Is there negative marking?

No. SilverZone states on its iOS page that every question is objective-type with no negative marking for a wrong answer. With 35 questions in 40 minutes, the right strategy is to answer everything and leave nothing blank.

What is the Scholar's Zone worth?

Five questions at 4.3 marks each — 21.5 of the 100 marks, the highest per-question value on the paper. They are built on the same Class 6 science rather than on extra syllabus, so they reward depth on familiar chapters instead of more chapters.

SilverZone Foundation · Science · Class 6

International Olympiad of Science (iOS) Class 6: syllabus, dates and exam pattern (2026–27)

Everything you need in one place — the exact NCERT chapters this paper tests, its published 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 18 August 2026. Exam dates re-checked on 14 October 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.

SilverZone also lists an online-mode sitting of iOS on 27 December 2026, under the same 31 October 2026 registration cutoff (moved from 30 September 2026). It was added to SilverZone's own exam-date data on 11 September 2026; the dates above are its offline sittings.

Registration: SilverZone publishes one registration cutoff covering every paper it runs, iOS included: 31 October 2026, on the same schedule it heads "Tentative Examination Schedule." It was 30 September 2026 until SilverZone moved it: on 1 October 2026 the body's own exam-date endpoint still returned 30 September 2026 on all 34 of its records, and when we re-read it on 14 October 2026 every one returned 31 October 2026, with no notice of the change on the site. That is the second time this season SilverZone has replaced its cutoff only after the earlier date had gone by: the endpoint returned 31 August 2026 on every read from 18 August to 1 September 2026, and 30 September 2026 from 2 September. So treat 31 October as SilverZone's current date rather than a settled one, in either direction. If your school has not registered, ask your coordinator to confirm with SilverZone, at info@silverzone.org, which sitting of iOS an entry made now would be for. Registration is through participating schools by default, so the cutoff binds the school rather than the family. SilverZone also runs an individual registration form at r.silverzone.org; which papers it offers, and what closing date applies to it, we have not been able to confirm.

Free — deadline calendar

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. These 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 them. SilverZone also runs an individual registration form alongside its default school route; which papers it offers we have not been able to confirm.

Closing next

SOF IEO (English) — if your school picks 17 November 2026
Registrations must reach SOF by 18 October 2026
SOF ISO (Science) — if your school picks 19 November 2026
Registrations must reach SOF by 20 October 2026
Indian Talent Olympiad (ITO) — School route — Set B (extended from 10 October)
Registration closes 22 October 2026
SOF IHO (Hindi) — if your school picks 23 November 2026
Registrations must reach SOF by 24 October 2026
SOF IMO (Maths) — if your school picks 26 November 2026
Registrations must reach SOF by 27 October 2026

Get the full calendar on WhatsApp

Or read the full calendar on the site — no sign-up

Every deadline in this box was re-read against the exam body's own website on or after 14 October 2026. Each table carries its own source link and its own date. Bodies do move dates, so check against the body's own site before you act on one.

Exam pattern

How the iOS paper is structured

Section	Questions	Marks per question	Section total
Food	3	2.5	7.5
Materials	5	2.5	12.5
Living World	6	2.5	15
Motion and Measurement	4	2.5	10
How Things Work	3	2.5	7.5
Air	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

Two things a parent planning practice time should notice. Reasoning and the Scholar's Zone together are 42.5 of the 100 marks — so a shade under half this paper is not the science chapters at all, and 12 of the 35 questions carry the marks of roughly 17. And at 40 minutes for 35 questions this is about 69 seconds a question, against 72 on SOF's ISO, so it is the tighter clock of the two despite being the shorter paper.

SilverZone does not publish a current-year/previous-year split for iOS the way SOF does for ISO, so nothing is claimed here. The topic table above is the whole of what the body publishes.

Syllabus

Science syllabus mapped to NCERT Curiosity (Class 6, 2026-27)

Ch 2. Diversity in the Living World

Olympiad syllabus label: Living World — Getting to Know Plants

Ch 3. Mindful Eating: A Path to a Healthy Body

Olympiad syllabus label: Food — Components of Food

Ch 4. Exploring Magnets

Olympiad syllabus label: How Things Work — Fun with Magnets

Ch 5. Measurement of Length and Motion

Olympiad syllabus label: Motion and Measurement — Motion and Measurement of Distances

Ch 6. Materials Around Us

Olympiad syllabus label: Materials — Sorting Materials into Groups

Ch 9. Methods of Separation in Everyday Life

Olympiad syllabus label: Materials — Separation of Substances

Ch 10. Living Creatures: Exploring their Characteristics

Olympiad syllabus label: Living World — Body Movements; The Living Organisms, Characteristics and Habitats

Ch 11. Nature's Treasures

Olympiad syllabus label: Air — Air Around Us

SilverZone names eleven topics for Class 6 science. Nine of them map onto a chapter in the 2026-27 Curiosity book, above. Two do not, and both are the same story rather than two problems: Electricity and Circuits, and Light. Neither was dropped — NCERT moved both into Class 7, where they are now Electricity: Circuits and their Components and Light: Shadows and Reflections. So a Class 6 child sitting iOS can be asked two topics their own book will not reach until next year, and no Class 6 teacher is going to cover them in the run-up. That is worth knowing in August rather than in the hall. This page makes no claim about our own coverage of those two, because the curator taxonomy does not back one: Grade 6 science has no olympiad-scope topics in it at all.

Try it yourself

Today's science question

Practice

Practice in the iOS format

OlympAI has not published a practice paper for this exam yet. When one is ready, this page is where it will appear — nothing to sign up for and no phone number to hand over.

See what is on this paper

Frequently asked questions

SilverZone publishes one cutoff covering every paper it runs, not one per exam, and its school-route date is now 31 October 2026. It was 30 September 2026 until SilverZone moved it: the body's own exam-date endpoint still carried 30 September on 1 October, and returned 31 October 2026 on every record when we re-read it on 14 October. SilverZone has now moved this cutoff twice without notice, from 31 August 2026 to 30 September and then to 31 October, each time only after the old date had gone by, so treat the current date as the body's, not as settled. If your school has not registered, ask SilverZone at info@silverzone.org which sitting an entry would be for. Registration is through the school by default; SilverZone also runs an individual registration form at r.silverzone.org whose paper list we have not been able to confirm.

iOS is 35 questions in 40 minutes for 100 marks; SOF ISO is 50 questions in 60 minutes for 60 marks. The bigger difference is what is being tested: iOS gives reasoning and its Scholar's Zone 42.5 of its 100 marks, where ISO's Logical Reasoning and Achievers sections are 25 of 60. They also close on different clocks — SilverZone on a single date covering every paper (31 October 2026 as of our 14 October re-read, which SilverZone has moved twice this season without notice: off 31 August on 2 September, then off 30 September), SOF at exactly 30 days before whichever date the school picks. Preparing for one does not automatically prepare a child for the other.

Possibly, and it is worth one question before you rule it out. SilverZone's main route is the school, but it also runs a public individual registration form at r.silverzone.org, which its own page labels "for individual registrations only. This is not a school registration link." Which papers that form offers, we have not been able to confirm, so ask SilverZone whether it covers iOS before relying on it. If your school does not run it, four other bodies do take a family directly — CREST, Unified Council for its online sittings, Indian Talent Olympiad on its individual online route, and Humming Bird.

Still choosing

Every olympiad a Class 6 child can sit in 2026–27

All the papers at this class, grouped by whether your school has to enter your child or you can register directly — with each body's own dates and cutoffs.

Related guides

Other olympiad syllabus guides

SilverZone Foundation · Class 7

iOS Class 7 — science syllabus, dates and pattern

SilverZone Foundation · Class 8

iOS Class 8 — science syllabus, dates and pattern

Indian Talent Olympiad (ITO) · Class 6

ITO-S Class 6 — science syllabus, dates and pattern

Indian Talent Olympiad (ITO) · Class 6

ITO-H Class 6 — hindi syllabus, dates and pattern

Keep reading

Guides that answer the next question

SOF ISO vs SilverZone iOS: which science olympiad to pick

Two science olympiads whose registration dates both pointed at 30 September 2026, until SilverZone moved its own to 31 October. One of those dates is published and the other is worked out from a rule, and the two papers reward opposite habits. Here is the side-by-side for Classes 6, 7 and 8, and what to do if your school offers neither.

Which olympiad should my Class 6 child take?

Class 6 opens no doors that Class 7 and 8 do not — the paper list is identical at all three. What changes is that starting here costs least. The routes, the fees and the dates, read off each body on 7 September 2026.

Or see every 2026-27 exam date and registration cutoff in one table, or browse all the papers we cover.

Practice these exact chapters, free

3 practice quizzes a day in each subject free, 10 olympiad-pattern questions each, and 5 with your choice of length and difficulty on OlympAI PRO — for Class 6 science, generated from the same NCERT chapters above and written to the shape of the real olympiad papers, then automatically checked before they can be served, the hardest ones re-solved by a second model that has to agree.

Start free