Olympiads: Tips to prepare for Olympiad Exams

Students always benefit under proper guidance and effective learning. The exams then prove to be opportunities for the students to showcase their hard work, skill and learning. The Olympiads are subject-focused exams that help student test their understanding, helps them gain exposure, build their confidence, receive valuable feedback for their work and much more. The Indian Talent Olympiad is one of the Nation’s best organizers of Olympiad with eight subjects to offer:   

• International Science Olympiad (ISO)
• International Maths Olympiad (IMO)
• English International Olympiad (EIO)
• General Knowledge International Olympiad (GKIO)
• International Computer Olympiad (ICO)
• International Drawing Olympiad (IDO) 
• National Essay Olympiad (NESO)
• National Social Studies Olympiad (NSSO)

The exam is open to all students of classes one to ten, irrespective of their educational boards, one can choose to appear for one subjects or more based on their preference. The questions are prepared in an MCQ format to keeping the student's benefit in mind. The answers to the papers are published post-exam. The tests ready a student for future competition in any field of their interest. The results published post-exams provide quality feedback on the answers given in the test, aiding the students to improve upon their performance. The preset criteria for these exams help them to be conducted fairly. Further information associated with the exams can be found on the official website of the Indian talent Olympiad.

 Here are a few tips that can be used to enhance one’s performance in Olympiad exams:

• Choose your subject/s with care: One’s interest in a subject can be a huge driving force for them to put in effort willingly. Hence one should be mindful of the subject they want to take up the Olympiad for. It makes things much simpler and helps the student persist better.
• Make a schedule: Working with a suitable schedule helps students to keep a track of the time they invest in preparation, revision, academic studies and other activities, this prevents them from overworking and being overwhelmed, so work should be divided into slots with reasonable gaps in between to keep things effective and helpful.
• Know the syllabus: The syllabus of Olympiad exams conducted by ITO often correspond to the student's academic level and syllabus, but one should have a thorough knowledge of the syllabus they are supposed to work with and the associated topics to get an idea of the topic related question they might have to face. The syllabus of all subjects can be found on the official website, to benefit the participating students.
• Work from the beginning: Working on something from the start helps to keep pace with the progress and prevents last-minute panic. Providing one time for revision and improvement. Hence students are highly encouraged to start preparing early for the exams. The schedule for the Olympiads is published on the official website so students can gather the required information from there and strategize their learning methods accordingly.  
• Practice: Practice is the initial step to perfection. Regular practice, within fixed hours, can greatly benefit students, by helping them form a schedule, allotting a fixed time, to the activity and keep themselves in practice, also allows one to keep in touch with the course material besides helping one improve upon time management.
• Know the question paper pattern: A proper knowledge of marks distribution and question pattern can help one plan better and maintain time, the question paper pattern to an exam can be availed on the official website as well so that students can make full use of these resources.
• Solve previous years' question papers: Solving older question papers, helps students familiarize themselves with the probable variety of questions, one can use these to practice regularly and get a hold of possible question types, the more the variety of questions one is exposed to the more are the chances of facing familiar questions.
• Focus and understanding: Olympiads tests one's knowledge of a subject, their logical reasoning, understanding of the basics and practical approach to a given situation, hence to tackle the questions well, one needs to solve various papers, find out their probable weaknesses and dedicate some time upon focusing to improve on it.
• Understanding and relaxing: Exam pressure can be overwhelming, so it is often advised that one take a break between two continuous stretches of study time, it helps one's mind to retain information better. An individual can then indulge in relaxing for a short period before continuing to study. Trying to understand a subject in-depth from simple interactive resources, with probable examples, also helps retain subject matter.
• Solve from workbooks: ITO provides all participating students with an option to avail themselves a variety of structured and curated resources, like a workbook, paper compilation and others, These contain questions with the basics of relevant and important topics with associated contexts mentioned, to help students prepare for Olympiad exams, these are best for keeping up with regular practice, and gaining exposure to a variety of question styles.
• Make quick/ flash notes: Flash notes often help students retain information better and are good for recapitulation. The process of making these notes also bring out the points of importance of a given topic, and reading along with writing, aids long term retention of information. These thus help in the quick revision of important topics.
• Revision: Frequent revisions help one to better their understanding of the subject and retain information helping them keep in touch with associated topics. One is always advised to start early so that they can revise the entire syllabus, which helps one to gain a better grasp on the topics and boost their confidence.
• Time management: It is a very important skill to have for not only is it a challenge students face during an exam due to the ticking of the clock but it also creates pressure upon the student. A set of correctly solved questions in the given time is what leads to a better score, so one can keep a track of the time they spend upon similar questions and plan to solve the paper accordingly.

With these tricks upon one’s sleeves and a mindful plan of action can greatly improve one’s performance taking a step closer to what they want to achieve. The registrations to the exams are now open , we eagerly await you participation. All the very best!