In the US state of Texas Science is one of several academic events sanctioned by the University Interscholastic League.
It is also a competition held by the Texas Math and Science Coaches Association, using the same rules as the UIL.
For competition purposes, Grades 6, 7 and 8 compete in separate divisions with the same test, while Grades 9-12 compete together, with separate subjects covered on each test as follows: Each school may send up to four students for each junior high division.
At the high school level, the test consists of 60 questions, which must be completed in two hours.
No time warning is given, except that tests cannot be turned in until the proctor announces that 30 minutes have passed.
The test booklet includes a periodic table of the elements, including atomic weights and atomic numbers, plus other scientific relationships, such as the vacuum speed of light or the gravitational constant, which may be used by the student.
Scratch paper is allowed in the contest, and notations may be made anywhere except on the answer sheet.
For individual competition (overall and for each subsection), the tiebreaker is percent accuracy (number of problems answered correctly divided by number of problems attempted, defined as any question with a mark or erasure in the answer blank).
For district meet academic championship and district meet sweepstakes awards, points are awarded to the school as follows: The student with the most wins in the history of the competition is Kieran Fitzgerald from Friendswood High School, who achieved the highest score in any division three years in a row: 2003-2004, 2004-2005, and 2005-2006.
[1] [2] NOTE: UIL did not recognize a team championship in this event until the 1990-91 scholastic year.