Olympiads are platforms for school-level students to compete with each other on a similar educational subject at the national and international level. Olympiad exams such as International Science Olympiad (ISO), International Maths Olympiad (IMO), English International Olympiad (EIO), etc. prepare students to take up challenges and prepare themselves mentally to grow stronger and sharpen their logical and reasoning abilities. The syllabus of the Olympiad corresponds to the school syllabus i.e. the State Board, CBSE, or ICSE from Class 1 to 10. However, platforms like these allow students to push their minds beyond the book-based concepts and learn to apply them in multiple scenarios and thus broaden their horizon and career prospects as they grow up.
articipating in Olympiad and proving your mettle with flying colors in the subject of your interests is a proud moment and gives a great sense of achievement to the students as well as their parents. It is very useful to identify the hidden talent of the child as we come to know which field or subject do they perform their best. But have we ever wondered if Olympiad exams are just about motivating the students, boosting their morale, honing their talents? Or do they help them in preparing themselves for much tougher and crucial competitive environments in life?
Before students enroll themselves, it is essential to understand the benefits of being an Olympiad participant and scoring accolades in the long run. Let us take a deeper look into this:
Learning Attitude from Early Age: Students participating in Olympiads start developing a learning attitude from the initial years. They not only acquire extra knowledge apart from their school syllabus but also different ways to analyze and understand basic concepts. This helps them to mold their mind and sharpen it to gain problem-solving skills which are extremely useful in later stages of their lives when they will encounter problems at a higher or advanced difficulty level in various competitions.
Exposure to Adaptability & Resilience: Adaptability to new situations and resilience to recover quickly from tough scenarios to bounce back to normal is a quality to start nurturing from early in life. Children can be exposed to this to a great extent when they appear for Olympiad from a young age and get acquainted with their strengths and weaknesses and learn to be adaptive and resilient according to that.
Application of Concepts: Students learn the concepts in every subject but mostly face questions that are directly related to testing their knowledge of the concept in the school or board examinations papers. However, when they attempt and appear for Olympiad, they are examined for their capability for application of these concepts in more complicated and time-bound scenarios. Students learn to apply these only when they have a clear understanding and broader comprehension.
Development of Competitive Aptitude: Olympiad as a platform gives students a chance to develop their skills and present them at the city, state, national and international level while they compete with other similar competent candidates. This helps to win accolades at various levels and scale the merit of the students on a wider scale.
Assessment Beyond Classroom: Young minds are curious and adventurous and want to try their hand at multiple things. Many a time, students may not get to explore their interests or potential to the fullest in their academic boundaries. Hence giving them a platform where all their skills and abilities can be assessed beyond the classroom is very beneficial to identify their real talent and guide them with the right direction to pursue their aspirations.
Awards and Recognition: Recognition and appreciation for efforts play an extraordinary role in every individuals’ life to boost their morale and help them perform better. Students who win at Olympiad competitions are accredited with a lot of prizes that include certificates, medals, cash rewards, and more. When they are groomed with such acceptance and recognition, they tend to develop a positive attitude towards every work they do as they grow up.
Representation of State/Country: Students participating in Olympiad exams represent either their state or country at the national or international level which gives them a proud sense of achievement and pushes them to do higher in much tougher competitive environments and builds a winning attitude.
Strong Foundation for Future Competitive Exams: Participation in International Science Olympiad (ISO), International Maths Olympiad (IMO), English International Olympiad (EIO) helps to develop the IQ, Logical and Analytical reasoning abilities from a very young age and lays the much-needed base for advanced competitive exams that are required to attempt in later stages of life to become professionals like an engineer, doctor, management professionals.
Admission to Prestigious Universities: The amount of exposure students gets at the global level after participating in Olympiads boosts their confidence and learning level to such an extent that they are well-prepared to get admission in top universities. All students who are Olympiad qualified to get preference during admission in such renowned prestigious colleges and universities.
Adaptive to Lose/Win: The biggest advantage of participating and scoring well in Olympiad competitive exams is that it teaches the children to be adaptive to both winning and losing. The students might fail several times or may not do well a certain number of times but it teaches them that failure leads to success and winning takes a lot of dedication, hard work, and effort.
In addition to all the above points, it is imperative to build the cognitive abilities of the students right from the formative years. Since students do not face such kind of exposure or competition in their primary schooling, they may not be able to excel when they are suddenly put in similar situations. Furthermore, Olympiad offers students a real-sense of a competitive environment from an early age that does their orientation for large-scale competitions not just in exams but in other phases of life, thus reducing their fear. Therefore, it would be apt to say that Olympiads act as a catalyst that helps in the metamorphosis of a young mind into a smart and intellectual adult ready to take on the world.
