Preparation playbook
Eight calm weeks to Olympiad-ready.
A practical week-by-week plan that turns a willing Class 4 student into a confident Olympiad-taker — without crushing their love of maths. No shortcuts, no hype.
Week 01
Diagnose, don't drill
Skip the timer. Pick one sample paper from SOF IMO and one from ITO IMO. Have your child mark every question as easy / makes-me-think / no-idea. You've just produced a personalised priority list.
Week 02
Fix the two weakest topics
Don't try to fix everything. Pick the two topics with the most no-idea answers and live in them for a week. Class 4 patterns are almost always fractions, division word problems and logical reasoning.
Week 03
Add one new topic per week
Roll forward: keep the strong topics warm, add a new topic each Monday, mix-bag practice on Saturdays. Five focused days, one mixed day, one rest day.
Week 04
Run the first timed mock
After 3 weeks of prep, your child is ready. Use a full SOF IMO Class 4 sample, exactly 60 minutes. Don't help. After the mock, debrief like a coach: what did they rush, what did they second-guess, what was a silly mistake?
Week 05
Learn the Olympiad's tricks
Olympiad questions follow patterns: 'how many between', 'rank order from both ends', 'mirror images of digits'. Spend a week recognising the 6–8 most common archetypes — they'll show up in every paper.
Week 06
Polish reasoning & speed
Mental ability and logical reasoning are pure pattern recognition. They're scoreable in two weeks. Daily 10-question warm-ups using the Patterns & Logic track is enough.
Week 07
Achievers' section
Most exams give 2–3× marks for the last 5–10 'Achiever' questions. They're harder, but worth the time. Practise these specifically — not by attempting whole papers.
Week 08
Two final mocks, calm taper
Run a full mock under exam conditions on a Saturday, debrief Sunday, do one more mock midweek. Then taper: light revision only. Sleep matters more than two extra hours of practice.
Quick wins
Six habits worth a few marks each
Move on after 90 seconds
Train the habit of skipping a stubborn question. There are no extra marks for staring at a problem.
Underline the actual question
Word problems hide the real question in the last 6 words. Underlining stops misreads.
Verify subtraction by addition
If A − B = C, then C + B should equal A. Ten seconds. Catches careless errors.
Always re-check the unit
Centimetres vs metres. Grams vs kilograms. The single most common reason marks are lost.
Read the answer choices first
Sometimes the options reveal the kind of answer expected — a fraction? a whole number? big or small?
Achievers' section first
Some students do better attempting the high-mark Achievers' section while fresh, then easier ones after.
Ready to start week 1?
Open Number Sense as your diagnostic — it covers the foundation every one of the five Olympiads tests heavily.
Begin diagnostic →