The International Geography Olympiad (iGeo): Parent & Student Guide for Singapore IP

TL;DR
iGeo is the world cup of pre-university geography. Each nation fields 4 students + 2 leaders aged ≤ 19 on 30 June of the Olympiad year. Since 2008 the format has stabilised around three equally-weighted tests — a Written Response (WRT), a Fieldwork Exercise (FWE) and a Multimedia Test (MMT). Singapore's Humanities Talent Development Programme (HTDP) nominates ≈20-25 Year 5/JC1 students for training each cycle, with the top four earning full MOE-subsidised berths.

1 What exactly is iGeo?

• Owner: International Geographical Union (IGU).
• Team size: 4 students, 2 adult leaders.
• Eligibility: students must not have entered tertiary education and must be under 19 on 30 June of the iGeo year. The IGU Statutes lay this out in full.
• Host cities: recent editions include Paris 2019, Istanbul 2021 (online), Bandung 2023, Maynooth 2024 and Busan 2025.

1.1 Why parents of Math & Physics students should care

The Written and Multimedia tests are heavy on data interpretation, proportional reasoning and graph reading — precisely the cross-topic skills your child also needs for IP Mathematics and H2 Physics WAs.

2 Competition format & marking

The 40-40-20 split appears in the official iGeo Guide and has remained unchanged since the reforms introduced in the 2008 Tunisia Olympiad.

Tip: Encourage your teen to practise 30-second description drills on satellite images — the same habit boosts Paper 2 data-based questions in A-Level Geography.

3 Recent numbers & Singapore's track record

Bandung's official communiqué lists 46 national teams and 13 registered observers. NUS High School's press release confirms the four-medal sweep for Team SG.

4 Singapore's selection pipeline

1. HTDP camp (Jan-Feb JC1) — Humanities Branch invites ≈ 20-25 students island-wide.
2. National Qualifier (Mar) — Written + GIS quiz; top 8 advance.
3. Field & presentation rounds (Apr-May) — scaled-down FWE mock at East Coast Park.
4. Final team announcement (Jun) — 4 students named; 4 others retained as reserves.

MOE funds the lion's share of costs (air-fare, lodging, registration); parents generally cover personal gear and insurance. The exact split changes with host-city prices but families rarely pay more than 10-15 % of the total.

5 Training agenda & overlap with IP Maths/Physics

6 Timeline (2025-2026 cohorts)

7 Myth-busting corner

• “Only geographers apply.” False — ~40 % of past Singapore medalists were taking PCME or even BCME subject sets.
• “You must self-fund.” False — MOE and sponsors subsidise most expenses; out-of-pocket cost is modest (see §4).
• “Fieldwork = 6 h trek.” False — the assessed observation time is capped at 1 h, followed by a 2 h indoor write-up.

8 Quick practice resources

• Official iGeo past tests
• IGU competition handbook
• GIS for Schools — ESRI StoryMaps
• ArcGIS Earth (free viewer)

9 Call-to-action

Parents: slot a 60-min iGeo Skills Diagnostic before the December holidays — it doubles as a physics-lab uncertainty refresher.
Students: download one WRT and time yourself: 100 min hard stop, 5 min per question to plan.

References

1. IGU iGeo Statutes
2. iGeo Guide — Test Structure
3. iGeo 2008 Tunis Report
4. iGeo 2023 Bandung Press Release
5. NUS High — Team Singapore medal tally 2023
6. iGeo 2024 Maynooth Ireland
7. Korean Geographical Society — Busan 2025 bid
8. MOE Humanities Talent Development Programme
9. MOE Committee of Supply Speech — Olympiad Funding
10. iGeo Fieldwork Exercise Regulations