Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) · Science · Class 8
International Science Olympiad (ISO) — formerly National Science Olympiad (NSO) Class 8: 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 Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF)'s own site on 15 August 2026. Exam dates re-checked on 28 September 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. 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
SilverZone Foundation — Every SilverZone paper
Registration closes 30 September 2026
The body publishes this date but has not marked it final — confirm with your school before treating it as fixed.
SOF ISO (Science) — if your school picks 30 October 2026
Registrations must reach SOF by 30 September 2026
Indian Talent Olympiad (ITO) — School route — Set B
Registration closes 10 October 2026
SOF IEO (English) — if your school picks 17 November 2026
Registrations must reach SOF by 18 October 2026
SOF IHO (Hindi) — if your school picks 23 November 2026
Registrations must reach SOF by 24 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 28 September 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 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 sets 60% of the paper from Class 8 and 40% from Class 7, with the Achievers Section drawn from Class 8 material only. That 40% is the part worth planning for: the Class 7 Curiosity book itself leaves two olympiad-scope topics uncovered — soil, and simple machines — so a Class 8 candidate revising the previous year from the school book alone still has two gaps behind them.
Syllabus
Science syllabus mapped to NCERT Curiosity (Class 8, 2026-27)
Ch 1. Exploring the Investigative World of Science
Olympiad syllabus label: Exploring the Investigative World of Science
Ch 2. The Invisible Living World: Beyond Our Naked Eye
Olympiad syllabus label: The Invisible Living World : Beyond Our Naked Eyes
Ch 3. Health: The Ultimate Treasure
Olympiad syllabus label: Health : The Ultimate Treasure
Ch 4. Electricity: Magnetic and Heating Effects
Olympiad syllabus label: Electricity : Magnetic and Heating Effects
Ch 5. Exploring Forces
Olympiad syllabus label: Exploring Forces
Ch 6. Pressure, Winds, Storms and Cyclones
Olympiad syllabus label: Pressure, Winds, Storms and Cyclones
Ch 7. Particulate Nature of Matter
Olympiad syllabus label: Particulate Nature of Matter
Ch 8. Nature of Matter: Elements, Compounds and Mixtures
Olympiad syllabus label: Elements, Compounds and Mixtures
Ch 9. The Amazing World of Solutes, Solvents and Solutions
Olympiad syllabus label: Solute, Solvent and Solutions
Ch 10. Light: Mirrors and Lenses
Olympiad syllabus label: Light : Mirrors and Lenses
Ch 11. Keeping Time with the Skies
Olympiad syllabus label: Keeping Time with the Skies
Ch 12. How Nature Works in Harmony
Olympiad syllabus label: How Nature Works in Harmony
Ch 13. Our Home: Earth, A Unique Life Sustaining Planet
Olympiad syllabus label: Our Home : Earth, a Unique Life Sustaining Planet
SOF names all thirteen chapters of the 2026-27 Curiosity Class 8 book and nothing else — the cleanest one-for-one match on this site, and the opposite of what the Class 6 papers here show. It publishes them in a different order from the book, which is why the table above is sorted by chapter rather than by SOF's sequence. Two things the list does not tell you. The Logical Reasoning section is 10 questions and comes from no science chapter at all. And four topics from the previous Class 8 NCERT still circulate in olympiad question banks without appearing in the current book: crop production and management, reproduction in animals, lightning and static charge, and air and water pollution. SOF does not name any of them for Class 8, so they are not a gap in this paper's published syllabus — but they are exactly what an older practice paper will hand a child, and our Class 8 science practice keeps all four in scope for that reason.
Try it yourself
Today's science question
Practice
Practice in the NSO 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.
Frequently asked questions
Related guides
Other olympiad syllabus guides
Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) · Class 6
NSO Class 6 — science syllabus, dates and pattern
Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) · Class 7
NSO Class 7 — science syllabus, dates and pattern
Science Olympiad Foundation (SOF) · Class 8
ISSO Class 8 — social science syllabus, dates and pattern
Indian Talent Olympiad (ITO) · Class 8
ITO-E Class 8 — english 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, and their registration windows close on the same day — 30 September 2026. But 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.
SOF and SilverZone registration last dates 2026-27, explained for parents
Four school-route registration dates fall between 23 and 30 September 2026: if your school picks those sittings, SOF’s 30-day rule gives 23 September for a 23 October IMO, 27 September for a 27 October IEO and 30 September for a 30 October ISO, and SilverZone publishes 30 September 2026 for every paper. None of them is a form a parent fills in. Here is what each date means, what to ask the school, and where to go if the school is not entering your child.
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
Up to 20 olympiad-pattern questions a day free, in each subject, and 200 a day on a paid plan — for Class 8 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.
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