WASHINGTON—Twelve-year-old Abhinav Karthikeyan has been to the National Geographic Bee twice before – but this year, he made into the elite top 10.
The sixth grader at Roberto W. Clemente Middle School in Germantown, represented Maryland at the 2013 and 2014 national bees, but fared much better against some of the brightest young minds in the country. He finished fifth.
Students gathered at the 27th annual Bee Wednesday to test their knowledge of the world – and compete for $85,000 in scholarship money.
Which meant that Karthikeyan had to tackle tough questions, like the following:
The city of Wilmington, North Carolina is located on what river? Cape Fear.
What crop is the most widely-planted field crop in the U.S.? Corn.
What is the name of Peru’s chief seaport? Callao.
What is the official religion of Bangladesh? Islam.
But a slow start meant that Karthikeyan’s score wasn’t high enough to keep him on stage after round 10 when six contestants became three. But he said he was still proud of how far he’d come, persevering through a class bee, a school bee, a Maryland state bee and then the preliminary round in Washington. The only thing he’d do differently, he said, is study more about the U.S. and its landmarks – the subject where he lost some points in the initial rounds.
“But I’m excited that I tied for fifth place in the nation” he said. “And I’m hoping I can come back next year and win it.”
Karthikeyan said that he’s loved geography for as long as he can remember, although he didn’t know it was called geography at the time. “In preschool, we made cutout maps of the continents and I [remember] wondering who lived there.”
“So I’ve always liked to study how the world works,” he said.
He credits his parents with helping him stay motivated and quizzing him often, but said that studying has simply become a normal part of his routine. “I use online resource and Wikipedia a lot,” he said.
His father, Ramasubbu Karthikeyan, works as a federal contractor with the State Department. He described the road to the finals as a long process, something they’ve been through three times now as a family. “But as long as he’s willing to do it, we’re here to support him. We’re really proud of him.”
Karan Menon, a 14-year-old eighth grader from New Jersey took first place, winning a $50,000 college scholarship, a lifetime membership to National Geographic and a trip to the Galapagos.
Fifty-four students from the domestic U.S., the Atlantic and Pacific territories and the Department of Defense competed in a preliminary round held Monday. According to National Geographic CEO Gary Knell, four million students from 11,000 schools participated in the 2015 bee at the local and state level.
The 2015 National Geographic Bee will air on the National Geographic Channel at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Friday, May 15 and on Nat Geo WILD at 7 p.m. ET/PT on Wednesday, May 20. If you’d like to test your knowledge of the world beforehand, check out National Geographic’s daily quiz online.
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