Akshay Rajagopal Wins Geography Bee with Perfect Score

by Ground Report    May 22, 2008

Akshay Rajagopal, an 11-year-old boy from Lincoln, Nebraska, won the National Geographic Bee today.  The victory landed him a $25,000 college scholarship and a place in the international competition.

In the context, Akshay Rajagopal had a perfect score--only the second in the history of the competition.  Nebraskans and Indians alike are celebrating, with the Hindustan Times reporting "Indian American boy wins National Geographic Contest".

Alex Trebek of the popular game show Jeopardy hosted the event.  Akshay Rajagopal won on the following question about Bolivia, as reported by VOA:

Trebek: "Cochabamba is the third-largest conervation [aggregation of urban communities] in what country?" "Hunter, you wrote down 'Honduras?'

Akshay answered "Bolivia."

Trebek: "Cochabamba is the third-largest conervation in the country of -  Bolivia! That means that Akshay [Rajagopal] is our champion! For the second, second year in a row, ladies and gentlemen, the National Geographic Bee champion is a student who has not missed one question. [He] Didn't miss one in the preliminary rounds yesterday. [He] Did not miss one today. Akshay, way to go!"

When asked how he prepared for the win--which was weeks in the making following various other competition levels-- Akshay Rajagopal said that he watched DVDs and read Grollier's Lands and People.

The official National Geographic Bee press release on Akshay's win is available here.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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