Draft:Social Studies (UIL test)

The University Interscholastic League's Social Studies is one of several academic contests sanctioned by the UIL. The contest began in the 2003-2004 school year, and has been conducted every year since then except for the 2019-2020 scholastic year, when the contest, among other UIL spring events, was cancelled due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current state director is Andrew Bates, high school principal at Sabine Pass ISD.

Eligibility
Students in Grade 9 through Grade 12 are eligible to enter this event. All grades compete in one division.

Each school may send up to six students, although the district executive committee can limit participation to four students per school. In order for a school to participate in team competition, it must send at least three students.

Structure, Rules, and Scoring
The test is composed off four sections.


 * The first section contains 20 questions, each worth one point. These questions center around people, places, and events surrounding the topic for the year.
 * The second section contains 15 questions, each worth two points. These questions center around the topic's primary reading material for the year, generally a book.
 * The third section contains 10 questions, each worth three points. These questions center around the topic's secondary reading materials for the year.
 * The fourth section is an essay worth up to twenty points. The essay's topic is based in the theme for the year, and is required to be competed, else one may be disqualified.

The 2023-2024, the material which the second and third sections centered around was flipped at the contest director's request.

For in individual competition; the essays of the tied contestants are judged against each other to break the tie.

For team competition, the score of the fourth-place individual is used as the tiebreaker. If a team has only three members it is not eligible to participate in the tiebreaker. If the fourth-place score still results in a tie, the individual tiebreaker rules will not apply, and all remaining tied teams will advance.

For district, regional, and state meet academic championship and meet sweepstakes awards, points are awarded to the school as follows:


 * Individual places: 1st—15, 2nd—12, 3rd—10, 4th—8, 5th—6, and 6th—4.
 * Team places: 1st—10 and 2nd—5.

At the state level, though no points are awarded, the third-place team is still draped with medals and a plaque just like the second and first place teams.

Individual
Note: for privacy reasons, only the winning school is shown.