On Monday, Mar. 25, Russian students grades 9-12 traveled to Drew University to compete in the International Russian Olympiada contest. The competition consists of a memorized text and poem, multiple memorized speeches about Russian civilization and culture, as well as an improvised personal topic. Each commission is judged by Russian teachers as well as college students fluent in Russian and is graded out of 100 points each. Each student’s scores are combined to determine their final score and their medal or honorable mention.
The contest was attended by high schools across the state, with Russian levels ranging from II-V. The students from Sparta prepared weeks before in and out of class and constantly reviewed throughout March. The day of the competition, an overwhelming sense of anxiety hung in the air and the bus ride down to Drew flew by as everyone crammed some last minute review.
Although the atmosphere was intense, every student did a great job. Once everyone started to enter the testing room and float from commission to commission, speaking in Russian became more comfortable. Most students went in with low expectations and came out feeling relieved and proud of themselves for the level they were able to speak at. Overall, the contest was a fun and unique experience.
Sparta students from all grades did exceptionally well, receiving all gold and silver medals. Sparta did so well, in fact, 12th grader Kasey Senatore managed to earn the highest grade out of all the competitors from all levels. This means she will have the opportunity to move on to the next level and represent the USA in Moscow. When asked about how she prepared, Senatore replied, “I started refreshing myself on the old topics first, taking a day to make sure I had them memorized before I moved onto the new civilization and literature topics...Then I broke up the readings sentence by sentence, taking breaks to refresh between studying, which made the longer texts much easier to handle.” Senatore also mentioned that knowing her learning style helped her learn the material quickly, a tip that could help anyone looking to compete in the Olympiada in coming years.
"It was also great to have a bit of experience on a college campus,” Senatore reflects. Sitting in one of the International buildings all day, college kids were constantly filtering in and out making the environment feel from a high school classroom.
Overall, this experience was beneficial to everyone who participated. The contest itself was challenging but also rewarding and a great way to improve Russian skills overall.
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