Olympiads or Olympiad exams are competitive exams at the school level that are held at the national and international levels. Olympiads are held at the national level to identify the talented students having an aptitude for conceptual thinking and logical reasoning. The selected students then get a chance to represent India at the international level across different subject fields. Olympiads are therefore considered prestigious competitive exams and are quite popular among students and their parents.
Olympiad exams are considered to be quite competitive and toughest and give students a platform to compare themselves with their peers across the national and international level. Since there are different Olympiads for different subject fields, the participating students get a chance to have deep insights into these subjects and make informed career decisions later on. Olympiads also help students develop better logical and reasoning skills, leading to overall development. Some of the prominent Olympiads that take place at the national level are:
An Olympiad exam has basically four stages. In stage I, National Standard Exam in the relevant subject fields like Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy etc. A student must enroll for NSE to appear in any of these Olympiads. There are different NSEs like NSEP for Physics, NSEC for Chemistry, NSEA for Astronomy, NSEB for Biology and so on. Only students who successfully clear the stage I NSE in the relevant subjects can appear for stage II exams which are national level Olympiad exams mentioned above. The stage II exam is conducted by Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE).
Students who successfully clear the stage II exam are then invited for orientation cum selection camps at the HCSBE. These camps are usually 2-4 weeks long depending upon the subject and aim at providing learning about basic concepts of the chosen subject field. The selected students are also made to go through various experimental and observational tests in the respective subjects. There are also valedictory speeches by eminent scientists and reputed academicians at the end of the camp and on the basis of their overall performance, a limited number of students are chosen to proceed to stage IV. These students are given prizes which comprise of both books and cash and are referred to as Special Merit Awardees. Stage IV is a rigorous training period for these students before the final showdown at the international level. The training period involves both theory and experimentation. The final numbers of Special Merit Awardees chosen for different Science Olympiads are:
Astronomy- 5
Biology- 4
Chemistry- 4
Physics- 5
Junior Science- 6
Mathematics- 6
In the case of Informatics Olympiad, the stage I exam is Zonal Informatics Olympiad or Zonal Computing Olympiad. Students are required to clear the stage I in order to appear in stage II exam which is Indian National Olympiad in Informatics or INOI. In stage III, on the basis of performance in the INOI exam, students are selected for a training camp which is organized by Indian Association For research In Computer Science or IARCS. At the end of the training period, a total of 4 students are selected to represent India at International Olympiad in Informatics.
All students from class I-XII are eligible to participate in the Olympiads. Olympiad exams are offline exams having duration of 1 hour and comprising of 35 multiple choice questions. All correct answers are awarded 1-2 marks depending upon the section and there is no negative marking.