Saudi Arabia

Mawhiba

Prince Turky Bin AbdulAziz Street, Al-Raed Area

Riyadh 12354, Saudi Arabia 

www.mawhiba.org/en/Initiatives/Competitions/Pages/InternationalOlympiads.aspx

• One category exists – all secondary school students have the possibility to nominate

• Main organizer: MAWHIBA Foundation

• There are four rounds

o  1st round: Test of Basic Biology – ca. 1200 students

o  2nd round: Test of Biological Problems – ca. 450-500 students

o  3rd round Test of Advanced Biology – cc. 200 students

o  The top 20-25% of students are involved in the final round after some training

o  Final round: IBO-like Theoretical and Practical Tasks

• Calculation of the results: 

o  1st-3rd rounds: entering next round is based on the raw score of each test

o  In all rounds the previous raw scores are cleared (no summation)

o  Final round:

- t-scores are generated

- 3 theoretical tests porduces one tTh score

- 3 practical calculation tests produces one tPC score

- 2 practical tests produces tPR score

- The final score (tfinal) is the sum of the above three types of t-scorces: tfinal = tTh + tPC + tPR  

•Selected members of the IBO team:

o The top 4 students based on tfinal

o the next 6 students in the list are the deputy members in the order of their scores

•Tests

The tests are written by secondary school teachers in the 1st-3rd rounds, and by experts from the following institutions in the final round:

o experts from King Saud University (Riyadh) - KSA

o experts from King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center

o experts from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology – KAUST

o experts from International Advisors’ Pool of MAWHIBA Foundation

The main sense behind the tests is to give more and more challanging and more and more IBO-like questions in each round. The first round’s principle is to check the basic factual knowledge of the applicants. In the second and third round we try to assess the conestants’ scientific and logical reasoning skills. The final round is about to predict those four students who may achieve the highest score at the IBO amongst the students.

1st round: Test of Basic Biology – ca. 1200 students

The tests are written by secondary school teachers in the 1st-3rd rounds, and by experts from the following institutions in the final round:

• experts from King Saud University (Riyadh) - KSA

• experts from King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center

• experts from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology – KAUST

• experts from International Advisors’ Pool of MAWHIBA Foundation

The main sense behind the tests is to give more and more challanging and more and more IBO-like questions in each round. The first round’s principle is to check the basic factual knowledge of the applicants. In the second and third round we try to assess the conestants’ scientific and logical reasoning skills. The final round is about to predict those four students who may achieve the highest score at the IBO amongst the students.

Place of training	NBO	IBO
At home	individually variable	individually variable – optional online training exists
At school	depends on school	no such training
At special training camp	no such training	see at University row
Bio summer camp	no such training	no such training
University (KAUST)	no such training	10 days
At an IBO-level Laboratory	individually variable	4 days

 Study materials

•      There is no official preparation material for NBO – we recommend using school textbooks.

•      Campbell books are available in the final round participants.

•      Earlier IBO tests are also important materials for the final round students.

•      Lecture presentations for the final round students are also available from the trainers.

•      Electronic materials are available via the edmodo online training system.

• certificates on student ranks and results

• IBO participants receive special prizes – with no financial value 

8th -12 grade studnets

From September to Jun

5 /week in one semester

35 / week

letters, posters and Social Media

Mawhiba and the Ministry of Education

• 2019: 1465 students from 179 schools (38% of eligible schools)
• 2018: 705 students from 113 schools (26% of eligible schools)

• No relevant media coverage is present in the mass media

• In every year the Leadership of MAWHIBA Foundation give prizes to students who were best at some of the Science Olympiad (e.g.: IChO, IPhO, IBO, IMO, etc.). This event has some publicity.

• The students’ school may organize PR events to celebrate IBO participants.