Ever wondered if you’re smarter than a fifth grader? Or, ever sat for an Olympiad Exam designed for a child? How did you fare? We’re certain you didn’t score half as well as your children. After all, Olympiad Exams are designed to keep your kids sharp, proceed with logical reasoning and thinking, and not panic and rote learn at the last minute when examinations at school come knocking. And that’s only one of the few benefits of an Olympiad Exam. Another major advantage it offers students from Grades 1 to 12 is that it enables students to showcase their mental skills and capabilities at a higher, even international level. But, we’ll get to more benefits in detail in just a little bit. First, let’s understand what an Olympiad Exam is.
What Is An Olympiad Exam?
Olympiad Exams are exams or competitions held annually to help students hone their intellectual skills in a particular subject or subjects. The distinctive platform opens up several avenues for students to evaluate their talents in subjects like English, arithmetic, physics, and computer technology among others. The assessments aid students in discovering where their strengths and weaknesses lie and are further evaluated to achieve academic excellence in the subjects they choose.
Olympiad Exams are conducted at national and international levels. The Science Olympiad Foundation (SFO) conducts six exams per year. Other popular organising bodies include International Maths Olympiad (IMO), International English Olympiad (IEO), National Science Olympiad (NSO), International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA), among others. In India, some popular ones are Indian National Mathematical Olympiad (INMO), Indian Chemistry Olympiad (InChO), Indian Biology Olympiad (INBO), Indian Olympiad Qualifier (IOQ) etc.
Also Read: What Is Geo Genius Olympiad?
What Are The Benefits Of An Olympiad Exam?
- Rational Thinking
- Gets A Student’s Creative Juices Flowing
- Active Mind
- Exposure
- Analysing Strengths And Weaknesses
Olympiad exams discourage students from rote learning right before their exams and urge students to approach answers and problems with a broader view. Different perspectives, styles, and learning methods help students reach an answer in more ways than one. This improves their rational thinking abilities, and enhances their problem-solving decision making skills.
As practice sessions for Olympiads Exams encourage students to look at their subject of choice from different perspectives, it automatically enables them to develop a deeper understanding of concepts and apply their knowledge in creative ways. Not only are the skills learned helpful for application in examinations but also in real life situations and practices.
Olympiad Exams continuously help test and refresh students. They help jog a student’s memory about different concepts, patterns, mathematical problems, and so forth. When an examination rolls around, they don’t feel burdened with re-learning everything at one go or hashing over forgotten formulas and problems. They learn in small doses, practice in doses, and this helps keep their mind and learning fresh.
While comparing one child to another is never a beneficial practice, a little bit of healthy competition between students helps students earn respect for each other, handle winning and failure with grace, and also helps a student assess where he/she stands. Olympiad Exams bring together students from different learning methods, walks of life, unique perspectives and personalities, and creates a brewing ground for exchange of fresh ideas. In turn, they also learn how to improve their skill sets, manage time, and pick up neat tips and tricks from other students on how to ace their future tests.
One of the prime benefits of Olympiad Exams is the thorough and rigorous assessment of each child. It sheds light on each individual’s strengths and weaknesses. Honing a strength helps the student ease through the curriculum and strengthening a weakness helps a student excel not only academically but also in other aspects of his/her life. These competitive exams also help set a clear path for students who already have a grand vision of how they prefer to go about making career decisions and the trajectory leading to the final picture.
Also Read: SmartKid General Knowledge Olympiad
How To Prepare For An Olympiad Exam
While each child may find their groove with different routines, patterns and studying styles, here are few helpful tips to get students started on their journey to excellence:
- It’s never too early to start a good thing and in this case, the sooner the better. Do note that only studying right before an exam can lead to the best scores is a misconception. In fact, you may run out of time and stress yourself out more for it. NCERT books are a good place to start.
- Prepare a daily schedule or routine and stick to it. Ensure that you are not burdening yourself with too many study hours. Make an active effort to squeeze in time between the schedule for leisure and activities. For instance, don’t let that guitar sit idle in the corner, even practicing for 15 mins a day can help improve your skills.
- Read key ideas, concepts, and formulas repeatedly throughout the week, coming back to the same the following month. Re-reading the same things or practicing the same problems every week or repeatedly with appropriate time gaps will help improve your memory.
- Establish a healthy sleep, diet, and activity cycle. Ensure that you’re tucking in a solid eight hours of sleep every night and making time for sports or any sort of physical activity every day. If you feel like you’ve been binging or reaching out for unhealthy snacks throughout your study sessions, talk to your parents about healthier alternatives. What you eat significantly affects your mood and how you feel throughout the day.
- Set time limits for each subject. If you feel like you are lagging behind on particular subjects, increase the time for that subject.
- Familiarize yourself with the curriculum beforehand. It will go a long way into easing your preparation before starting the Olympiad. You can visit the official website for the exam for the curriculum.
Also Read: International Olympiad Of English Language (IOEL)
And there you have it. You’ve got this! The most important thing to remember is to think of the preparation and the exams as a learning curve, not a dreaded examination that’s only going to mark you up or down. These assessments are helpful tools in determining your natural thinking abilities and how you can hone them to improve academically. For more such information about evaluations, tests, and examinations that help students in all-rounded success, follow EuroSchool for more.
