The 10 finalists for Thursday’s National Geographic Bee.

D.C.’s Matthew Wilson put up a fierce fight, but only managed four correct answers of nine questions in a preliminary round during today’s National Geographic Bee. He may have been fallen to the geography gods, but Maryland’s Adam Rusak didn’t.

After a tie-breaking round that saw 12 competitors fight for six spots in Thursday’s Alex Trebek-hosted finale, Rusak, a 13-year-old from Lakelands Park Middle School in Gaithersburg, made the final cut of 10. He’ll be joined by representatives from New Hampshire, Louisiana, Massachusetts, California, Utah, Arizona, Wisconsin, Texas, and Minnesota.

If you’ve got some free time and want to see if you could hang with the fifth- to eighth-graders that qualified for the National Geographic Bee, have a try with the following questions, all of which were in the preliminary rounds. Don’t use Google, because that would just be lame.

UPDATE, 2:30 p.m.: The answers are posted below the picture after the questions. No peeking!

1. In March 2012, renegade soldiers declared a political alert after storming the presidential palace in the city of Bamako in which African country?

2. Visitors to Chowpatty Beach can ride a human-powered Ferris wheel in the largest city in Maharashtra state. Name this city.

3. Which feature would more likely be found covering a large expanse of desert—erg or ventifact?

4. Bark painting is an important art form for the indigenous population of Arnhem Land, a peninsula bordering that Arafura Sea in what country?

5. Europa Island, which lies in the Mozambique Channel, has been a possession of France since 1897 but is also claimed by which African country?

6. Tonle Sap is to Cambodia as Lake Bangweulu is to what?

7. The Nangnim Mountains stretch north-to-south in the central part of which East Asian country?

The 2010 National Geographic Bee. Photo by Jeff Martin

1. Mali
2. Mumbai
3. Erg
4. Australia
5. Madagascar
6. Zambia
7. North Korea