SilverZone Foundation · Social Science · Class 7
International Social Studies Olympiad (iSSO) Class 7: 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 9 September 2026. Exam dates re-checked on 22 October 2026.
2026–27 exam dates
Date 1
29 September 2026
Date 2
28 October 2026
Date 3
1 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. SilverZone scheduled the first date, 29 September 2026, earlier than any other SilverZone paper our subjects touch: 22 days before SilverZone's first English sitting (21 October 2026) and 9 days before its first maths sitting (8 October 2026).
SilverZone also lists an online-mode sitting of iSSO on 28 November 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, iSSO 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. On this paper the cutoff falls after two of the three offline sittings: iSSO's first was 29 September 2026 and its second is 28 October, three days before the cutoff; the last is 1 December 2026. 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 iSSO an entry made now would be for. Registration is through participating schools by default, so the cutoff binds the school rather than the family. "Social Studies (iSSO)" is a subject checkbox on SilverZone's school registration form. 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.
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 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
Indian Talent Olympiad (ITO) — Individual online route — Slot 1
Registration closes 30 October 2026
SilverZone Foundation — Every SilverZone paper
Registration closes 31 October 2026
The body publishes this date but has not marked it final — confirm with your school before treating it as fixed.
Indian Talent Olympiad (ITO) — School route — Set B (extended twice, from 10 October)
Registration closes 31 October 2026
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 22 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 iSSO paper is structured
| Section | Questions | Marks per question | Section total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Theme A — India and the World: Land and the People | 6 | 2.5 | 15 |
| Theme B — Tapestry of the Past | 6 | 2.5 | 15 |
| Theme C — Our Cultural Heritage and Knowledge Traditions | 6 | 2.5 | 15 |
| Theme D — Governance and Democracy | 6 | 2.5 | 15 |
| Theme E — Economic Life Around Us | 6 | 2.5 | 15 |
| Scholar's Zone | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| Total | 35 questions | — | 100 marks · 40 minutes |
The five themes carry 15 marks each, exactly as they do at Class 6, so no theme can be skipped and none is worth cramming over another: history, geography, civics and economics are weighted identically at 6 questions apiece. What changes between Class 6 and Class 7 is not the paper, it is the book behind it. The Class 6 book gives each theme one contiguous run of chapters; the Class 7 book runs through all five themes and then runs through them again, so Theme A is chapters 1, 2, 3, 13 and 14, and Theme B is 4, 5, 6, 7, 15 and 16. Six questions on the past are drawn from six chapters sitting either side of eight chapters about something else. The Scholar's Zone is 5 questions at 5 marks — a quarter of the paper on one seventh of the questions — and SilverZone names no topics for it, at this class or any other. At 35 questions in 40 minutes this is about 69 seconds a question, the same clock as SilverZone's English, maths and science papers. Two limits of what the body publishes, stated rather than filled in: iSSO runs for Classes 1 to 10 where its maths, science and English papers go to 12, and its iSSO pages carry no level structure at all, where the iOM, iOS and iOEL pages describe a Level 2 and iOEL a Level 3 — so nothing here says iSSO does or does not have one. Ask your coordinator.
Syllabus
Social Science syllabus mapped to NCERT Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Class 7, 2026-27)
Ch 1. Geographical Diversity of India
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme A — India and the World: Land and the People
Ch 2. Understanding the Weather
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme A — India and the World: Land and the People
Ch 3. Climates of India
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme A — India and the World: Land and the People
Ch 4. New Beginnings: Cities and States
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme B — Tapestry of the Past
Ch 5. The Rise of Empires
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme B — Tapestry of the Past
Ch 6. The Age of Reorganisation
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme B — Tapestry of the Past
Ch 7. The Gupta Era: An Age of Tireless Creativity
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme B — Tapestry of the Past
Ch 8. How the Land Becomes Sacred
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme C — Our Cultural Heritage and Knowledge Traditions
Ch 9. From the Rulers to the Ruled: Types of Governments
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme D — Governance and Democracy
Ch 10. The Constitution of India — An Introduction
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme D — Governance and Democracy
Ch 11. From Barter to Money
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme E — Economic Life Around Us
Ch 12. Understanding Markets
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme E — Economic Life Around Us
Ch 13. The Story of Indian Farming
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme A — India and the World: Land and the People (the theme's second stretch)
Ch 14. India and Her Neighbours
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme A — India and the World: Land and the People (the theme's second stretch)
Ch 15. Empires and Kingdoms: 6th to 10th Centuries
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme B — Tapestry of the Past (the theme's second stretch)
Ch 16. Turning Tides: 11th and 12th Centuries
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme B — Tapestry of the Past (the theme's second stretch)
Ch 17. India: A Home to Many
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme C — Our Cultural Heritage and Knowledge Traditions (SilverZone writes it "India, a Home to Many")
Ch 18. The State, the Government and You
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme D — Governance and Democracy
Ch 19. Infrastructure: Engine of India's Development
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme E — Economic Life Around Us
Ch 20. Banks and the Magic of Finance
Olympiad syllabus label: Theme E — Economic Life Around Us
Nineteen exam pages on this site name topics a child's current book no longer contains. This one names none, and that is the finding rather than an absence of one. Every chapter SilverZone publishes for iSSO Class 7 is a chapter of Exploring Society: India and Beyond, under the book's own five themes — twenty for twenty, with nothing on the body's list that is not in the book and no chapter of the book missing from the list. The only naming difference anywhere is a comma: SilverZone writes chapter 17 as "India, a Home to Many" where the book has "India: A Home to Many". Set that against SilverZone's own Class 8 maths list, where not one entry is a Ganita Prakash chapter title, and against the Class 7 lists Indian Talent Olympiad publishes, which put the Mauryas, the Kushans and the Guptas on its Class 8 list instead: the difference is not that some bodies are careful and others are not, it is that the rewritten social science books came with a theme structure clean enough for a body to adopt wholesale, and SilverZone adopted it. The practical consequence for a Class 7 parent is unusually simple — revising the school book is revising for this paper, for 75 of the 100 marks. The remaining 25 are the Scholar's Zone, for which the body names no topics. Where the completeness does NOT help: because the book covers each theme twice, revising chapter by chapter means meeting Theme B in chapters 4 to 7 and again in 15 and 16. Revising theme by theme is closer to the paper than revising in page order.
Try it yourself
Today's social science question
Practice
Practice in the iSSO format
No — OlympAI does not publish a practice paper for this exam. OlympAI’s question bank covers maths, science and English. We hold no social science questions yet, so there is no social science paper to give you — for this body or any other.
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Related guides
Other olympiad syllabus guides
SilverZone Foundation · Class 6
iSSO Class 6 — social science syllabus, dates and pattern
SilverZone Foundation · Class 8
iSSO Class 8 — social science syllabus, dates and pattern
Indian Talent Olympiad (ITO) · Class 7
ITO-SST Class 7 — social science syllabus, dates and pattern
SilverZone Foundation · Class 7
iOM Class 7 — maths syllabus, dates and pattern
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Guides that answer the next question
SOF ISSO vs SilverZone iSSO: which social science olympiad
Two papers with almost the same name, built on opposite principles: SilverZone iSSO spreads its marks evenly across the five themes of your child’s book, SOF ISSO puts 45 of its 50 questions in one undifferentiated section and draws 30 per cent of them from last year. Their calendars barely overlap, and a third body takes a family without the school. Here is the side-by-side for Classes 6, 7 and 8, read off each body’s own surface on 29 September 2026.
SOF IMO vs SilverZone iOM: which should your Class 6 child take?
SOF IMO and SilverZone iOM both test Class 6 maths, but the exam pattern, syllabus split, and scoring are different enough to matter. Here is a side-by-side comparison to help you choose — or why most families end up doing both.
Or see every 2026-27 exam date and registration cutoff in one table, or browse all the papers we cover.
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