It's Academic places 15th in world, first in Maryland in competition

Blair's It's Academic team placed 15th in the world and first in Maryland in the Knowledge Master Open (KMO) competition by scoring 1705 out of a possible 2000 points, according to scores released Friday.

The KMO is an international competition held twice a year in the fall and spring. Each participating team receives a CD of 200 multiple choice questions ranging in a variety of subjects from history to science. It's Academic team members and other interested students completed the questions together in school on April 23 and sent their answers out on the same day. Teammates worked together - though no assistance was allowed from adults - to answer each question within two minutes and two tries, and points were awarded based on speed and accuracy.

Team co-sponsor David Fantegrossi praised the team for performing well despite little preparation time. "The team did well despite little practice. However, we want to improve our score. In the past we have been as high as second and third place. Since we have done so well in the past, there's no reason for us not to be in the top five," Fantegrossi said.

Team members are proud of their performance, but like Fantegrossi, believe improvement is needed. "In the future we need to communicate better during the tournament and have more practices before hand. A lot of us will do our best to try to improve for next year's competition, but we are looking forward to next year's event," It's Academic member junior Elizabeth So said.