Frequently Asked Questions

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The competition has five age divisions.

• Middle Primary (Grades 4 and 5)
• Upper Primary (Grades 6 and 7)
• Junior Secondary (Grades 8 and 9)
• Senior Secondary (Grades 10 - 12)
• Undergraduate (First 3 years of post-secondary study)

Notably you are considered to be in grade (n + 1) if you will have completed grade n by the final round of the competition. This rule becomes relevant for countries whose school system runs on a northern (September to May) school calendar. The learners should write in the age division coreesponding to the grade they'll be in September. It also applies to learners taking a gap year. For example, a student taking a gap year between school and university would need to enter the undergraduate competition and would not be eligible for the senior secondary division.

There is no entry fee to the competition. You are welcome to entire your entire school for free should you wish to.

You do not need to register your individual learners. Submit the learner's answer sheet with the full name and division before the end of the qualifying round.

Yes, provided they are not at a school or university which has already registered. They should write with the school / university if possible. You will not be eligible for school prizes, but in exceptional cases we may award special prizes for particularly well performing groups (this is at the organisers discretion).

Participants are ranked. The ranks of the top 5 learners per school per division are summed and the winning school is the school with the lowest total summed rank. Unfortunately, this makes schools that enter four or less competitors in a single division ineligible for individual prizes.

Students write the qualifying round at school and the organising teacher submits a scanned copy of their answer sheets.

Learners / Students who are competing don't register with us. They register with the local organiser at their school / university.

Yes. The best option is to have your teacher register your school (and we strongly encourage you to encourage them to register). If they refuse, you can have your parent / guardian register you as a home-school and compete like this (actual home-schools may of course enter similarly).

It should be stressed that if your school is registered, you should write with the school.

While this is generally discouraged, it is permitted at the local organisers' discretion. A useful benchmark in such situations is to see how you do on the past papers.