11th Singapore Astronomy Olympiad 2024

The Singapore Astronomy Olympiad (SAO) is a national competition on Astronomy and Astrophysics organised with the intent to select candidates to represent Singapore in the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA).

Exciting new changes will be introduced in the upcoming 11th SAO! These include:

• Organising preparatory workshops for students
• A revised SAO format incorporating a computerised quiz in Round 1
• Making SAO Round 1 accessible to more students with appropriately-pitched multiple choice questions.

Administrative Details

The details of the 11th SAO are as follows:

Round 1 (Online) – Computerised quiz
Date: 4 March 2024, Monday
Time: 16:00 – 18:00 hrs
Venue: Administered in your school or at a test centre

Round 2 (By invitation)
Date: 9 March 2024, Saturday
Time: 09:00 – 13:00 hrs
Venue: Raffles Institution (Year 5–6 Campus), Lecture Theatre 2

Registration Fee: SGD 8 per participant

Round 1 is a computerised quiz delivered via a browser to students on their individual laptops. It will feature MCQ questions that are accessible to more students.

The results of Round 1 will be announced via e-mail to participants by Wednesday, 6 March 2024. Top scorers will be eligible for Round 2. Participants eligible for Round 2 will receive a separate email by Wednesday, 6 March 2024. 

Eligibility: Students less than twenty years of age on 1 July 2024, attending an MOE school, private school or international school for full-time studies not exceeding Grade 12 or its equivalent, are eligible to take part in the SAO. 

IOAA Selection: The top five students meeting the requirements for national representation will be invited to represent Singapore at the 17th IOAA in Vassouras, Brazil, from 17 to 26 August 2024.

Registration

To register for the SAO, interested participants should submit the SAO registration form at https://tinyurl.com/11SAO and follow the instructions to make payment for the registration fee via PayNow before 25 February 2024. 

SAO Preparatory Workshops

A series of preparatory workshops led by previous IOAA medallists will be held to help interested participants better prepare for the SAO. Participants should have a good grasp of basic concepts in physics and mathematics at a Secondary 4 level (or equivalent).

To register for the workshops, interested participants should submit the workshop registration form at https://tinyurl.com/11SAO24WS and follow the instructions to make payment for the workshop fee via PayNow before 9 Feb 2024.

Do note that registration for the workshops and for the SAO are separate, and registering for the workshops does not automatically register you for the SAO.

Administrative Details

The workshops will be conducted over Zoom from 09:00 to 12:00 on the following dates:

• 17 Feb 2024 – Practical Astronomy & Overview of Terms and Formulae in Astrophysics
• 18 Feb 2024 – Celestial Mechanics & Coordinates and Time
• 24 Feb 2024 – Stellar Systems
• 25 Feb 2024 – Cosmology
• 2 Mar 2024 – Spectroscopy & Atomic Physics
• 3 Mar 2024 – Nuclear Physics, Electromagnetic Theory & Quantum Physics

Workshop Fee: SGD 30 per participant

Recordings of the workshops will be shared with the participants until 9 March 2024, Saturday.

IOAA 2023

Congratulations to Team Singapore for their excellent performance at the 16th IOAA at Chorzow, Poland! The team bagged 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 1 Bronze at the 16th IOAA.