Once IOQM and NMTC are behind a student, the Science Olympiad Foundation's exams are usually next on the calendar — and unlike NSEJS, SOF gives schools an actual choice of date. IMO and NSO Level 1 for 2026-27 each run on three separate dates, and the choice a school makes affects more than just when the exam happens.

The actual dates on offer

SOF IMO 2026-27 Level 1 runs on 23 October, 26 November, or 10 December 2026. NSO 2026-27 Level 1 runs on 30 October, 19 November, or 3 December 2026. A school selects one date per Olympiad, and every student registered through that school sits the exam on the chosen date — students don't choose individually.

What actually differs between an earlier and a later date

  • An earlier date (late October) means less total preparation runway, but also means results and Level 2 qualification land sooner, leaving more time to prepare specifically for Level 2 if a student qualifies.
  • A later date (early December) gives more weeks of preparation and more syllabus coverage before the exam, but compresses the gap between results and Level 2 preparation, which is often the more content-demanding stage.
  • Since registration must be submitted up to 30 days before the chosen date, the earliest option (23 October for IMO) already has a registration deadline landing in late September — worth checking with your school now rather than assuming there's ample time.

A common mistake: assuming the date doesn't matter since it's the same syllabus

The syllabus for a given level is the same regardless of which date a school picks, which leads some families to treat the date as a scheduling footnote. In practice, the date determines how much runway a student actually gets to prepare, and — more importantly — how much time is left between the Level 1 result and Level 2 if the school's chosen date is on the later side of the window.

What this looks like in practice

BuzzyBrains Academy's SOF IMO coaching builds the preparation calendar around whichever date a student's school has actually selected, rather than a generic one-size-fits-all timeline — since a student sitting the 23 October date needs a materially different weekly pace than one sitting 10 December.

If you don't yet know which Level 1 date your child's school has chosen, that's the first thing worth confirming — the SOF IMO Coaching program can then build a schedule around the actual date rather than a guess.