Olympiads are a kind of competitive exam, held across schools, to tap exceptional students with the best of potential, talent, aptitude, and IQ.

Olympiad exams are a gateway to let a student learn their educational strengths. These exams enhance the student’s learning capacity, logical reasoning, and scientific ability. During these exams, the subjects covered are- science, maths, computers, or any other languages such as English or Hindi. Based on the national or international level, they can observe and work upon their significant weaknesses, which boost up their strengths. It boosts their confidence to improve themselves academically.

 Olympiad Meaning

The literal meaning of Olympiad from dictionary is “an occasion when the ancient or modern Olympic Games were or are held.”

In the context of Olympiad Exams, Olympiad exams or Olympiads are the means for students to compete with other students on a similar educational level. Such exams promote the learning of skills in subjects like mathematics, science, computer technology or English language among students.

 The Original ‘International Science Olympiad’

The earliest of Olympiads we know about are a group of competitions collectively known as the International Science Olympiads. To be selected to compete in the International Science Olympiad, a student must first qualify in the National Science Olympiad, which is held across all schools in a country.

Typically each participating school first holds a screening round to select its best students, who are then sent to participate in the National Science Olympiad, following which they may stand a chance to compete internationally.

 Why Are Olympiads So Popular Among Parents?

Participating in and winning any kind of competition – be it a simple gully cricket match, or the World Cup – is one of the best feelings in the world. Competitions award merit, performance, excellence – quite literally, the best in a human being.

However, it takes a lot to be chosen as the best of the best. And so the chances of a student decrease as the number of participants increase. Think about it: what is the chance that a random student will turn out to be not only the brightest student of his school, but also his city, state, country, and probably one of the brightest students in the world?

It might hence be understandable that: a lot of pride is associated with a child qualifying at any of the Olympiad levels. Hence most parents now-a-days want their children to participate in Olympiads.

Along with that, other reasons why parents urge their children to participate in Olympiads are:

• Parents view Olympiads as a ‘training ground’ for future competitive exams.
• Qualifying in an Olympiad gives children extra benefit while applying for further studies. Many instituitions view qualifying Olympiads as a ‘good to have’ achievement of their prospective students; it is also believed that some preferentially extend admissions to such students.
• Parents also think Olympiads promote such skills and abilities as critical thinking, analysing ability, etc.
• Our current schooling pattern does not conduct any kind of exams until the last couple of years of schooling (since we are currently following the ‘continuous assessment’ pattern). This leaves parents clueless about their child’s true potential and aptitude for a very long time, and they view Olympiads as a chance to do just that.

Finally, it has been claimed that Olympiads can act as a great morale booster. According to Bangalore-based programmer Vikash Anil of Olympiad Helper, “Even when students don’t win, their confidence grows.”