FAQs

The International Polish Cultural Olympiad is being organized by International Academic Competitions. Since 2010, IAC has organized over twenty separate competitions for hundreds of thousands students from over 60 countries. IAC also organizes the International History Olympiad, International Geography Championships, which like the ILO are week-long summer programs for the top students in those subjects worldwide. For more information, please see www.iacompetitions.com or contact us at info@iacompetitions.com

As with other Cultural Olympiads organized by IAC, roughly half the competition events will be required while the rest will be optional. Which events are optional and which events are mandatory will be determined by when registration opens and the draft schedule of events is released.

The International Polish Cultural Olympiad will take place in Summer 2024. The inaugural IPCO will be held in Warsaw and the host venue will be revealed soon. Qualifying for the IPCO will run until whenever the field caps are reached.

We will not open registration until December 2023. Thereafter it is first-come, first-served; a higher score on the Qualifying Exam does not give one priority in terms of registration over other students.

 US students will compete for their state, students from outside the USA will compete for their country.

Yes. For all competition events, medals will be awarded. One gold, one silver, and one bronze medal (excepting team events) will be awarded to each student per event per age division.

This is to be determined, but this will most likely be through the combined results of the exams. Not all medal events will contribute to the overall Olympiad title.

Students in the Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Middle School Divisions do not need to come with a coach or parent. Official International Academic Competitions staff members will serve as counselors and chaperones for these students. However, students competing in the Elementary Division must come with a parent or legal guardian. Note that IAC can provide airport or train station pickups for students coming to Warsaw without an accompanying adult. There is no extra charge for these pickups, but IAC will only provide these for students who are officially traveling as unaccompanied minors to Warsaw.

Yes, all of these people are welcome; please see this page for further details.

Please view the qualification rules on this page.

There is no requirement for you to be enrolled, nor to have ever been enrolled, in Polish in school to qualify for the International Polish Cultural Olympiad. Likewise, you do not need any approval from your school to qualify or compete. However, in all cases, in order to pass the Qualifying Exam, students will be expected to know some basic Polish vocabulary, grammar and Polish culture. We can help advise students who are interested in attending but are not taking Polish classes how best to study for the Qualifying Exam.

February 2023 for all age divisions.

Students must have finished the equivalent of 6th grade by July 2023 and must have graduated high school no earlier than December 2023.

Varsity (for 11th and 12th graders in the 2023-2024 academic year), Junior Varsity (for 9th and 10th graders in that year), and Middle School (for 6th-8th graders in that year).

Information on the costs will be provided once the registration for the Online Qualifying Exam opens.

The International Polish Cultural Olympiad Qualifying Exam is offered free of charge.

If a pandemic-related cancellation of the Olympiad takes place in advance of it, then participation fees will be reimbursed in full, minus any transaction fees we incur through sending wire transfers. If cancellation needs to take place during the event itself, then registration costs will be refunded on a prorated basis depending on how much of the Olympiad has taken place until then.