How to organize National Selection

All IEO contestants are selected through nation-wide contests. Each country has its own peculiarities which affect the structure of the selection. In this section, we will provide some recommendations and ideas on the organization of the selection which you can choose to follow or neglect.

Major Requirements

The Application Guideline states two types of requirements for the national selection:

Desirable requirements

1

The competition that is meant to be the selection process for the IEO must have at least one of the three subjects of the IEO (economics, financial literacy, business case) or their combination as a separate part. The team for the IEO must be selected mainly based on the results of this part (these parts), the command of English can also be considered. 

2

The competition in question must be open for participation to any individual who complies with the IEO participation rules. For multi-stage competitions, this must apply for the first stage.

3

In the Statute (or similar document) regulating the competition, the strong commitment to its fairness, openness and transparency is clearly articulated.

1

The competition has no or low participation fees for contestants. 

2

The dates of all stages of the competition are planned at least 3 months before the stages.

It is essential to meet the necessary requirements: without it, the application will be blocked by the IEO Executive Board.

The national selection should be available to all high-school students and graduates of the year of the Olympiad regardless of their gender, social status, and educational background (i.e. students that do not have economics on their school curriculum but are willing to participate should also have the right to join the competition).

The selected team should consist of 5 contestants. The National Organizer can also consider adding 2 reserve contestants to the list who would substitute the main contestants in case they get ill.

Necessary requirements

IEO Composition

To make the selection more effective, it is essential to take into account the structure of the IEO.

The IEO Syllabus gives a detailed description of the skills and knowledge required of the contestant who wants to succeed in each round.

Economics

Test of 20 multiple-choice questions and 5 open questions (out of which only 4 are graded, in accordance with the contestant’s choice)

Financial Literacy

Set of 25 multiple-choice questions focused on different aspects of Financial Literacy

Business Case

Presentation of case solutions in English before the Jury

To get a better idea of the composition of the IEO, the National Organizer can turn to the following sources:

For the better understanding of the Financial Literacy Game, the following links should be studied:

Recordings of Business Case Finals

Previous years' tasks

The registration should be open to any high-school student in the country. The application with a biassed selection of contestants will not pass the voting. To enable open registration, the National Organizer should create a webpage of the selection and promote registration in the sources that are viewed by the potential contestants (e.g. the website of the National Organizer, social networks, email campaigns targeted at high schools).

Multiple-stage selections normally give a better result so plan at least 2 stages: the mass stage will serve as an initial filter, the final stage will help to determine the winners who will participate in the international round.

The first stage of the selection might (and should) attract a large number of contestants which can cause organizational difficulties for the first-year national organizers. To make the grading easier, the National Organizer can select forms of testing with automatic grading (e.g. multiple-choice questions). 

In the post-Covid world, online events are often preferred over the on-site ones. Since the selection must be nationwide, the National Organizer can hold the first stage of the selection online to attract more contestants from all regions of the country and reduce organizational costs. In this case, it is recommended to imply online invigilation to ensure fairness of the results.

The official language of the IEO is English. Tasks are not translated to national languages, and the oral presentations of Business Case solutions are also given in English. It is essential to test the contestants’ knowledge of English before sending them to the IEO.

It is always a good idea to introduce training sessions for the winners of the National Selection: this will increase the chances of the team to win the IEO medals and trophies.

While creating the scheme of the national selection, the National Organizer should consider the following points:

Recommendations for National Selection

The National Organizer has the right to plan any kind of selection in accordance with the Statute and the Application Guideline of the IEO. The recommendations below are not mandatory and are created to help the National Organizers rather than limit their creative solutions.

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Anna Bondareva

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