Geography Bee

Oak Point and CMS

The Geography Bee, or National Geographic Bee, is an academic competition started in 1988 to test United States students’ knowledge of geography and to encourage more study of the subject. All students at Oak Point and CMS participate in beginning rounds of the Geography Bee sometime between mid-November and mid-January. Each class holds a competition to determine the class winner. Class winners then compete for the school title.

School champions must have one of the top hundred scores in the state on a written qualifying test to compete at the state level. State competition is at the end of March. The first prize at the state bee is $100 and an expenses-paid trip to the national finals in May.

The national champion receives a $25,000 college scholarship. The second-place winner receives a $15,000 scholarship, and the third-place winner receives a $10,000 scholarship.

To read more about the Bee, visit www.nationalgeographic.com

To prepare for the Geography Bee, students may want to play the online GeoBee quiz, with 5 new questions each day (You can access more than one day’s worth at a time.):

www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee

Other study helps:

Afghanistan to Zimbabwe: Country Facts That Helped Me Win the National Geographic Bee by Andrew Wojtanik (author is 2004 National Geographic Bee champion)

The Geography Bee Complete Preparation Handbook: 1001 Questions and Answers to Help You Win Again and Again by Matthew Rosenberg, et al

Handy Geography Answer Book by Matthew Rosenberg

National Geographic Bee Official Study Guide by Stephen F. Cunha
This study guide is primarily an explanation of how the geographic bee is structured, with tips on how to prepare, links to different resources, maps, and a somewhat small sample of questions from past bees.