Olympiads Ranking

Nowadays, there is a number of Olympiads held on a regular basis, and it is difficult to comprehend the value of a particular Olympiad or a medal to someone unfamiliar with the movement. To solve this issue, our %link% evaluates each Olympiad in five categories:

  • Transparency of evaluation (up to 5 points);
  • Assignment uniqueness (up to 5 points);
  • Screening selectivity (up to 5 points);
  • Award selectivity (up to 5 points);
  • Credibility (neutral, ?, !, !! or !!!)

On each Olympiad's page, you will find our assessment of each category at a 5-point scale. Here is our suggestion of an algorithm for evaluation of each category.

Algorithm

Transparency of evaluation

  • 5 points — official solutions and scheme marks for all grades are published on the Internet
  • 3 points — partial solutions with scheme marks are available on the Internet for some (or all) grades
  • 2 points — partial solutions are available on the Internet without scheme marks for some grades
  • 1 point — official solutions and scheme marks are not published on the Internet

Assignment uniqueness

  • 5 points — all assignments are written specifically for the Olympiad, not translated or adapted from existing assignments
  • 3 points — unique assignments (i.e. created specifically for the olympiad) make up at least 60% of the points number
  • 2 points — unique assignments make up at least 40% of the points number
  • 1 point — unique assignments make up below 40% of the points number

Screening selectivity

  • 5 points — out of 100 (or more) applicants, 1 is allowed to participate
  • 4 points — out of 50-99 applicants, 1 is allowed to participate
  • 3 points — out of 10-49 applicants, 1 is allowed to participate
  • 2 points — out of 2-9 applicants, 1 is allowed to participate
  • 1 point — anyone interested is allowed to participate

Award selectivity

  • 5 points — number of 1st places/Gold medals does not exceed 3%, number of 2nd places/Silver medals does not exceed 7%, number of 3rd places/Bronze medals does not exceed 10%
  • 4 points — number of 1st places/Gold medals does not exceed 5%, number of 2nd places/Silver medals does not exceed 10%, number of 3rd places/Bronze medals does not exceed 15%
  • 3 points — number of 1st places/Gold medals does not exceed 10%, number of 2nd places/Silver medals does not exceed 20%, number of 3rd places/Bronze medals does not exceed 30%
  • 1 point — number of 1st places/Gold medals does not exceed 10%, number of 2nd places/Silver medals does not exceed 30%, number of 3rd places/Bronze medals does not exceed 40%

Credibility

Regrettably, an institute of academic integrity is virtually non-existent in Kazakhstan. At times we come across a case when students obtain (or even buy) assignments prior to the start of an Olympiad, and at other times we observe biased jury members who purposely train their students on topics that would later appear at an Olympiad. Moreover, such cases almost always go unpunished: students whose fate depends on those individuals are witnesses of such events.

For this reason, we have added a third category: credibility. Should our team never encounter violations of academic integrity at an Olympiad, it receives a neutral rating. Should we ever face a minor controversial moment, which we may consider enough to raise questions - we put a question mark in our evaluation. If we encounter a serious academic integrity violation, then one exclamation mark is put in the category. In case of systematic violations, we place from two to three exclamation marks depending on its severity.

In extremely rare cases when we feel confident that the organizers take proactive stance on academic integrity, we tick the box for full credibility. At such Olympiads, the organizers are not afraid to take responsibility to disqualify participants who were suspected of violating academic integrity.

Note: Olympiad rating in this category is solely subjective to the opinion of the Fund's expert circle. If you consider us not competent enough to issue such rating, you can only operate in the first two categories.