2023 National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest (NPSREC)

This contest, established in 1999 by ACTR, has become a signature Russian language contest for post-secondary students around the country. ​Students taking Russian in accredited colleges and universities are invited to participate in the annual National Post-Secondary Russian Essay Contest sponsored by the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR). 
Who can register?
  • Instructors at any post-secondary institution can register students enrolled in Russian language courses. 
  • At least one instructor per participation institution must be a current ACTR member.

How much does it cost?
  • $5.00 per student.

​What are the deadlines?
  • January 15: First day to register
  • February 6: Essay topic will be announced via email to institutions with registered students. If you register students after this date, you will receive the email within one business day of registering students.
  • February 7: First day to administer the essay contest
  • February 8: First day to upload essays
  • February 20: Last day to register students
  • February 24: Last day to administer essay contest
  • February 26: Last day to upload essays and pay fees
  • April 15-20: Results posted
  • April 30: Physical certificates will be mailed to those who request it.


Quick Links
Register and Manage Submissions
Administering the Contest
Instructions for essay submissions ​
Evaluation of the Essays
Overview of Categories and Levels
 Checking Your Membership Status/Renewing Membership
Check your membership status and pay your dues.
​
Pre-registering your Institution and Students
  • (Re)-register as a contact, and then register your institution. You must re-register every year.
  • After registering as a contact, you will be given a PIN number. Write it down immediately (it won't be emailed to you) and keep this PIN number safe.
  • Use your log in information to register your institution.
  • ACTR will verify your membership status.
  • After your registration status is verified, pre-register your students.
  • Once students are registered, you can pay your registration fees or request an invoice.
  • An invoice may also be requested prior to registering students if needed for your institution.​​​
Administering the Contest:
  • ​After receiving the essay topic, log into the Essay site to download a cover sheet for each student. This cover sheet will contain the student's unique contestant ID number.
  • The essay topic and instructions will be sent via email.
  • Select a time and date for the essay contest. The contest may be administered any time after receiving the topic up to February 24th.​
  • Download and print copies of the template from the Essay site after the topic is announced, if students will be writing the essays by hand. Students may type their essays, but their unique contestant ID numbers should be written at the top of each page.
  • Instructors may use their discretion in terms of administering the essay contest for students who miss an institution's official contest date.
  • Bring black or blue pens to the contest, unless students will be typing.
  • Instruct students not to write their names or institution anywhere in the essay.
  • Read the topic and instructions to the students. 
  • Give them one hour to complete their essays.
  • Collect the essays with the student declaration/waiver. Each waiver should be the cover sheet to the essay associated with the contestant ID number. 
​Submitting the Essays
  • Essays may either be uploaded individually or in bulk.
  • The cover sheet must be in front of each essay. 
  • If uploading individual essays, create separate PDFs of each essay
  • If uploading in bulk, create PDF files of all essays in a particular category and level (e.g., A1, B3, etc.). Make sure that the cover letter is the first page of each essay.
  • Enter the Essay site.
  • Click on "Upload Essays."
  • If uploading individually, enter each student's name, category and level, and indicate whether or not the student's essay can be used for research.
  • ​If uploading in bulk, select the "bulk upload" button.​
Evaluation of the Essays
All essays will be evaluated anonymously; no essay will be identifiable by the name or institution of the student who wrote it. Judges will evaluate essays according to content (the ability to express ideas in Russian and communicate information about the topic) and length, lexicon, syntax, structure (grammatical and orthographic accuracy), and originality or creativity. The judges' results are expected by April 1st, and winners will be announced around mid-April via email. Certificates can be downloaded from the Essay site. Physical copies will be mailed to the address on file.
Student Categories and Levels
 CRITERIA FOR CATEGORIES AND LEVELS [NEWLY REVISED FOR 2022]
STUDENTS OTHER THAN HERITAGE SPEAKERS
Category A: Students who do not and did not ever speak Russian or any other Slavic language at home, in the community, or study it prior to college.
 
Category B:
Native or heritage speakers of a Slavic language other than Russian and of languages of the former Soviet Union who might have had minimal prior experience with Russian, i.e., have not regularly spoken or heard Russian and did not take Russian language classes at school, but may have been exposed to TV, internet, radio or other community-based content in Russian. 
 
Students of Russian heritage who did not grow up speaking Russian with their families, but who have been exposed to hearing Russian at home and have at least some listening comprehension skills that distinguish them from non-heritage novice L2 learners. These students can understand a variety of basic questions (about themselves, their immediate environment), but cannot maintain a conversation in Russian; their answers are limited to isolated words or phrases. They do not have any reading or writing skills before college. 

The LEVELS for Categories A and B are based on the number of contact hours of formal Russian language instruction at the time of the essay contest, including high school:
  • Level One (A1, B1): fewer than 100 contact hours of instruction in Russian
  • Level Two (A2, B2): 100-250 contact hours of instruction (2nd-year Russian)
  • Level Three (A3, B3): 250-400 contact hours of instruction (3rd-/4th-year Russian)
  • Level Four (A4, B4): more than 400 contact hours of instruction (4th-/5th-year Russian)​
HERITAGE SPEAKERS
Category C: Students with pre-college experience with Russian (heritage speakers and students from the FSU with more than minimal prior language experience)
  • Level One: Students who speak at least some Russian with their family, who have not had any formal Russian language instruction at community schools, dual immersion programs or through private tutoring before college. These students have no or minimal reading or writing skills before college and have had one semester or less of Russian instruction in college (fewer than 60 contact hours) at the time of the essay.
  • Level Two: Students who grew up speaking Russian with family and/or in the community, who have not had any formal Russian language instruction at community schools, dual immersion programs or private tutoring before college, but who learned how to read before college. Despite their reading skills, these students cannot write grammatically and at the time of the essay contest have had one semester or less of Russian instruction in college (fewer than 60 contact hours). This level also includes students described in Level One who have had two semesters of Russian language instruction (between 80 and and 120 contact hours).
  • Level Three: Students who regularly speak Russian with their families and/or in the community, who might have up to three years of formal Russian language instruction at a community school, in a dual immersion program, in Russian language classes at school in one of the post-Soviet states (excluding the Russian Federation) or through private tutoring before college. These students would typically have between 60 and 120 contact hours of Russian instruction in college. This level also includes students described in Levels One and Two who have had between three and four semesters of Russian instruction in college.
  • Level Four: Students who regularly speak Russian with their families and/or in the community, and who have had more than 3 years of formal Russian language instruction at a community school, in a dual immersion program, in Russian language classes at school in FSU (excluding the Russian Federation), or through private tutoring before college, or who have placed into an upper-level Russian language course based on their advanced reading and writing skills developed with no pre-college formal instruction. This level also includes students described in Levels One, Two and Three who have had more than 4 semesters of Russian instruction in college.
  • Level Five: Students who speak Russian with their families, and who attended a Russian language school in the Russian Federation or other post-Soviet states for up to 5 years.​
  • Level Six: Students who speak Russian with their families, and who attended a Russian language school in the Russian Federation or other post-Soviet states for more than 5 years.
2023 CONTEST FORMS
These forms will now be available for printing out through the ACTR Contest Registration system by the day the essay topic is announced.
CONTACT US
Registration inquiries:
Dr. Jennifer Bown
jennifer_bown at byu.edu

Category placement inquiries: 
Dr. Alla Smyslova
as2157 at columbia.edu

Submission inquiries:
Dr. Nina Bond
nbond at fandm.edu
Past Topics and Award Recipients

2022
2021
2020
​2019
2018
2017
​2016
​2015
​2014
​2013