dame Catholic School Clarendon Hills IL  IL
2021 7th Grade Ishaan Pusuluri Felix V. Festa Middle School West Nyack NY  NY
2021 6th Grade Eshaan Sombhatta Colvin Run Elementary School Vienna VA  VA
2021 Elementary School Nicolas Baxter Mantua Elementary School Fairfax VA  VA
2020 8th Grade Ashmith Kumbala Uplift North Hills Preparatory Irving TX  TX
2020 7th Grade Thomas Catuosco John Adams Middle School Edison NJ  NJ
2020 6th Grade Ishaan Pusuluri Felix V. Festa Middle School West Nyack NY  NY
2020 Elementary School Anish Raja Brookwood Elementary School Cumming GA  GA
2019 8th Grade Arnav Dharmagadda Russell Middle School Russell KY  KY
2019 7th Grade Ashrith Reddy Marvin P. Baker Middle School Corpus Christi TX  TX
2019 6th Grade Jishnu Nayak Peter Hansen Elementary School Mountain House CA  CA
2019 Elementary School Roman Gagliardi Hindley Elementary School Darien CT  CT
2018 8th Grade Srikrishna Darbha College Station Middle School College Station TX  TX
2018 7th Grade Siddardh Budamagunta Davis Drive Middle School Cary NC  NC
2018 6th Grade Bianca Joaquin St. Joan of Arc School Evanston IL  IL
2018 5th Grade Lee Balkcom Homeschool FL  FL
2018 4th Grade & Younger Marc Lindemann Laddie A. Decker Sound Beach School Miller Place NY  NY
2017 Middle School Kai Waddell Lux Middle School Lincoln NE  NE
2017 Elementary Siddharth Kamannavar Stratford School Sunnyvale CA  CA
2016 8th Grade Andy Tutuc Canyon Vista Middle School Austin TX  TX
2016 7th Grade Rohil Bhinge Nysmith School Herndon VA  VA
2016 Elementary Samik Bhinge Mosby Woods Elementary School Fairfax VA  VA
2015 Middle School John Phipps Middlesex Middle School Darien CT  CT
2015 Elementary Rohil Bhinge Stratford School Herndon VA  VA