A 12-week olympiad prep plan for Classes 3 to 8

Twelve weeks is a comfortable runway for a school olympiad. It is long enough to cover the syllabus without rushing, and short enough that a child can see the finish line. This plan is written for Classes 3 to 8 and for the common school olympiads, such as those run by SOF, Silverzone and Unified Council. It assumes about 15 to 25 minutes on weekdays and one longer session at the weekend.

It is a template, not a timetable to follow to the minute. Adjust it to your child, your school calendar and the olympiad you have chosen.

Before week 1: four things to set up

1. Fix the exam date. For SOF and most school olympiads, the school picks one of the organiser’s dates. Ask the school which one, then count back twelve weeks.
2. Get the official syllabus and sample papers. Each organiser publishes a class-wise syllabus and sample papers on its website. Start there before buying anything else.
3. Know the format. SOF’s first-level papers, for example, are 60 minutes long, with 35 questions for Classes 3 and 4 and 50 questions for Classes 5 and above. The maths paper has four sections: logical reasoning, mathematical reasoning, everyday mathematics and an “achievers” section of harder questions. Other organisers’ formats differ, so check yours.
4. Start an error log. A plain notebook with three columns: the question (or its topic), what went wrong, and what to do next time. This one habit does more than any book.

Keep the number of olympiads small. Two at most for this plan; one is easier to do well.

The plan at a glance

Weeks 1 to 4: build the foundation

Week 1. Read through the syllabus with your child and mark topics as “done in school”, “partly done” and “new”. At the weekend, attempt one sample paper without a timer. Don’t worry about the score. The point is to see which sections feel easy and which feel strange.

Weeks 2 to 4. Work through the “partly done” and “new” topics one or two at a time. Each weekday session can follow the same shape:

• two minutes recalling what was covered last time,
• ten to fifteen minutes on the topic,
• a few logical reasoning questions to finish.

Reasoning sections appear in almost every olympiad paper and are often unfamiliar at first. Typical question types include patterns and series, analogies, odd one out, coding and decoding, direction sense and mirror images. They improve quickly with regular, small doses. Our reasoning prep guide has more.

At the weekend, go back through the week’s entries in the error log and redo two or three of those questions without looking at the answer.

Weeks 5 to 8: mix it up and stretch

Now switch from one topic at a time to mixed sets: a few questions from this week, a few from earlier topics. Mixed practice feels harder, but it trains the skill exams actually test, which is recognising what a question is asking. Our guide on how much daily practice is enough explains why.

Add one harder question each day, from the achievers section or its equivalent. Let your child struggle with it for a few minutes before helping. If it is still out of reach, work through the solution together and add it to the error log.

At the weekend, do half a sample paper with a timer. Afterwards, sort the mistakes into three kinds:

• Didn’t know: a gap to teach.
• Misread: a habit to fix, such as underlining what the question asks.
• Ran out of time: a pacing issue for the next phase.

Weeks 9 to 11: full papers and timing

Once a week, do a full sample or past paper under exam conditions: the right length, a quiet table, no help. Then spend at least as long reviewing it as taking it. The review is where most of the learning happens.

On weekdays, keep sessions short and aim them at whatever the last full paper revealed. Some pacing habits to practise:

• One pass, then back. Answer everything you can on the first pass, mark the rest, and return to them.
• Don’t get stuck. If a question has taken twice as long as it should, move on.
• Check the marking scheme. Find out from the organiser whether wrong answers lose marks. If they don’t, no question should be left blank.
• Practise the answer sheet. If the paper uses an OMR sheet, fill one in during a practice paper so it isn’t new on the day.

Week 12: taper

The last week is for confidence, not cramming. Read through the error log, redo a handful of old mistakes, and stop early. The night before, pack what is needed and get a full night’s sleep. On the day, a normal breakfast and a calm drop-off matter more than one last look at the notes.

Adjusting by class

Classes 3 and 4

Keep weekday sessions to 15 minutes or so and sit with your child, at least at first. Read longer questions aloud if reading speed is slowing things down; olympiads test reasoning, not just reading. Make the error log a drawing or a sticker chart if that helps.

Classes 5 and 6

Papers get longer, so pacing becomes a real skill. From week 9, practise working through the full number of questions in the time allowed. Your child can start keeping the error log independently, with you checking it at the weekend.

Classes 7 and 8

Your child can run most of the plan alone, with you as a weekly check-in. A student who enjoys the harder questions can look at past IOQM papers on the HBCSE site for interest; Class 8 is the first year IOQM is open, as our guide to the road to the IMO explains.

Adjusting by subject

• Science: SOF’s science paper for these classes has sections on logical reasoning, science and an achievers section. Diagrams, experiments and everyday applications come up often. See our science prep guide.
• English: SOF’s English paper covers word and structure knowledge, reading, spoken and written expression and an achievers section. Daily reading of anything your child enjoys helps as much as worksheets. See our English prep guide.
• Maths: see our maths prep guide and the SOF IMO page.

If there is a second level

SOF’s second level for maths, science and English, open to qualifiers from Classes 3 to 12, is usually held in February. If your child qualifies, repeat the shape of weeks 5 to 11 in a shorter form, with more of the harder questions.

Where Ado fits

If your child already does Ado’s 8-question daily quiz, it can serve as a short warm-up on most days, alongside up to 30 practice questions. It is general daily practice in maths, science, English, GK and reasoning, not a substitute for the olympiad’s own syllabus and sample papers.

One last thing

Whatever the result, look at it with your child for what it teaches. The error log from these twelve weeks is a record of real progress, and it is often more encouraging than the rank.