From Latvia to IBO Silver: Līga's Story
In her own words
Hello from Latvia!
Although Latvia is a small country, it has shown some good results in the IBO in recent years. Our national selection consists of four stages: school Olympiad, regional and national stage, as well as the selection for IBO. During each stage, the best are selected for competition in the next.
She set her goal early, and read well beyond the school curriculum to get there:
I set the aim to get to the IBO after the national olympiad in 10th grade. Since then I read Campbell Biology, as well as more advanced books for specific topics (like animal physiology), and used online resources. It would have been helpful to have explanations available for IBO problems, as for some years only answer keys without explanations were available, or sometimes an explanation was "it is obvious" (but I answered wrong, so it is not).
Latvia’s path to the IBO
Līga walked through each of the four stages in turn, starting with the one she has the least personal experience of, since it happens inside individual schools before the wider competition even begins:
I don't have any experience with school biology Olympiads. These are usually organized by schoolteachers if there are many students in the school who want to participate in the biology Olympiad. In my high school, there were not many interested in biology. Actually, many considered it a humanitarian science, which made me furious. The main subjects were chemistry, physics, and math, and all students were obliged to take part in school Olympiads in these.
Regional Olympiads happen online. Often questions are written by previous Olympiad winners, as the main organizers send an email asking if we want to contribute. In fact, last year I helped by proofreading tasks written by others, and this year I am writing a task together with a friend. Most often they include questions with answer options and one or multiple correct answers but might include a few open answers. Tasks are built considering the school biology program and what students should know in each grade (9 to 12), but students should apply critical thinking and reasoning skills. Often interpretation of graphs is asked. Therefore, the best preparation strategy might be reviewing the knowledge from notes or school biology books (and, for example, for 10th grade students, there might appear topics not only from 10th grade but also 9th grade), practicing with other years' tasks (I think the electronic platform here helps, as it also simulates the time limit and environment), and understanding the meaning of statistical significance in biology for proper interpretation.
The national Olympiad is where the format starts to resemble the IBO itself, and it is also where she places a result worth noting:
The national Olympiad takes place over 2 days: on the 1st day theoretical knowledge is tested, and the 2nd day is about practical skills. The theory test in its format is actually very similar to the IBO theory, a question with introduction and necessary explanations and 4 statements that should be marked true or false. It is very valuable to read and memorize a few of the most important facts about the annual symbols, like the animal, plant, and fungus of the year, and others, as these appear in the test. I would usually start finding information about them in early January (a good source is lsm.lv) and make a summary of them. In recent years, the format has become a bit less traditional, and there might be a question asking you to do some simple calculations, so don't forget to take your calculator.
During the test you might need to apply your knowledge (like memorized things), use the information given, and interpret graphs. My strategy during the Olympiad is to do questions in the sequence they are given and fill in statement evaluations where I think I know the answer. Then I return to the empty spaces and try to understand what the correct answer might be. But I would guess an answer if I wasn't able to figure it out: 50% chance is better than 0%, and time is important. If I have extra time left over, I go through the questions again and check my answers. But be careful when changing your answer, think it through: you don't want to feel stupid when you discover that you changed a correct answer. I believe the best preparation is to do tests from previous years.
The second theoretical part is mostly focused on giving open answers. So don't forget to add an explanation if it is asked, and read the question carefully to give all the details that are expected. There are 4 tasks, usually each on a different topic, covering a different branch of biology. Here I would suggest skimming through them at the start and thinking of a sequence in which to do the tasks. I would prioritize doing the tasks in the fields I feel strongest in first, and leave the fields I feel weakest in for last. To prepare it might be useful to read a bit of additional literature, as the questions might be a bit more advanced than the school program. For resources and literature, you can look at the guide provided on the Olympiad platform. After this part there might be a workshop to prepare for practicals, for example microscopy and/or pipetting. Although it might seem that you already know it, go there. It will help you understand what to expect from day 2 and mentally prepare.
On the 2nd day there are 4 practical tasks from different subfields. Time management is very important. Skim through the worksheet and understand the sequence of actions to be performed. It might be that you need to start by doing something from the middle or end, not the start of the worksheet, as it takes a longer time. Organizers might not have put the task first on purpose, to test your ability to organize your work. Additionally, think of steps where you might need to wait for something and what you can do in the meantime, like doing other practical steps or starting to answer questions. And find a balance between speed and accuracy. I remember doing very well in the regional Olympiad but not as well in the nationals in 10th and 11th grade due to the practical tasks. In 10th grade there was a practical about a capture and release simulation where I needed to count beans and peas. Because the protocol didn't mention how large my sample size should be, I chose to count too many beans and peas and couldn't manage my time. If you have an opportunity in school or elsewhere to practice some practical tasks, do it.
The IBO selection round is the final filter, and by her account it is a genuine competitive stage in its own right, not just a training camp:
The IBO selection covers topics very similar to the IBO. The theory, with calculations, multiple answer and open answer questions, is online. It is usually heavy in genetics, so it is important to familiarize yourself with interpreting family trees, calculating probabilities, gene interactions, recombination, and other topics. The practicals (usually 3) are on topics similar to that year's IBO.
The official picture
The IBO country profile for the Latvian State Biology Olympiad lines up with the broad shape of Līga’s account, with the Ministry of Education and Science’s State Education Development Agency as the overseeing body and the University of Latvia’s Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences hosting the later rounds:
| Round | Timing | Format |
|---|---|---|
| School | November | Within individual schools, around 5,000 pupils, administered by teachers |
| Regional | Late November to early December | Online, around 2,500 to 3,000 pupils from grades 9 to 12 |
| State | Late January | Top 150 regional finishers, 3 days at the University of Latvia: theory on day 1, 4 practical laboratory tasks on day 2 |
Where Līga’s account adds real nuance to the official picture is the step after the State round. The country profile describes the four selected finalists simply receiving a 10 day training camp in June, while Līga describes an “IBO selection” stage with its own online theory paper and practicals that she says covers material directly comparable to the IBO itself, not just preparation for it. Both descriptions likely refer to the same post-State period looked at from different angles: an official training camp that, in practice, still functions as a genuine competitive filter on the way to the final team of four. It was this pipeline that took her from winning the national Olympiad outright in 12th grade to a silver medal at IBO 2025 in Quezon City.
Sources: IBO country profile, Latvian State Biology Olympiad.
Exam-day strategy, in her own words
Beyond the structure of the pipeline itself, Līga had specific advice for the parts of competing that a syllabus alone won’t teach you:
I strongly suggest going to appeals. Be brave and ask questions and fight if you think a correct answer should be changed. It is good if you have friends with whom you can discuss the answers. Maybe they will explain a question you answered wrong, or you will discover that you both answered the same way and it was taken as incorrect, but you believe otherwise. Then it will feel safer to go to question writers and volunteers to discuss it. It is a great pleasure to prove your point and get extra points. I have experienced how this can be the difference between having a medal or not.
And don't forget to have fun. Attend the board game evening and the lectures and masterclasses on the 3rd day. It might be stressful (especially on day 3, when you wonder if you did well enough), but try not to let that stop you enjoying the new knowledge you have gained. And definitely listen to the "pearls", the funny answers compiled by organizers (if you are lucky, there might be yours: there is a joke that writing a "pearl" is more honorable than getting a medal. In 12th grade I somehow managed to write 2 pearls without consciously thinking about it, and get 1st place).
How BiOGuide fits in
Līga’s account maps onto specific things BiOGuide is built to do:
- The missing piece she named directly, explanations instead of a bare answer key or a dismissive “it is obvious,” is exactly what BiOrchive exists to provide: past papers paired with worked model solutions, not just a correct-answer list to be taken on faith.
- Her own prep path, Campbell Biology plus targeted advanced reading once she found a specific weak topic like animal physiology, is the same structure Notes @ BiOGuide is organised around: broad topic pages with difficulty indicators and prerequisite links, built for exactly that kind of targeted, topic-by-topic deepening.
- “I believe the best preparation is to do tests from previous years” is the Question Bank underneath BiOrchive put into words: every archived question is tagged by the topic it draws on, so practice can be aimed at a specific weak area instead of worked through at random.
This article preserves Līga’s own words, shared and published with her consent. If you competed in a Biology Olympiad and want to share your story, reach out to us; we would love to hear from you.