SilverZone Foundation · Science · Class 8
International Olympiad of Science (iOS) Class 8: syllabus, dates and exam pattern (2026–27)
Everything you need in one place — the exact NCERT chapters this paper tests, all 3 exam dates, the registration window, and the full marking scheme. Updated for the 2026–27 session.
Last verified against SilverZone Foundation's own site on 24 August 2026. Exam dates re-checked on 24 August 2026.
2026–27 exam dates
Date 1
14 October 2026
Date 2
19 November 2026
Date 3
8 December 2026
SilverZone publishes these under the heading "Tentative Examination Schedule for the year 2026-27" — they are the body's own dates, but SilverZone has not marked them final, so treat them as indicative until your school confirms. One inconsistency worth knowing about: the schedule lists three dates, while the iOS page itself still describes a two-date structure ("the school may opt from the two dates suggested"). Ask your coordinator which of the published dates your school has actually opted for.
Registration: SilverZone published one registration cutoff covering every paper it runs, iOS included: 31 August 2026, on the same page it headed "Tentative Examination Schedule." It was not one deadline per exam, and it fell almost two months before the first exam date. Registration is through participating schools only, which means the date bound your school rather than you. SilverZone has published nothing since about late entries or an extension. If your school hasn't registered, ask your coordinator whether it made this date, or write to info@silverzone.org to check whether a late registration is still possible.
The deadline is set by your school, not by you
Most parents find the exam date and assume they have until then. The registration window closes long before it, and for some papers it has already started closing. Here is how it actually works.
- Your school registers your child and your school picks which of the 2–3 dates the class sits. The family does not choose.
- For SOF papers, registrations must reach SOF exactly 30 days before that chosen date — and once the school has chosen, the date cannot be changed.
- Most bodies register through the school. Four do not have to: CREST (online, no published cutoff), Unified Council — directly for NSTSE itself at ₹350 against ₹150 through a school, and on three online sittings, NSTSE-Online, UIMO-Online and UIEO-Online, at ₹354 each including GST — Indian Talent Olympiad on its individual online route (its own later dates — Slot 1 closes 30 October), and Humming Bird (online, ₹150 a subject, no published cutoff — its two dates are picked as you register). CREST is the simplest of the four.
Closing next
Indian Talent Olympiad — Set A
Registration closes 31 August 2026 · all five subjects
SilverZone — every paper
Registration closes 31 August 2026 · all five subjects
The body publishes this date but has not marked it final — confirm with your school before treating it as fixed.
SOF IEO (English)
If your school picks 30 September 2026, registration closes 31 August 2026 · English
SOF IMO (Maths)
If your school picks 23 October 2026, registration closes 23 September 2026 · Maths
Or read the full calendar on the site — no sign-up
Every deadline in this box was checked against that exam body's own website on 24 August 2026. Bodies do move dates — we re-check every Monday.
Exam pattern
How the iOS paper is structured
| Section | Questions | Marks per question | Section total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food — Crop Production, Microorganisms | 4 | 2.5 | 10 |
| How Stuff Works — Force and Pressure, Friction, Light, Sound, Chemical Effects of Electric Current | 8 | 2.5 | 20 |
| Living World — Reproduction in Animals, Reaching the Age of Adolescence, Conservation of Plants and Animals | 6 | 2.5 | 15 |
| Materials — Coal and Petroleum, Combustion and Flame | 3 | 2.5 | 7.5 |
| Natural Phenomena — Some Natural Phenomena | 2 | 2.5 | 5 |
| Reasoning and Aptitude | 7 | 3 | 21 |
| Scholar's Zone | 5 | 4.3 | 21.5 |
| Total | 35 questions | — | 100 marks · 40 minutes |
Three things worth planning around. First, reasoning and the Scholar's Zone together are 42.5 of the 100 marks — the same split as the Class 6 paper — so a shade under half of this exam is not the science chapters at all, and 12 of the 35 questions carry the marks of roughly 17. Second, "How Stuff Works" is the biggest science block at 20 marks and it is the widest: five old-NCERT chapters spanning forces, friction, light, sound and the effects of electric current, which is more ground than any single Curiosity chapter covers. Third, 35 questions in 40 minutes is about 69 seconds a question — the same clock SilverZone sets its Class 6 candidates, on a syllabus that has grown considerably.
SilverZone publishes no current-year/previous-year split for iOS the way SOF does for IMO and ISO, so nothing is claimed here. The class-wise topic table is the whole of what the body publishes about what this paper contains.
Syllabus
Science syllabus mapped to NCERT Curiosity (Class 8, 2026-27)
Ch 2. The Invisible Living World: Beyond Our Naked Eye
Olympiad syllabus label: Food — Microorganisms: Friend and Foe; also Cell — Structure and Functions
Ch 3. Health: The Ultimate Treasure
Olympiad syllabus label: Living World — Reaching the Age of Adolescence (adolescent wellbeing, diet, immunisation); Microorganisms — diseases
Ch 4. Electricity: Magnetic and Heating Effects
Olympiad syllabus label: How Stuff Works — Chemical, Magnetic and Heating Effects of Electric Current (incl. electroplating and electrolysis)
Ch 5. Exploring Forces
Olympiad syllabus label: How Stuff Works — Force and Pressure; Friction
Ch 6. Pressure, Winds, Storms and Cyclones
Olympiad syllabus label: How Stuff Works — Force and Pressure (the pressure half); Wind, Storms and Cyclones
Ch 10. Light: Mirrors and Lenses
Olympiad syllabus label: How Stuff Works — Light: reflection, refraction, the human eye
Ch 11. Keeping Time with the Skies
Olympiad syllabus label: Natural Phenomena — Stars and the Solar System; Some Natural Phenomena (the astronomy half)
Ch 12. How Nature Works in Harmony
Olympiad syllabus label: Living World — Conservation of Plants and Animals; Ecosystems
Ch 13. Our Home: Earth, A Unique Life Sustaining Planet
Olympiad syllabus label: Natural Phenomena — atmosphere, greenhouse effect, the ozone layer (olympiad general-awareness scope)
SilverZone names thirteen chapters for Class 8 iOS, in the old NCERT's names. Nine of them land on a chapter of the 2026-27 Curiosity book, above. The other four are the part a parent should read before September, and they are four different stories rather than one. Crop Production, Reproduction in Animals and the lightning half of Some Natural Phenomena are all out of the Class 8 book but are covered in our own material, in the curator taxonomy's Extra Topics bucket, which exists precisely because olympiad bodies still set the pre-2023 syllabus. Combustion and Flame moved down to Class 7, where it is a single topic inside Physical and Chemical Changes, and Coal and Petroleum moved down to Class 6, where it lives inside one Natural Resources topic — both are covered, thinly, and a year or two before the child sits this paper. Sound is the one to actually plan for: it is not in the Class 8 book, it has no Extra Topics row, and searching every grade sheet finds it only at Class 9. So a Class 8 child sitting iOS can be asked about pitch, echo and wave properties that neither Curiosity nor our own Class 8 material covers, and no Class 8 teacher is going to reach it before December. Better known in August than in the hall. Two smaller notes: the Scholar's Zone names no topics on any SilverZone table, at any class, so nothing about its content is published by anyone; and Curiosity has three chemistry chapters — Particulate Nature of Matter, Elements and Compounds, and Solutions — that SilverZone's Class 8 iOS list does not name at all, so strong school performance there earns nothing on this particular paper.
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