National History Bowl
Middle and Elementary School teams are welcome to choose whether they want to participate in the JV or MS division of the National History Bowl. If at least four MS/ES teams sign up to play in the MS division, a MS division will be created. The top Middle/Elementary Bowl teams will qualify for only the Middle/Elementary National Championships if this regional tournament has a Middle School division, and can qualify by either finishing prelim play with a .500 record or better, or by winning a playoff game.
If there are not enough teams to create a MS division, those teams will be automatically qualified for Middle/Elementary Nationals and moved up to the JV division for the opportunity to qualify for Varsity/JV Nationals as well. To qualify for V/JV Nationals, a team must either finish prelim play with a .500 record or better, win a playoff game, OR defeat a JV team at any time during the tournament.
National History Bee
Middle and Elementary school students are welcome to choose whether they want to participate in the JV or MS division of the National History Bee as well. If at least four MS students sign up to play in the MS division, a MS division will be created. The top Middle/Elementary Bee students will qualify for only the Middle/Elementary National Championships by finishing in the top 50% of students in the division either after prelims or after finals.
If there are not enough students to create a MS division, those students will be automatically qualified for Middle/Elementary Nationals and moved up to the JV division for the opportunity to qualify for Varsity/JV Nationals as well. To qualify for V/JV Nationals, students must finish in the top 50% of students either after prelims or after finals.
MS students still need to take the ORQE to participate in the Middle School division of the National History Bee, unless they are also playing on a MS Bowl team at that event. They do not need to take the ORQE to participate in the JV division.
National Qualifying Exams
Middle School students that take our National Qualifying Exams can only be classified in the JV division, as there is not a middle/elementary division of those events at our Varsity/JV Regional events. Because of this, middle/elementary students that qualify for Nationals would qualify for the JV National Championships only, not the Elementary/Middle School National Championships.
Other Middle School Opportunities
Middle/Elementary students interested in competing in the National History Bee, National Science Bee, or National Geography Bee at their grade level can sign up for our National Science/History/Geography Bee events, however they cannot play up to the JV level like they can at History Bee and Bowl events. For more information, email ems-info@iacompetitions.com . Please note that the National Political Science Bee is not contested at EMS Nationals, though there is a Political Science National Championship Exam offered there that is available to any middle/elementary school student.
Qualifying for International Events at V/JV events
International History Olympiad: Finish in the top 33% of students in your division in the National History Bee, or be on a team that finishes in the top 25% in their division.
International Environmental Science Olympiad and International Geography Championships: Score a 65 or higher as a 7th/8th grader, or 55 or higher as a 2nd through 6th grader on the appropriate NQE exam.
For more information on our international events, including alternate qualifying methods, please check out our international websites.