A linguistics olympiad for secondary school students. 200+ participants from 50 countries. Ukraine's team has been winning medals in recent years. Selection happens through the All-Ukrainian round.
IOL (International Linguistics Olympiad) is an olympiad in theoretical and mathematical linguistics. The most unexpected one on this list: you don't need to know foreign languages.
Participants get problems in languages they've never seen before — from Basque to Papua New Guinean languages — and have to work out grammar rules from the examples given. It's pure logic.
That's why IOL is a rare opportunity for a child who's strong in logic but doesn't have years of preparation in maths or physics behind them.
The path is the same for all subject olympiads — through the All-Ukrainian Student Olympiad in that subject. It has four rounds:
After the final, the strongest participants are invited to training camps. Ukraine's team participation is organized by the Institute for Modernization of Educational Content (IMZO) — they publish team rosters and results there.
Key thing to understand: you can't apply directly to an international olympiad. The only entry is through the school round. So you need to start a year or so before the actual competition.
Participants who represented Ukraine at international competitions are a separate category in admissions rules. Conditions change every year, so the only reliable source is the current Higher Education Admissions Procedure, which the Ministry of Education publishes each year separately. Don't rely on articles from last year: the rules really do change.
Always check the official website before applying: dates and conditions change every year.
Tell us — it’s anonymous. We don’t ask for the child’s name, age or school.
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