What olympiads look like in Class 10
Class 10 is board exam year, and that single fact shapes every olympiad decision a family makes. The question is rarely “which olympiads?” and more often “how much, and when, without hurting the boards?”
School olympiads in Class 10 follow the Class 10 syllabus closely: real numbers, polynomials, quadratic equations, trigonometry, circles and statistics in maths; chemical reactions, electric current, light, life processes and heredity in science. They are mostly multiple choice and written in school, with harder questions that combine chapters. Because the content overlaps so much with board preparation, a school olympiad can work as a useful early check on how well the year’s chapters have settled.
The national olympiad pathway is a different matter. The maths pathway remains open, and junior science papers are usually open up to around Class 10, so for many students this is the last chance at that level. Pathway papers go well beyond the board syllabus and need sustained preparation of their own. The olympiads hub has eligibility and stages for each.
The overlap in timing is the main difficulty. Pathway first stages and most school olympiads fall in the second half of the year, the same months as many schools’ pre-board exams. Planning that clash in advance is the most useful thing a Class 10 family can do.
How much to prepare
For school olympiads, very little extra time is needed: an hour or two a week of timed olympiad practice on top of steady board preparation, for six to eight weeks, is usually enough.
For a student continuing on the pathway, four to six hours a week is common from the start of the session until the first-stage exam, tapering sharply afterwards so that board preparation takes over. A student who has not started the pathway before Class 10 should think carefully about whether this is the year to begin.
A simple plan
A year plan that keeps the boards first:
- April to June: cover new board chapters as the school teaches them. If on the pathway, work through problems three or four times a week.
- July to August: pathway students do timed past papers of the first stage. Everyone else keeps board chapters current.
- The weeks before each olympiad: one or two timed sample papers from the organiser, reviewed carefully. No more.
- After the pathway first stage: move almost all study time to board preparation, unless the student progresses to the next stage.
- Pre-board season: olympiads pause. If a school olympiad falls here, treat it as a mock, not a target.
- January to March: boards only.
What helps, and what doesn’t
What helps:
- Choosing early, together. Decide in April which olympiads, if any, are worth the time this year. Write the decision down and stick to it.
- Using overlap on purpose. Olympiad practice on board chapters is board practice, just harder. Choose school olympiads in subjects your child is already revising.
- Keeping a routine through stress. Regular sleep, meals and some exercise do more for exam performance than late-night sessions.
- Talking about the boards and olympiads honestly. Many Class 10 students feel they must do everything. Hearing that it is fine to drop something helps.
What doesn’t:
- Starting a new pathway subject in Class 10 without real interest. The time is better spent on the boards.
- Treating every olympiad result as a forecast of board marks. They measure different things.
- Coaching on top of coaching. If your child already attends classes for the boards, adding olympiad coaching rarely helps and often exhausts.
- Last-minute cramming before an olympiad. It eats into board revision and rarely moves the score much.
The olympiad prep guide has a section on sleep and stress, and the calendar helps you see where olympiads usually fall against pre-boards.
Where daily practice fits
In a board exam year, a short daily quiz can keep subjects outside the main revision plan from slipping, without asking for much time. Ado’s free daily quiz is 8 questions, including a 60-second sprint, across maths, science, English, GK, reasoning, social studies and current affairs, and each Class 10 student is ranked only against students the same age. There are no ads and no chat, and it supports a routine rather than standing in for board or olympiad preparation.