12th Singapore Astronomy Olympiad 2025

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).

Details of the 12th SAO

Round 1 (Open to all students under 20) – Computerised Quiz

Date: 10 March 2025, Monday
Time: 16:00 – 18:00
Venue: Administered in your school, or at a test centre

Round 2 (By invitation only)

Date: 15 March 2025, Saturday
Time: 09:00 – 14:00
Venue: Raffles Institution

Participation in the SAO is open to students who meet the following criteria: they must be under 20 years of age as of 1 July, they must be Singaporean or attend a full-time programme at a school in Singapore, and they must not have exceeded Grade 12 or its equivalent.

In addition to the criteria above, the IOAA additionally requires that students representing Singapore at the IOAA must be either Singapore citizens or permanent residents. However, there is no restriction on nationality for participation in the SAO.

Registration for SAO 2025

To register for the SAO, please submit your particulars in the registration form at https://tinyurl.com/SAO2025 by Monday, 24 February 2025. A payment of $8 per student is required to cover the administrative costs of the competition.

Preparatory Resources

A variety of resources are available to students who wish to better prepare for the SAO:

• Free Q&A session: A free Question and Answer session on astronomy topics will be held online on Saturday, 1 March 2025 at 15:00 hrs. Interested students can register and submit their questions at https://tinyurl.com/SAO2025QnA by Saturday, 22 February 2025. The questions will be answered during the session.
• Leavitt Lectures: In light of the IOAA’s focus on increasing inclusivity in national-team selections, Astronomy.SG has introduced the Leavitt Lectures, which are a series of online preparatory lectures aimed at female SAO participants. The lectures are named after Henrietta Swan Leavitt, a key female figure in astronomy who discovered a way to determine distances to other galaxies. These online lectures are held on Sundays from 15 December 2024 through 2 March 2025. All sessions are conducted virtually on Zoom. Female students keen to participate in SAO 2025 can continue to register their interest for the Leavitt Lectures at https://tinyurl.com/leavitt-lectures.
• Recordings and Materials from SAO Training Programme 2024: Access to the recordings and materials from the SAO Training Programme 2024, conducted by former IOAA medallists and covering several topics tested in the SAO and IOAA, can be purchased for $10 per registrant at https://tinyurl.com/SAORecordings2024 and will remain available until 14 Mar 2025, 23:59 hrs.
• Free revision resources and past papers: Additional revision resources such as past papers can be found on the Astronomy.SG website and are available for free.

IOAA Selection

The top five students from the SAO will be invited to represent Singapore at the 18th IOAA in Mumbai, India. Please note that, according to the organisers of the IOAA, only Singaporean citizens and permanent residents are eligible to represent the country at the event.

Singapore has a long history of participation in the IOAA. We have won awards at every edition we participated in and bagged 2 Gold and 3 Silver medals at the latest edition in 2024.

IOAA 2024

Congratulations to Team Singapore for their excellent performance at the recently-concluded 17th IOAA at Vassouras, Brazil!

This year, Leng Kane Kiat, Eng Cheng Le, and Lim Cheng Ian from NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, and Hilary Chee and Teo Kai Wen from Raffles Institution represented Singapore at the 17th IOAA.

Under the mentorship of team leaders, Mdm Geraldine Tan and Mr Yuen Xiang Hao, and the coaches (Brendan Lim, Huang Zehan, Ting Jun Rui, Liu Hao, Lim Kia Yee, and Wang Ming Chuan), the team bagged 2 Gold and 3 Silver Medals at the 17th IOAA.

Photo credit: Mr Yuen Xiang Hao, NUS High School of Mathematics and Science