Indian Talent Olympiad Maths Olympiad (IMO) Class 8: syllabus, dates and exam pattern (2026–27)

Two different calendars sit above, and which one applies to your child depends on how they are entered. The three Set dates are the school route: the school picks one set, and the child sits the paper with the class. The two slot dates are the individual online route a family can take without the school — different dates entirely, and Indian Talent Olympiad publishes them with the caveat that they are tentative and that "the final exam schedule will be updated 20 days prior". Once a set or slot is selected it cannot be changed. Indian Talent Olympiad publishes one schedule per paper covering Classes 1 to 12, so these are the same five dates a Class 6 or Class 7 child sits — the paper changes, the calendar does not.

Registration: Registration closes on published dates rather than a rolling window. Through the school there are three windows, and which one applies depends on the date you read this: Set A's cutoff was 10 September 2026 and has passed, Set B's is 22 October 2026 (extended from 10 October) and Set C's is 10 November 2026. Set A moved twice before it closed, from 31 August to 5 September and then to 10 September, each time announced only by the date changing on the schedule page, which still reads "LAST DATE TO REGISTER – SET A Extended Till 10 th September, 2026" — so treat the two later dates as figures ITO can move too. The school collects ₹175 per student per subject, of which ₹150 is remitted to ITO and ₹25 is retained for organising costs. Directly, without the school: individual online registration for Classes 1 to 10 closes 30 October 2026 for slot 1, at ₹500 per subject. We have confirmed direct routes at CREST, Unified Council on its online sittings, this one, and Humming Bird — and for Class 8 maths all of them are open to you, so the direct route here is a genuine choice rather than a last resort. Those three are the school route; the individual online route's 30 October 2026 is a separate clock from all three — a school that missed a Set does not cost the family the direct route, and the direct route closing does not extend a Set. Two things about that school deadline that ITO's schedule page does not say and its fee page does. First, it is a POSTAL deadline: the completed registration form, the student list and the fee as a demand draft have to reach Indian Talent Olympiad's Mumbai office by the cutoff, by registered post or courier, so the envelope has to leave the school several days before the cutoff rather than on it. Second, the two pages disagree, and on two of the three windows. The fee page calls them Slot 1, 2 and 3 where the schedule calls them Set A, B and C, and re-read on 14 October 2026 it still instructs schools to send everything to arrive "on or before 31st August 2026 (Slot 1) / 10th October 2026 (Slot 2), 10th November 2026" — the Set A date the body has since moved off twice, and the Set B date it has since extended to 22 October. Only Set C, 10 November 2026, is the same on both. Ring the body before your school posts a draft.