FAQ

Science Olympiad is a team competition broken into 23 events. Each event is focused on a different area/subject of STEM. Some events take the form of a pencil-and-paper exam, some involve students building a device before the tournament and testing it against other teams’ devices, and some events are a combination of the two formats. Students compete in events as pairs, and all events are run over the course of a single Saturday. In South Carolina, the competition schedule is divided into six blocks of one hour each, and 2-3 events are competing simultaneously during any given hour.

Science Olympiad has two divisions in South Carolina. Division B is the “middle school division, and Division C is the “high school division”. Students in 6th through 9th grade (or equivalent ages) are eligible to compete in Division B, and students in 9th through 12th grade are eligible to compete in Division C. Each division has its own 23-event slate that comprises the tournament structure.

To get a better idea of how the tournament is structured, click here to view the 2026 SCSO schedule.

A team consists of up to 15 students from a single school.* Within your team, students form pairs to divide-and-conquer as many of the 23 events as they can in order to achieve the best team score. A team represents a single school, though schools may form and enter multiple teams if they have more than 15 interested students. Registered schools will receive an invoice from Presbyterian College to pay the registration fee for the 2026-27 SCSO season.

Middle school (Div. B) teams may not have more than five 9th-graders on the roster, and high school (Div. C) teams may not have more than seven 12th-graders on the roster.

*This is a general rule, see below for exceptions:

• Students in 9th grade may choose to either compete in Division B for the middle school they last attended OR compete in Division C for the high school they currently attend.

• Teams formed from non-traditional schools are still welcome to compete. South Carolina follows the national Science Olympiad team qualification policy, which has specific rules for cyber/virtual school students and homeschool students who wish to compete.

Our team registration fee for the 2026-27 season is $200/team. Since SCSO is a member of the national Science Olympiad organization, we are required to send them $75 for each team that registers in South Carolina as our “state membership fee”. So, $75 of your $200 goes to the national office, while the remaining $125 is used by the state office and Presbyterian College to run the state tournament each year.

The $200 registration fee is the only required cost as far as the state office is concerned, though running a Science Olympiad team will certainly have at least a few additional expenses. These vary from team-to-team, though here are some common costs a coach can expect:

• Travel costs/hotel - teams traveling from the Lowcountry may wish to drive up to Clinton and stay in a hotel on Friday night to avoid a very early morning and a long drive on the day of the competition. In the past few years, check-in has started before 8:00 a.m. and the first events typically begin around 8:30 a.m., so getting to campus early will be a benefit.

• Food - teams may bring their own food or snacks or order food during competition day if they wish. In the past, Presbyterian College has opened their Greenville Dining Hall to competitors and coaches for a discounted rate, which gives another option for feeding your team.

• Building supplies - teams competing in the hands-on build events will need to purchase supplies or building kits for those particular events.

SCSO uses the events and event rules published by the national Science Olympiad office every year. Each season, some events stay the same, some get updates, and some swap out entirely. All events are listed on each division’s respective page (Div. B here; Div. C here), and you can access this season’s full rules manual for Division B and Division C here.

You don’t need to! All registered teams are eligible to compete in all events. The decision of which students compete in which events is one that is made entirely within your team, and it doesn’t involve the state organization at all. Using the event rules and the conflict blocks or competition schedule, coaches and students should work together to decide which events have interest from students and which conflicting events students will have to avoid.

No - a team can enter as few or as many events as they like. Teams are eligible to receive medals for their performances in individual events regardless of how many events they enter.

However, it is important to remember that entering fewer events can harm your team score. Since the overall team score is calculated by summing the individual event scores (1st place in an event gets you 1 team point, 2nd place gets 2 team points, etc, with a low-score-wins format for the team scores). A team that chooses not to attend an event is scored as a “no-show” and receives team points for that event equal to the total number of teams competing in that division.

Each year, the state tournament ends with an awards ceremony. We love recognizing the achievements of Science Olympiad competitors, so there are three different types of awards that we give out.

Event medals - For each individual event in both divisions, we award medals to the students who place in the top four in their division.

Overall team awards - The four best-scoring overall teams in each division receive a trophy and recognition on-stage. The state champion team in each division gets an opportunity to represent South Carolina at the Science Olympiad National Tournament in May.

Sportsmanship Award - This is given out to one Division B team and one Division C team who are recognized by SCSO staff and tournament volunteers as exemplifying good sportsmanship and respect towards fellow students, coaches, and volunteers.

Not directly, though there are plenty of resources available to you. Here is an incomplete selection to get you started:

• Division B event resource pages (including study materials, study tips, and links to build kits)

• Division C event resource pages (including study materials, study tips, and links to build kits)

• Community-sourced test exchange

• National SO rules clarifications and FAQ

• Workshops held by national office staff, national event supervisors, and event experts