Paper Structure & Marking
PRELIMINARY ROUND
HIPPO Test of English and Reading
NATIONAL FINALS ROUND
Reading and Writing
After the preliminary round tests have been marked, the top 10% of participating students from each participating country will be invited to the National Finals. The list of finalists will be expanded to include all the students whose number of points is the same as the number of points of the last students in the first 10%. The list of finalists will be published on the Olympiad website within three weeks of the preliminary round date. The network of final venues will be based on the location of the finalists. Wildcards are available for the countries where no student qualifies for the final round and will be granted to the best candidate in each category from the country.
There is only one correct answer to every question. In open-ended questions, where there can be more than one correct answer, all correct answers will be accepted. There are no negative marks. Ranking is based on the average number of marks achieved on both the reading and the writing test. Reading test answers are given on an answer sheet (OMR) while the Writing test answers are given in the test booklet. The writing test will consist of a free-writing task (100 – 200 words depending on the category) and 30 questions. The level of difficulty of all the questions will be one level higher than the one in the preliminary round. The essay will be assessed only in case two or more candidates have the scores on both the reading and the writing test.
REGIONAL QUALIFIERS EXAMINATION
In the Qualifiers Round, the candidates will take a Hippo Test of English consisting of 30 Use of English open-ended questions and a crossword.
PLAY OFF QUALIFERS ROUND
At the end of the course, the participants will take a Hippo Test of English consisting of 30 Use of English open-ended questions and a crossword. Hippo Test of English Samples are available on the official website.
