A.              INTRODUCTION:

The Website

The Olympiad is an international event which promotes English language, challenges students around the globe to compete in English language knowledge and motivates the teachers to cooperate. The Olympiad encourages the development of a shared sense of identity and integration, serves as a role model for young people living together as one community. The main goal is to create and nourish friendly relations, international understanding and a spirit of healthy competition between young people interested in English language from all around the world.

 The first edition was held in 2012, with around 5,000 students from 6 countries and 44 finalists. As the number of participating students grew over the years, in 2016 the semi-final round was introduced. The 2023 edition had 223 finalists from almost 61 different countries and was held both online and onsite.

 ***The Olympiad is open to students 6 – 19 years old from the whole world and Stirling Schools Board of Education has approved participation of the primary schools in this year’s Hippo. (This does NOT imply the other levels cannot participate) If schools wish other levels to participate, they can include it as well but it is not in central planning.  

 Please check out below categories for participation age groups;

 

B.               FEES:

The registration fee is 15.000 IQD per participant for the Online.

***Online Registration fee (15.000 IQD) is non-refundable.

C.              PROCEDURE:  

hippo-olympiad.org/download/hippo-2022-regulations/?wpdmdl=1090&refresh=654a0fa34d1831699352483

 

1-    PRELIMINARY ROUNDS: Schools can choose between online and paper-based examinations. (Top 10% of the students will be promoted to the National Finals).

ONLINE EXAMINATIONS In the Preliminary Round schools will be provided with login details. Students will need to take the test in their approved HIPPO Venue (usually Schools) or be invigilated remotely. Different regulations apply.

 

Stirling Schools should target one of the two dates for Preliminary Rounds below before promoting Hippo according to their academic calendar and teacher profile.

 

Both leads to Regional Qualifier.

Option 1:  Preliminary Round (9 March 2024, Saturday)

Option 2: Preliminary Round (20 April 2024, Saturday)

Both leads to Regional Qualifier.

The tests for the preliminary round of the Olympiad will consist of two parts: a test of reading comprehension (multiple choice questions) by Gatehouse Awards, and a Hippo Use of English MC Test. The maximum allowed time per part is shown in the tables below.

 

Hippo exam tests and past papers are ready to be downloaded and studied both on paper and online. https://test.hippo-olympiad.org/sample-test.

 

 

 

2-   NATIONAL FINAL ROUNDS: (Semifinal)

After the preliminary round tests have been marked, the top 10% of participating students from each participating city will be invited to the National Finals. The list of finalists will be expanded to include all the students whose number of points is the same as the number of points of the last students in the first 10%.

 

The list of finalists will be published on the Olympiad website within three weeks of the preliminary round date. The network of final venues will be based on the location of the finalists.

 

The exam level for the final round will be one CEFR level higher than the one in the preliminary round. The tests for the national finals of the Olympiad will consist of a reading test, a writing test (30 questions) and an essay (except for Little Hippo).

 

 

 

 

3-   REGIONAL QUALIFIER:

Both Preliminary Rounds lead to Regional Qualifier in Istanbul, TURKEY (25-26 June 2024) for Central Asia, Middle East and African countries.

 

Regional Qualifiers will be held in person. Online examinations will not be available, and no exemptions will be made. *If a student does not confirm their participation within 5 working days of the invitation to the Regional Qualifiers, the next student in the ranking list from the same country will be invited. The minimum percentage of achievement for a student to be invited to the Qualifiers will be 70% of the first ranked student points.

 In the Qualifiers Round, the candidates will take a Hippo Test of English consisting of 30 Use of English open-ended questions and a crossword. Hippo Test of English Samples are available on the official website.

 

4-   PLAY - OFF QUALIFIERS:

The Global HIPPO Association will organize PLAY_OFF QUALIFIERS in order to give additional participants the opportunity to reach HIPPO 2024 World Finals by offering an intensive five-day HIPPO English Language preparation course followed by a HIPPO Test to be taken on day 6.

 PLAY-OFF QUALIFIERS are only open to Hippo 2, Hippo 3, Hippo 4 and Hippo 5 students of both regular and special categories.

 Participants will be divided into Olympiad regions (hereinafter regions) for the purpose of organizing Play-Off Qualifiers. The same pre-set regions as for the Regional Qualifiers have been established.

 Pre-set regions are as follows:

1. Mediterranean Europe

2. Continental Europe

3. Middle East

4. Central Asia

5. Indian Subcontinent

6. Maritime Southeast Asia

7. Far East

8. Africa

9. Central & South America

 Where the number of enrolments in a specific region reaches 3,000 students in the 2024 edition, with a minimum of 300 candidates per Hippo Category, Play-Off Qualifiers will be organized.

 Play-Off Qualifiers will be held in the United Kingdom in the first week of August 2024.

Students with the best ranking among those not qualified for the World Finals or for the Regional Qualifiers will be admitted to Play-Off Qualifiers. The number of students admitted to Play-Off Qualifiers per category and country will be proportional to the number of preliminary round participants in each category per country.

 Play-Off Qualifiers will be held in person. Online examinations will not be available and no exemptions. will be made.

If a student does not confirm their participation within 15 days of the invitation to Play-Off Qualifiers, the next student in the ranking list from the same country will be invited. The minimum percentage of achievement for a student to be invited to the Qualifiers will be 70% of the first ranked student points.

 Students invited to the Play-Off Qualifiers will be requested to pay a participation fee.

Students will need to make their own travel arrangements and cover the costs themselves. The participation fee will cover the costs of teaching, learning materials, half-board accommodation, insurance, merchandising (given to the participants upon arrival). Costs and other details are available in a separate document.

 No accompanying teachers or parent are accepted. Students will be accommodated in a college open to students only, supervised by guardians 24/7.

 The courses will be taught by Hippo examiners, 4 hours a day, for a total of 20 hours. Students will be divided into groups based on the category in which they had participated. Lessons will be tailor-made and will include Hippo mock examinations. Play-Off Qualifiers examinations will take place on the morning of the 6th day of their stay, while the proclamation of winners will take place in the evening.

 Winners of each HIPPO category and for any of the Region will proceed to the World Finals.

 

5-   FINAL ROUND: 23-26 Sept 2024

The final round of the Olympiad will be held in Assisi, Italy, in September 2024. All candidates can be accompanied by their English language teacher, or an English-speaking teacher from their school.

 Parents who wish to accompany their children need to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements as the hotels where the students are accommodated are booked exclusively for the Olympiad participants.

Three-day half-board accommodation will be provided for all the candidates and their teachers free of charge, while the costs of travel will be borne by the participants.

 Finalists are expected to arrive the day before the examinations start; examinations will be held over two days while the proclamation of winners and awarding ceremony will be held on the evening of the second day of examinations.

 The programme of the final round will be sent directly to the finalists who confirmed their participation one week before the event.

Finalists will be contacted and helped with making their travel arrangements.

 

D.              REGISTRATION GUIDE:  

* Please provide a domain name specific to your school rather than a public e-mail address.

·      Schools assign a responsible teacher for HIPPO. (the details need to be provided in the Venue Approval Form) This person will oversee student enrolments and will need to ensure that all the Olympiad examination regulations are followed.

·      The assigned teacher collects the list of students HIPPO Registration & Score Sheet Template.xlsx  and registers them to the online system. upon venue approval, each school will receive login details for the Hippo Online Platform (http://soa.hippo-olympiad.org/) where they need to register candidates by entering the necessary information (full name, DOB).

·      Teachers will be guided further by the Regional Coordinator Hakan Arslan for HIPPO ([email protected])

·      The representative teacher gets a certificate.

·      The representative teacher can also inform HIPPO about the additional teachers so they can also get certificates.

 

The representative teachers can login their account and register students and follow the steps after log in:

 

 

D-  AWARDS & CERTIFICATES:

PRELIMINARY ROUNDS: All participants will receive a Certificate of Participation. Top 10% of the students who promote to the Qualifiers will receive Certificate of Achievement.

 

NATIONAL FINAL ROUNDS: All participants will receive a Certificate of Participation. The minimum percentage of achievement for a student to be invited to the Qualifiers will be 70% of the first ranked student points and will receive Certificate of Achievement.

 

QUALIFIERS: Winners of each qualifier round will proceed to the World Finals. All participants will receive a Certificate of Participation.

 FINAL ROUND: All candidates who pass the final round tests (score 55% minimum) will be awarded a Gatehouse Awards internationally recognized certificate in English.

 Hippo 1, 2 and 3 Winners will receive Bucksmore Golden Ticket Prize, a one-week stay at one of Bucksmore Education colleges and will be fully inclusive of tuition, accommodation, excursions, meals and airport transfers. They will not include the cost of air travel – air travel costs will be the responsibility of the winning recipient.

Hippo 4 and 5, Hippo Special 1 – 4 winners will receive a Mizzou K-12 online course.

Hippo Special 5 will receive a full Mizzou K-12 Online Diploma program.

Second place winners of Hippo 1 – 3 will receive a Mizzou K-12 online course.

 Additional prizes will be available for the teachers of the winners.

 *** Schools should not promise students any awards other than those announced by the organizing firm but if they do so, they must budget it on their own before announcing.