When forming your team(s), it is recommended that you have more than the minimum number of team members (four plus an alternate = five) playing under one pass code. The reason? If you have only four or five team members assigned to one pass code and two team members do not qualify to advance further in the competition, it will disqualify the rest of the team members who passed the quizzes because now there are not enough members to make up the team. Here are some suggestions:
- Assign the whole class one pass code and then you will be notified of your top five scorers who will then make up the team. If you have a tie among students who qualify to make up the team, you can choose your best student(s), or hold a tie breaker competition within the classroom to determine who will be on the team.
- Divide the class into two teams or more making sure you have more than five on a team to compensate for team members who do not qualify to advance to the next level(s) of competition. Students cannot switch teams once they have entered the competition under one pass code.
Make sure you encourage the team to review available resources listed on the Attorney General's web site and the LifeSmarts web site. These are excellent sites in which to learn key concepts and consumer issues which will be included in the quizzes.
Make sure students practice, practice, practice on the practice quiz site BEFORE entering the official competition. Once the student signs on to start the competition, he/she cannot go back and take the official competition questions again if he/she does not do well in the first round.
Encourage students to review questions in the practice quizzes they are missing so that they may research more about the issues before entering the official competition. This is the way they will learn.
Check LifeSmarts 
for available teacher/coach consumer education resources you may use in your classroom. Many are free of charge.
See our tips for students, too!