National Geography Bee

Varsity & JV Divisions Homepage

2023 National Champions:
Varsity – Aadi Gadekar, Morris County School of Technology, NJ
Junior Varsity – Pranavkrishna Bharanidharan, Bella Vista High School, CA

National Geography Bee
National Geography Bee

The National Geography Bee Varsity & Junior Varsity Divisions Overview

National Geography Bee

The National Geography Bee is a quiz competition for individual students, testing knowledge of the political, human, cultural, and physical geography of all parts of the world. For students competing in the Varsity & Junior Varsity Division, the National Geography Bee consists of two stages. The first, or Qualifying Stage, consists primarily of a 50 question multiple choice National Qualifying Exam, though an Online National Qualifying Tournament is also offered. The second stage is the National Championships, which will take place on Friday-Saturday, April 26-27, 2024 in Arlington, VA. The Online National Qualifying Tournament and the National Championships are both entirely buzzer-based quiz competitions.

  • Eligibility: For the 2023-24 academic year, secondary school students born before July 1, 2008 compete in the Varsity Division. Students born on or after July 1, 2008 compete in the Junior Varsity Division. It is not permitted for younger students to play in the Varsity Division, but it is permitted for students in 8th grade or younger to compete in the Junior Varsity Division as well as in the Middle or Elementary School Division that they are eligible to compete in.

  • Competitors:  Individual students. The National Championships require qualification through the National Qualifying Exams or Online National Qualifying Tournament.
  • Competition Style: Multiple choice exam or buzzer-based quiz tournament at the Regional level. Buzzer-based quiz tournament at the National Championships.

  • Inquiries: Contact hs-info@iacompetitions.com

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IAC Participants

Competition Format

For students competing in the Varsity & JV Divisions, the National Geography Bee is a two-stage competition, consisting of the Qualifying Stage and the National Championships. The Qualifying Stage has two variants: the National Qualifying Exams and the Online National Qualifying Tournament. Students can also qualify for the International Geography Championships by competing in the National Geography Bee.

Stage
1

Qualifying Stage

Option A: National Qualifying Exam

For the Varsity and Junior Varsity Divisions, most students compete in the Qualifying Stage through the National Qualifying Exam. The National Qualifying Exam is a 50 question multiple choice exam. All questions have 4 possible answer choices. The National Qualifying Exams are scored on the basis of 2 points for a correct answer, 0 for a question left unanswered, and -1 point for an incorrect answer. This scoring system rewards partial knowledge but not random lucky guesses. Students who have no clue about a particular question should thus leave it unanswered, but if they can narrow down the answer choices, they should likely then take their best guess even if they are not 100% sure.

Students may take the National Geography Bee National Qualifying Exam online, at all Varsity / JV National History Bee and Bowl in-person Regional Tournaments during the lunch break, or during the lunch break at select all-subject quiz bowl tournaments that are not run by International Academic Competitions. There are three versions of the National Qualifying Exam, which are known as Set A, Set B, and Set C. For National Qualifying Exams that are offered at Varsity/JV National History Bee and Bowl tournaments, the Exam Set corresponds to the question set that the tournament is using. The questions on the B and C Set versions of the National Qualifying Exams follow the National Qualifying Exam distribution for the National Geography Bee. The questions on the A Set version mirror the distribution found in the multiple choice section of the AP Human Geography Exam.

If taking the Exam online or at an in-person tournament, students typically have a 20 minute time limit. When taking the exam at an in-person tournament, students may also take the National Qualifying Exams for the National Political Science Bee, National Science Bee, and US History Bee. If a student takes just one exam, they have 20 minutes. If a student takes two exams, they have 40 minutes, but if they take three or four exams, they still only have 40 minutes (as time is typically limited during the lunch break of a tournament).

Students qualify for Nationals through the National Qualifying Exams in one of three ways.

  • 1
    Scoring 75 or higher on any version of the National Qualifying Exam.
  • 2

    Scoring among the top 50% of students in one’s age division at an in-person tournament (either a National History Bee and Bowl Regional Tournament or a quiz bowl tournament where the exam is offered). This is inclusive of odd numbers of students and ties for the last qualifying spot. By way of example, if there are 9 Varsity Division students taking the exam, and two students tie for fifth place in the Varsity Division with a score of 63, they would both qualify.

  • 3
    Scoring at or above the official National Median Score in one’s age division for each exam version. The National Median Scores are calculated for each exam version on the following dates: Set C – December 2, 2023, Set B – February 4, 2024, Set A – March 2, 2024. Thereafter, the National Median Scores do not change even though additional students will take each exam version.

Students need only to qualify on any one version of the National Qualifying Exam in any given academic year to be able to compete at the National Championships. If a student qualifies on one version of the Exam, and then takes a different version of the exam but does not qualify on that version, they remain qualified.

The cost is $15 per Exam Version per student. For all questions on the 2023-24 National Geography Bee Varsity / Junior Varsity National Qualifying Exams, please email hs-info@iacompetitions.com.

Option B: Online National Qualifying Tournament

The second option for competing in the Qualifying Stage is to compete in an Online National Qualifying Tournament. This tournament will take place in early 2024 but it is only open to students in 9th-12th grade. Middle and elementary schoolers who wish to compete in the Junior Varsity Division of the National Geography Bee must do so first through the National Qualifying Exam. In the Online National Qualifying Tournament, students compete in 3 preliminary rounds with 30 questions each. The top students advance to the final round, which will likewise have 30 questions, though these on average, will be somewhat more challenging.

All National Geography Bee Online National Qualifying Tournament questions are played with a buzzer system. Students are read paragraph-length questions out loud with the clues arranged in decreasing order of difficulty. Students buzz in when they believe they know the answer; if they are correct, they score the point for that question, otherwise they cannot ring in again. Please see the rules files posted here for further details on how the competition works.

Students qualify for the National Championships if their cumulative score is in the top 50% of their age division at the end of the three preliminary rounds. This is inclusive of ties for the last spot and odd numbers of students (just like on the National Qualifying Exams). The cost is $35 per student.

For all questions on the 2023-24 National Geography Bee Varsity / Junior Varsity Online National Qualifying Tournament, please email hs-info@iacompetitions.com.

Stage
2

National Championships

The second stage of the National Geography Bee for the Varsity and Junior Varsity Divisions is the National Championships, which for the 2023-24 academic year will take place at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, VA on Friday-Saturday, April 26-27, 2024. We expect approximately 200 students to attend from throughout the USA, and we hope that you will be able to join us! All students play four preliminary matches with 35 questions each on Friday evening, with the two playoff rounds taking place on Saturday evening. The number of students who make the playoffs and who advance from the semifinals into the finals will be a function of the total number of registrants.

On the same weekend that the National Geography Bee National Championships are held, there are numerous other competitions that take place at other times at the same hotel (e.g. the US Geography Championships, National Championship Exams [a number of these have a geography focus], National History Bowl, National History Bee, National Science Bee, and more. These are all held at different times so students can take part in all of them if they are eligible to do so. A full schedule of 2024 Varsity & Junior Varsity National Championships Events is available here.

The cost to compete at the 2024 National Championships is $114 if registration takes place prior to the end of 2023; otherwise it is $119. Registration for the National Championships opens in November and runs through early April on this page.

For all questions on the 2024 Varsity & Junior Varsity National Championships, please email hs-info@iacompetitions.com.

Bonus
Stage

International Geography Championships

Students who compete in the Varsity & Junior Varsity Divisions of the National Geography Bee can qualify for the 2024 International Geography Championships which will be held in Vienna, Austria from July 13-20! Students qualify for IGC by having a score of 75 or higher on any version of the Varsity / Junior Varsity Geography National Qualifying Exam in the 2022-23 or 2023-24 academic year, placing in the top 25% at a Middle & Elementary School Regional Finals tournament, placing in the top 25% in one’s age division in the Online National Qualifying 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.

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.

National Geography Bee Practice Resources

Past Questions

Past Questions from the National Championships

Past National Qualifying Exams

Note that these are listed under US Geography Championships, but the same Qualifying Exams are used for both USGC and the National Geography Bee

IAC National Capitals Study Guide

International Geography Championships

Additional geography questions are found under the Events tab on the IGC site though some are in different formats from those used in the National Geography Bee.

Quiz Bowl Packets

This site has links to hundreds of thousands of additional questions; most of which are not geography-themed, though a good many are

Rules & FAQs

Please see the files here that pertain to the National Geography Bee.

he 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.

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.

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.

Prior to the 2023-24 academic year, the competition run by International Academic Competitions that is now known as the National Geography Bee was formerly called the International Geography Bee. This competition is still held outside the USA (for example, it is what IAC calls its Geography Bee for students in Europe), but within the USA, the competition is now known as the National Geography Bee.

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 and 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 National Geography Bee works for students in 8th grade and younger, please visit the National Geography Bee Middle & Elementary School Divisions Homepage.

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 a nationwide geography quiz competition!

National Geography Bee Results

Note that prior to the 2023-24 academic year, the National Geography Bee was known as the International Geography Bee

Past National Geography Bee National Qualifying Exam Results

Past National Geography Bee National Championships Results

Past National Champions

Note that prior to the 2023-24 academic year, the National Geography Bee was known as the International Geography Bee. On mobile, swipe right to view all columns

Year Division National Champion School City State
2023 Varsity Aadi Gadekar Morris County School of Technology Denville NJ  NJ
2023 Junior Varsity Pranavkrishna Bharanidharan Bella Vista High School Fair Oaks CA  CA
2022 Varsity Dylan Rem Malibu High School Malibu CA  CA
2022 Junior Varsity Aadi Gadekar Morris County School of Technology Denville NJ  NJ
2021 Varsity Dylan Rem Southampton High School Southampton NY  NY
2021 Junior Varsity Prithvi Narayanan Park Forest Middle School State College PA  PA
2020 Varsity Toby Goldberg Walt Whitman High School Bethesda MD  MD
2020 Junior Varsity Max Yang Ladue Horton Watkins High School Ladue MO  MO
2019 Varsity Karan Menon J.P. Stevens High School Edison NJ  NJ
2019 Junior Varsity Samvrit Rao Stone Hill Middle School Ashburn VA  VA
2018 Varsity Alex Schmidt Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School Bethlehem PA  PA
2018 Junior Varsity Samanyu Dixit Metrolina Regional Scholars Academy Charlotte NC  NC
2017 Varsity Jakob Myers Naperville North High School Naperville IL  IL
2017 Junior Varsity Rohil Bhinge Frost Middle School Fairfax VA  VA