RESULTS FOR THE 2022 CONTEST ARE NOW AVAILABLE ON THE CONTEST REGISTRATION SYSTEM.

A HUGE thank-you goes to this year's heroic judges, who, despite having fled Russia shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, stepped in on short notice to read and rank all 973. We also thank instructors and participants for their involvement this year in the contest and patience as we rolled out a new registration system!

2022 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 10: Registration opens
  • January 31: Last day for registering a contact person for an institution
  • February 5: 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 24 hours of registration.
  • February 8: Link to upload essays individually will open
  • February 20: Last day for institutions to register students and ACTR will verify institutional membership. The link to register individual students is NOW LIVE. Log into the ACTR Registration site and you will a link to register essayists.
  • February 24: Last day for essay submissions
  • February 25: Essay registration fees due
  • April 15: Results posted.


Quick Links
Registration for a PIN number and a new contact person for an institution
Registration for an institution to participate in the Essay Contest and to register individual students
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
  • Register as a contact, and then register your institution.
  • After registering your institution, you will be given a PIN number. Write it down immediately (it won't be emailed to you) and keep this PIN number safe.
  • 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.​​​
Administering the Contest:
  • ​After receiving the essay topic, log into the Registration site to download a waiver/declaration for each student from the registration website. This waiver will contain the student's unique contestant ID number.
  • You will receive the essay topic and student instructions by email on February 7th.
  • 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 Registration 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, especially due to covid.
  • 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
  • Create individual PDFs of each student's signed waiver and essay. 
  • The waiver should be the first page. It will be automatically removed before being sent to the judges.
  • Name the file in any way that will be meaningful to you.
  • Enter the registration system.
  • Click on "Upload Essays."
  • For each student, enter the student's name, category and level, and indicate whether or not the student's essay can be used for research.
  • ​Upload each student's essay.​
  • Alternatively, you may combine all the essays in one category/level into a single file. Make sure that the cover sheet is the front page of each essay.
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. Three judges in Moscow 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 in the ACTR Newsletter and on ACTR website. Gold, silver, bronze, and honorable mention certificates will be awarded for the best essays at each Category and Level.
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.
2022 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@byu.edu

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

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

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