Competitions
A dedicated area for NPFC, NEC and the Stock Market Game, each built around its real format.
What it is
The National Personal Finance Challenge, the National Economics Challenge and the Stock Market Game each have their own area here, and they are not the same shape as each other, because the competitions are not the same shape as each other. DECA and FBLA are bigger and have areas of their own beside this one. A fourth area here, Investing, is not a competition at all: it is the portfolio material any of them can draw on.
The Personal Finance Challenge and the Economics Challenge are exam and case events, so their areas lead with practice tests, flashcard decks, study guides, competition tips, and full mock challenges. The Stock Market Game is a portfolio event, so its area leads with lessons, trading simulations, research activities, and a mock competition, and the Investing area beside it carries portfolio construction, case studies, and timed rounds.
Progress is tracked per competition, so you can see at a glance which one is actually ready and which one you have been avoiding. That matters most in the weeks before a qualifier, when the honest answer is often not the one you assumed.
What is inside
National Personal Finance Challenge
Practice tests, core vocabulary and credit decks, budgeting and investing guides, the case round playbook, and full mock challenges in the qualifier's format.
National Economics Challenge
Micro and macro practice tests, concept and indicator decks, study guides, buzzer strategy for the final round, and a mock competition round.
Stock Market Game
Lessons on how orders work and reading a chart, trading simulations, market mechanics quizzes, research and asset allocation activities, and an SMG mock competition.
Investing
A lesson on building a portfolio for a client, a case study of the 2008 crisis, an asset allocation activity, an investing fundamentals test, and timed portfolio rounds against the clock. Built around no competition in particular.
How to use it
The order that gets the most out of this area.
Pick the competition you are actually entering
You can work all of them, but depth in one event beats a little of everything. Choose, then commit the season to it.
Take a practice test first
Where an area has one, start there. Knowing where you stand turns the rest of the season into a plan rather than a guess.
Work the decks between sessions
Recall is the cheap part to train and the expensive part to lack. Cards are built for the ten minutes you would otherwise spend scrolling.
Finish every stretch with a mock
Timed, scored, in format. It is the only honest measure of whether the studying moved anything.
The rest of the Academy
- ClassesMultiple-choice papers and free-response sets for AP Micro, AP Macro, and Business, unit by unit.
- Study TopicsTen kinds of material per topic: cards, quizzes, guides, formulas, mocks.
- DECAEvery event in all six clusters, broken down indicator by indicator.
- FBLAAll twelve FBLA role play events, studied concept by concept, then practiced out loud with an AI judge.
- Portfolio SimulatorTrade real market history across four levels, from monthly to daily.
- Data AnalyticsRead charts, data, and news like an analyst, then take a position.
- Progress and pointsPick up where you left off, see progress in every area, and track your points.
Competition practice opens with membership
A free account opens the study samplers, the first AP practice papers and the simulator's orientation run, so you can look around first. One membership opens every area of the Academy, not just this one. Join through your chapter or sign up on your own.
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