World Scholar's Cup

The Scholar's Challenge is a 120-question multiple choice exam given to each individual competitor to complete within 60 minutes. Prizes are awarded to top participants in each subject and to both top-scoring overall teams and individuals.

A feature of the Scholar's Challenge implemented in 2015, named the certainty factor, allows participants to select multiple answers per question. Though each question has only one correct answer, choosing multiple answers allows the participant to earn points inversely proportional to the number of answers chosen. For example, if a participant chose one single answer, and if it was correct, they would score a point; if they chose two answers and one was correct, they would score 1/2 a point; if they chose three and one was correct, they would score 1/3 of a point, and so forth. If time was running out, a participant can shade in all five answers and automatically win 1/5 of a point.

Collaborative Writing is based on arguments, with students picking one of six different prompts. Each participant on a team must pick a different prompt. Participants pick one side of a topic and write for, against, or about it with a persuasive tone, providing evidence to support their claims using any resources available to them, with the exception of social media and communicating with people other than their teammates.

At the beginning of the event, students have 30 minutes to work with their teammates to discuss and research their arguments. Following the collaboration period, students have 45 minutes to write their essay. There is no word minimum or maximum, and students are expected to cite sources. Following the writing period, students then have 15 minutes to collaborate again with their teammates to edit one another’s work, but they may not finish a teammate’s essay.

During the team debate, all teams have assigned rooms and arguments. In the debate room, teams will meet their opponents and learn the motion. Teams will have 15 minutes to confer within the room before the debate begins. Teams may use World Scholar’s Cup materials[lower-alpha 2] or any outside resources to prepare. It is up to the members of individual teams to assign themselves speaking order.

Each debater will stand in front of the room for the length of his or her speech. Teams may not make noise or interrupt while a debater is speaking. Speakers may use notes, but should not read their speeches in their entirety. Students may speak for up to four minutes. There is no penalty for speaking up to four minutes. The judge will signal time left using knocks, with two knocks meaning the speaker must stop speaking and sit down.

Between speakers, teams will have 60 seconds to prepare before the next speaker is called. Before the end of the debate, the competing teams are required to give positive and constructive feedback to the opposing team, for roughly 90 seconds. At the end of the debate, the judge (or panel of judges) will announce a winning team. The winning team will then proceed to a designated room and the non-winning team to a different designated room, where each will face another team with the same number of wins and non-wins.

One cultural aspect of WSC debate is the 'lollipop'. In order to promote positivity and self-improvement, the World Scholar's Cup had replaced the term "losing" with "lollipopping" since 2015. This change was also reflected in the debate schedules that each team receives, with the term "losing team" no longer used.

The Scholar's Bowl is a team event usually held in a theater. Team members work together to answer multiple choice questions that are displayed on a large screen.

In order to answer the questions, each team of students is given a "clicker" that connects to a scoring computer on stage. Students then choose their answer by pressing A, B, C, D, or E on their clicker. Once the question has been read aloud by the host, students are given 15 seconds to submit their answer. The questions gets harder each time and worth more points than the previous one. There are sometimes rapid fire questions which have to be answered in 5 seconds, worth even more points.

The Scholar's Bowl implements many types of questions, many based on popular multimedia examples. The questions tend to include references to pop culture, and often include the names of WSC staff members.

The Scholar's Bowl is often the last educational event of the competition before the awards ceremony.

The Scholar's Scavenge occurs each year at the Global Round and the Tournament of Champions, and first took place in 2009 in Singapore. Students are teamed up with those from other countries and given a list of tasks. At least one person in the team has a camera, and the tasks are completed by taking photos and videos. The tasks may relate to the curriculum, teamwork, organizer, or just silly. Each task is worth a certain number of points depending upon the difficulty. At the end of the scavenge, chaperons collect the memory cards of the student taking the pictures and score them. These scores do not count toward the scores in the competition as a whole, but are only used for this event. Sometimes, teams with the highest scores will be call up for an award in an award ceremony.

Another additional event is the Debate Showcase. The regional round's top 8 junior and senior debaters take part in this event. At Regional Rounds there is only one Debate Showcase with both juniors and seniors taking part. Regardless, 8 students debate in each Showcase.

The format mirrors the main event's format, but the students instead debate on stage in front of the rest of the participants. Each student speaks once for up to four minutes. When all six speakers have gone, the host of the Showcase invites volunteers from the audience and debaters from the showcase to step forward and share their general thoughts on the topic that was debated.

Additionally, top-scoring round debate participants (or runners-up) are the judging panel for the Showcase. When the Debate Showcase ends, the panel announce the winners.

The Scholar's Ball was first added to the tournament in 2011 at the Global Round in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The idea spawned from a conversation about the competition where one party misheard "Scholar's Bowl" as "Scholar's Ball".

The Scholar's Ball encourages mingling, dancing, and the chance to "look sharp". Students are required to come in formal wear. Some students refer to it as a "pseudo-prom" or "nerd-prom". It was introduced to allow students mingle with students from different countries.

Two students perform in The Scholar's Show.

The first Scholar's Show occurred in 2010 at the regional round held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It originated from several students playing We Will Rock You playing during an intermission. When the song was over, Berdichevsky invited any student wanting to showcase their talent to come forward.

Student performances range from vocal and instrumental performances to beat boxing, dancing, drinking hot sauce and magic tricks. The Scholar's Show is held at all two-day rounds, and at each Global Round and the Tournament of Champions.

The Flag March happens at the end of every Global Round and Tournament of Champions before the Awards Ceremony. In the Flag March, there is one representative (flag bearer) from every country participating in the World Scholar’s Cup. The flag bearers carry the flag of their country and march to the stage.[5]

In 2012, the World Scholar's Camp was created, and took place in Singapore in December 2012. It included seminars and outings to various locations in Singapore.

Camps take place at various schools and cities through the year.[6]

Awards Ceremony

The Awards Ceremony, also known as the Closing Ceremony, takes place just before the end of a round. Traditionally, staff members stand on stage and announce the winners for the entire round. In the 2017 Hanoi Global Round, a new division, the Skittles Division, was formed, which encompasses kids aged primary years (from 8-12).

Began in 2018 ToC, with scholars together saying bye to the Havana theme and destroying the set of it, the Very Emotional Farewell To The Year's Theme is an event where scholars and staffs ultimately destroy the year's theme in a (hopefully) non-violent way. The event happens at every ToC at the New Haven Green.