As a matter of record, the Punahou People’s Republic is not an official member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

Nonetheless, the cooperative of four Punahou School seniors — Tyler Bayley, Cuyler Hirata, Elena Hoffenberg and Jeffrey Li — demonstrated a think-tank-worthy grasp of APEC-related issues as it took first place at Saturday’s 2011 Chevron Academic WorldQuest Competition at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

"We enjoyed it," Bayley said. "It was a fun experience because we enjoy the subject matter."

In topping the impressive field of 72 teams representing 24 Hawaii high schools, the PPR secured free airfare and hotel accommodations for itself and a chaperone to participate in the National Academic WorldQuest Competition in Washington, D.C., next spring.

Kealakehe’s "B" team (Aricia Argyris, Ileana Argyris, Brianna Bellatti and Anna Thomas) placed second, followed by the "Clever Cookies" of Aiea (Angela Caoili, Tiffany Lo, Karilynn Oi and Brett Tanonaka). Kealakehe and other neighbor island schools participated via Skype.

Presented by the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council, the internationally themed competition this year focused on issues relating to APEC, with teams answering questions from six categories: APEC economies, current events in APEC economies, China, security, trade and clean energy.

"Our goal is to increase interest and awareness of international issues through competition," said Natasha Schultz, PAAC’s high school program director. "We want to motivate them to get involved with topics that they might not ordinarily encounter in their classes. By participating, they are more apt to follow these issues on their own."

Judge Ray Tadaki, one of six people on the question-writing committee, said the 60 question posed to each team ranged from easy to difficult. However, it wasn’t always easy to discern which questions were the supposed gimmes.

A sampling:

» Due to Free Trade Agreements with over 40 countries, 90 percent of this APEC economy’s trade is void of trade barriers. (Mexico)

» In a significant move in support of this country’s minority Christian community, (blank) and the Vatican agreed to establish diplomatic ties in July 2011. (Vietnam)

» In 2009, (blank) surpassed the U.S. as the No. 1 nation for installed clean energy capacity. (China)

» The CTI works to reduce impediments to business activity in the areas outlined by the (blank). (Osaka Action Agenda)

» Looking to the future, the world’s population is expected to reach 9.1 billion by 2050, and food production will have to increase by (blank) to feed them. (70 percent)

On the Punahou team, all but Li had participated in the competition before.

"We divided the topics evenly and according to our areas of expertise," Hoffenberg said. "We purposefully overlapped each economy we studied so that each of us studied 10 of the 21 countries."

Bayley said that while the team closely studied the briefs and study guides provided in advance, much of their shared ability to respond to unexpected questions came from prior knowledge and exposure to topic areas.

"It was a lot of information," he said. "When we weren’t sure, we talked it over and used our prior knowledge to narrow the possibilities."

The team from Campbell High School staged mock competition to prepare for their big day.

"We studied a lot but it was still difficult to know what the questions might include," said team member Kayla Smallwood. "But it was fun being on a team and competing agains all these other schools."

Teams relied of a wide variety of strategies to gain an advantage over the field.

The unflappable Clever Cookies, who laughed and joked their way to a third-place finish, tapped on symbols drawn on scratch paper (an apple for "A," bee for "B," cat for "C," and dog for "D") to save time and keep their answers secret from other teams.

"This was awesome because it was the third time we’ve competed and we’ve done better every time," said adviser Sean Uwaine.

Le Jardin was a late addition to the field but still reaped the rewards of competition despite not placing in the top three.

"We were originally just going to come and watch but the kids stepped up and decided to participate," said Vice Principal Julie Do. "We wanted to motivate the students to study these issues then come and experience the event with other students and have some fun, so in that sense it was ‘mission accomplished.’"