The Reader's Digest National Word Power Challenge was an annual
vocabulary
A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the la ...
competition in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
for youth in sixth, seventh, or eighth grade. It was sponsored by
Reader's Digest magazine.
Competition
Levels
School
Competition began at school level. Typically, teachers gave students 25-question
multiple-choice
Multiple choice (MC), objective response or MCQ (for multiple choice question) is a form of an objective assessment in which respondents are asked to select only correct answers from the choices offered as a list. The multiple choice format is m ...
tests. Classroom winners then competed with other classroom winners from the same grade to determine the school-wide grade-level champion. The school champion then took a multiple-choice test which determined the top 100 students in the state.
State
The top 100 students were invited to a state competition, where they were given 25 multiple-choice questions to determine the top ten. The top ten then went through a few rounds of questions to determine the state champion. The state champion advanced to national competition.
National
Students from every state, Washington, D.C., and one student from a
Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to:
Current departments of defence
* Department of Defence (Australia)
* Department of National Defence (Canada)
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school got to compete at national level. The students took a 25-question multiple-choice test, with the top ten scorers going on to compete in a nationally televised event. The moderator was a celebrity;
Al Roker was a regular.
Prizes
* All students at the state level received treat bags.
* The top 10 students at the state level received Reader's Digest books.
* All students at the national level received treat bags.
* All state winners were offered free trips to the location of the national competition (usually Florida).
*
Scholarship
A scholarship is a form of financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, diversity and inclusion, athletic skill, and financial need.
Scholarsh ...
s were awarded at the national level:
** First place: $25,000
** Second place: $15,000
** Third place: $10,000
Current status
In 2007, the RDNWPC website stated that the competition would not be held for the 2007-2008 year. The Reader's Digest website no longer mentions the RDNWPC.
Past winners and top finishers
See also
* National Vocabulary Championship
The National Vocabulary Championship (NVC) was the first-ever U.S.-wide vocabulary competition for high school students created by GSN, in association with The Princeton Review. Thirty thousand high school students from across the United States pa ...
(now defunct)
* Scripps National Spelling Bee
The Scripps National Spelling Bee (formerly the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and commonly called the National Spelling Bee) is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. The bee is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scri ...
References
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Language competitions
Competitions in the United States