Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) · Science · Class 7
International Science Olympiad (ISO) — formerly National Science Olympiad (NSO) Class 7: 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 Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF)'s own site on 11 August 2026. Exam dates re-checked on 24 August 2026.
2026–27 exam dates
Date 1
30 October 2026
Date 2
19 November 2026
Date 3
3 December 2026
Registration: Your school picks one of the three dates above, and registrations must reach SOF 30 days before that chosen date — so 30 September 2026 for the October date, 20 October for the November date, and 3 November for the December date. The school chooses the date, not the family, and once chosen it cannot be changed. Ask your school coordinator which date they have picked and work backwards from that one cutoff.
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 NSO paper is structured
| Section | Questions | Marks per question | Section total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logical Reasoning | 10 | 1 | 10 |
| Science | 35 | 1 | 35 |
| Achievers Section | 5 | 3 | 15 |
| Total | 50 questions | — | 60 marks · 60 minutes |
SOF states it verbatim: "Class-7 ISO exam will have 60% questions from class-7 syllabus and 40% questions from class 6 syllabus." Only the Achievers Section is drawn purely from Class 7 material.
Syllabus
Science syllabus mapped to NCERT Curiosity (Class 7, 2026-27)
Ch 1. The Ever-Evolving World of Science
Olympiad syllabus label: Discoveries and inventions / scientific method
Ch 2. Exploring Substances: Acidic, Basic and Neutral
Olympiad syllabus label: Acids, Bases and Salts
Ch 3. Electricity: Circuits and their Components
Olympiad syllabus label: Electric Current and its Effects
Ch 4. The World of Metals and Non-metals
Olympiad syllabus label: Metals and Non-metals
Ch 5. Changes Around Us: Physical and Chemical
Olympiad syllabus label: Physical and Chemical Changes
Ch 6. Adolescence: A Stage of Growth and Change
Olympiad syllabus label: Reaching the Age of Adolescence
Ch 7. Heat Transfer in Nature
Olympiad syllabus label: Heat — conduction, convection and radiation
Ch 8. Measurement of Time and Motion
Olympiad syllabus label: Motion and Time
Ch 9. Life Processes in Animals
Olympiad syllabus label: Nutrition, respiration and transportation in animals
Ch 10. Life Processes in Plants
Olympiad syllabus label: Nutrition and transportation in plants / photosynthesis
Ch 11. Light: Shadows and Reflections
Olympiad syllabus label: Light
Ch 12. Earth, Moon, and the Sun
Olympiad syllabus label: Solar system / Earth, Moon and Sun
SOF's published Class 7 science list names all twelve chapters above, so the new Curiosity book maps onto this paper one-for-one. The Logical Reasoning section (10 questions) is a separate spine — verbal and non-verbal reasoning — and is not drawn from the science chapters. One gap worth knowing: eight topics from the older Class 7 NCERT still turn up in olympiad question banks even though the 2026-27 book has moved or dropped them — wool and silk (fibre to fabric), forests, reproduction in plants, soil, the wastewater story, weather and climate adaptations, winds and storms, and simple machines. They do not all behave the same way, and it matters which is which. Winds and storms moved up rather than out: it is now a Class 8 chapter, Pressure, Winds, Storms and Cyclones. Soil and simple machines are carried in our own Class 7 science practice as olympiad-scope topics beyond the book. The remaining five — wool and silk, forests, reproduction in plants, wastewater, and weather and climate adaptations — are in neither the current book nor our Class 7 practice today, so a child who meets them on an old practice paper is meeting them cold.
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