Quest, the annual academic competition for high schoolers, kicked off Saturday. Dena Anson, the coordinator for the past 10 years, said that they have all-new questions this year.

“They are much better and more contemporary,” said Anson. “There’s even a question on 50 Cent.”

Saturday, 500 high school students from across Kansas split up in to 92 teams of no more than six students each. Individual students on each team volunteer to be tested and the scores of those tests determine which 16 teams will come back to compete against each other in January. The matches will be shown on KTWU. They will also be shown in Wichita, where several of the schools are from.

Quest was first held to help promote Washburn University to high school students beyond athletics.

“It brings excellent exposure to Washburn,” said Anson.

This will be the 24th year Washburn has hosted Quest, which was formerly called HighQ.

“Schools are coming from farther away this year. That was pretty exciting,” said Anson.

Luke Doyle, a senior from Hayden High School, is competing for the second year.

“I’m excited to see how we stack up against other high schools,” said Doyle.