A bright young mind has won an international quizzing competition, and now he wants to start a club in Lane Cove so other kids can join in on his interest.
Many are familiar with the concept of a spelling bee, but have you ever heard of a science bee, or a geography bee, for that matter? Well, 10-year-old Adyant Ashok won the 2024-25 Asian final championship in Singapore for both.
The events are created by International Academic Competitions (IAC), an organisation dedicated to hosting quiz-based competitions for students around the world. The tournaments focus on history, geography, science, and other academic disciplines while reaching students across over 50 countries each school year.
The ‘bees’ generally have preliminary competitions over Zoom; the finalists from this will then travel to a live competition of the event in a selected country, where another set of preliminary rounds is completed. The top four or five winners of each category will then advance to the main event, where a buzzer-based questionnaire competition will determine the winner, with the first to reach 30 points taking home the prize.
The little Lane Cove local surprised even himself with his success in June this year – placing 3rd in Science and 7th in Geography last year – but humbly dedicates his win to hard work.
“It provided me with some sort of happiness after winning, and last year I didn’t do as well. So it’s good that I’m improving,” Adyant told ITC, sitting beside multiple medals, plaques and certificates for his various academic achievements.
The organisation IAC provides a website with past question papers. So I read that, and then anything I don’t know, I search up on Google or Wikipedia or anything like that, and then find out about it, which will help me later.”
In the future, Adyant says he will pursue his passion for nature, science and geography by studying a zoology degree. This love of education began when he and his family originally lived in Dubai. But his love for diverse plant and animal species evolved once they moved to Lane Cove four years ago.
“I used to live in Dubai. And then there used to be a lake nearby with lots of ducks and birds, and I pointed and looked at the bird species, and then I got books and found out where they live… and also living in Lane Cove, the same sort of feeling. You have lots of different birds, especially coming to a new place, you learn new things. And I felt my passion for learning geography and science, that’s where it really began.”
Join The Quiz Club
But what’s a passion if you can’t share it? The ambitious Redlands School student and his mother, Abinaya, are keen to find like-minded whiz-kids who would be interested in joining a quizzing club.
The idea is to host a monthly meet-up where local students and parents can share knowledge, develop social skills, enhance their research abilities, and, most importantly, have fun, thereby fostering a trivia and quizzing culture in Sydney.
“Quizzing is not something that’s very common in Australia, I noticed, and I think it’s a good hobby. I guess I want more people to do it as it’s it gives me lots of joy. It’s quite fun for me. So I believe other people will find that same fun,” Adyant shared.
Adyant On Track
Studying for kids can be challenging at the best of times, but not having a syllabus can make it even more difficult. This is the process for the IAC bees.
“The organisers stopped publishing the question papers, so it’s much more the past ones. So he uses that as a frame, and he starts to google it, and then primarily it’s freestyle because, there’s no syllabus,” Abinaya shared.
Adyant does his own research, but implements an innovative way of studying, such as the popular online program ‘Geo Guesser‘ – a game where you are placed in a random, street-view location on Earth and have to guess your location – to tactically learn new things the fun way. He also enjoys hiking in the Lane Cove bushland to spot unique flora and fauna in the area.
Following his win, the wunderkind qualified for the international finals next year in Thailand, which will feature the winners from the Asian, US and European IAC quizzes. This is a competition that only happens once every two years.
In the meantime, Adyant says he will bask in his win before hitting the books, but will hopefully have plenty of practice quizzing before then, if like-minded people join his quizzing crusade.
If you’re interested in your kid joining a quiz club, send ITC an email and we’ll put you in contact with Abinaya.
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