On March 6, approximately 30 Edina High School AP Economics students participated in the first round of the 2025 National Economics Challenge. The National Economics Challenge is hosted by the Council for Economic Education and consists of four rounds: Qualifiers, State, Regionals, and Nationals.
The qualifying round is open to all AP Economics students at EHS, and the test consists of 30 multiple-choice questions. Only the four highest scorers advance to the next round.
AP Economics teacher Amy Kampf has been part of the challenge at Edina for 15 years, and she said that student interest in participating has always been strong. “We have a student population who’ve been very enthusiastic and interested [in competing],” Kampf said.
EHS has performed well both nationally and locally over the years. “We have made it to state every year we’ve participated, and I feel very confident that we’re going to get to state again,” she said. However, the local competition is very strong. “Mounds View is historically a powerhouse team, and so it’s often a fight to the finish between us and Mounds View. I think we’ve beaten them once [at State] since I’ve been [at Edina].”
Junior Eric Zhao competed in the National Economics Challenge for the first time this year. “I decided to participate because I thought it would be good practice for AP testing, and also some of my friends were planning on doing it as well,” Zhao said.
The test covers both AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics, and overall, it was a good experience for Zhao. “I thought that [the test] really illuminated my weaknesses and the areas where I lacked knowledge [in economics]. I thought that it was really helpful for the future,” he said. “[The test] is a really interesting experience; if someone hasn’t done a competition before, there’s a whole different mentality to it that you can’t really replicate with just being in class and taking tests.”

This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on March 27, 2025