How does New Zealand choose its IBO team?

Students sit a national entrance exam in August, the best are invited to an online tutorial programme that runs from September to April, a camp selection exam in March picks about 20 to 25 students for a residential camp in the April holidays, and four students are chosen at the camp on their performance there.

Who organises the New Zealand programme?

The IBO lists the body as NZ International Biology Olympiad (NZIBO) Inc. and describes it as a charitable organisation run by a volunteer committee of teachers, alumni and academics. Its website is nzibo.org.

Any full-time New Zealand secondary school student can sit the entrance exam and join the tutorials, whatever their visa status. The camp and the team have stricter rules: New Zealand citizenship or permanent residence, at least two years of schooling in New Zealand, an age limit tied to the IBO year, and no university study started.

Is this guide written by a New Zealand participant?

No. It is an outline of the official picture from published sources, with tips from BiOGuide. We are looking for a New Zealand olympiad participant or coach to write a firsthand guide and replace this one.

New Zealand International Biology Olympiad (NZIBO): Official Outline of the Path to IBO

New Zealand sends four students to the International Biology Olympiad (IBO). At the 37th IBO in Vilnius, Lithuania (12 to 19 July 2026), the team came home with two silver and two bronze medals, according to the national organiser’s own report.¹ We have not cross-checked that against the IBO’s results page. This page outlines how the path to that team works according to the sources we could read. It is a map of the structure, not an insider’s account of what the exams and the camp feel like.

Programme: New Zealand International Biology Olympiad (NZIBO)
Organiser: NZ International Biology Olympiad (NZIBO) Inc., a volunteer-run charitable organisation²
Who can enter: Any full-time New Zealand secondary school student for the entrance exam; citizens and permanent residents only for the camp and team⁴
Stages: Entrance exam, online tutorial programme, camp selection exam, selection camp, IBO team of four
Official website: nzibo.org
Language: English

The path at a glance

Stage	What happens	How sure we are
National entrance exam	A two hour online exam sat at school under supervision, in August	Good: format and dates are on the official site
Online tutorial programme	Self-directed study with alumni tutors from September to April	Good for the format; the number invited (250) comes from the IBO’s page only
Camp selection exam	A two hour online multiple choice exam at school, in March	Good: official site, and the IBO’s page agrees on the 20 to 25 who advance
Selection camp	A residential camp of about 10 days in the April holidays, with theory and practical exams	Good for the structure; the venue and exact dates are not published
IBO team	Four students chosen on their performance at the camp	Good for the fact; the exact weighting is not described

Stage 1: the national entrance exam

The path starts with a national entrance exam that students sit online at their own school, supervised by a teacher. It lasts two hours and mixes multiple choice, true or false, short answer and simple calculation questions. The official site says it tests thinking skills and not knowledge of a particular curriculum.⁶ It is held on the fifth Wednesday of Term 3. For the 2026/27 cycle that was 19 August 2026, with registration open from 1 June to 10 August 2026.⁷

Each student registers and pays online individually and picks their school from a list; the school needs a contact teacher, and late entries are not accepted.^4,5 The exam is aimed at Years 11 and 12, is open to Year 13, and younger students in Years 9 and 10 are encouraged to try. There is no limit on the number of attempts.^3,4 The site lists the entrance fee as $40 plus GST.^3,8 The sources we could read do not say who writes the exam.

Stage 2: the online tutorial programme

The best performers in the entrance exam are invited to an online tutorial programme that runs from September to April; the 2026/27 programme began on 20 September 2026.⁷ It is self-directed study built around the Campbell Biology textbook and two online platforms, Mastering Biology and Education Perfect, with former participants acting as tutors. The official site suggests about 5 to 8 hours a week over the summer.³ The fee is listed as $155 plus GST, marked as to be confirmed when we read it.³

The IBO’s page says the top 250 are invited.² The official site gives no number, so treat 250 as a guide and not a rule. Students who took part in the tutorials in an earlier year can rejoin without sitting the entrance exam again.⁵

Stage 3: the camp selection exam

Tutorial students sit a camp selection exam on the fifth Wednesday of Term 1; for the current cycle that is 3 March 2027.⁷ It is two hours of multiple choice questions, taken online at school under supervision.⁶ The topics named on the official site are cell structure and function, ecology, plant and animal anatomy and physiology, and genetics and evolution.^3,6 The top 20 to 25 students are invited to the camp, and the organisers may add wild card places.^2,3

Stricter eligibility rules start here. To attend the camp and be considered for the team, a student must be a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident, have had at least two years of schooling in New Zealand, be born on or after 1 July of the year 20 years before the IBO year, and not have started university study. A student may attend at most two NZIBO camps and two IBOs, and only one New Zealand olympiad camp in any one year.^4,5

Stage 4: the selection camp and the IBO team

The practical training and selection camp is residential and held in the April school holidays. It combines laboratory work, fieldwork and seminars with theory and practical exams; the IBO’s page gives three hours for each kind of exam.^2,3 The official site says it lasts approximately 10 days.³ The fee is listed as $1500 plus GST, subsidised by sponsors, with scholarships available; that figure was also marked as to be confirmed.³

The venue and dates for the next camp were not published when we checked. The IBO’s page says camps are held at tertiary institutions, and the organiser’s 2026 results report thanks the University of Otago for supporting that year’s camp.^1,2

Four students are chosen for the team on their performance across the camp, and they travel with two team leaders.³ The official site says the team exam follows the IBO syllabus.⁶ After selection, the official site describes mentored academic support for the team.³

Certificates

The programme awards certificates by how far a student gets: participation for everyone who sits the entrance exam, bronze for the tutorial programme, silver for the camp, gold for the IBO team and platinum for the top New Zealand student at the IBO.^2,8

Points for an Author

If you went through this programme yourself, these are the points we most need you to settle. They are grouped here so that nothing uncertain is buried in the text above.

Where the sources disagree

How many students sit the entrance exam. The IBO’s page says about 400 and its table shows 454 students from 93 schools in 2024;² the official site speaks of more than 500.⁸
How long the camp lasts. 8 to 10 days on the IBO’s page,² approximately 10 days on the official site.³
What happens after selection. The official site describes mentored academic support for the team;³ the IBO’s page says students receive past IBO papers but no further group training.² We cannot tell which is current.
The bronze certificate. The IBO’s page ties it to completing the tutorials,² the official site to being offered a tutorial place.⁸
Fee reductions. The official pages describe them differently: a waiver in one place and a possible subsidy in another for Māori and Pasifika students, and half price in one place and subsidised in another for schools new to the programme.^3,4,8 Ask the organisers.

Gaps a firsthand author could fill

Who writes the entrance and camp selection exams, and how hard each one is in practice.
The exact number invited to the tutorial programme each year, which the official site does not state.
Where and exactly when the next camp will be held.
How the camp’s theory exams, practical exams and other work are weighed when the four are chosen.
What the tutorials and the camp are actually like, how much time they really take alongside school, and what students wish they had known.

A firsthand author can settle every one of these points. If that could be you, email us or read how it works.

BiOGuide tips for students aiming at this path

These are general tips from BiOGuide, not advice from a New Zealand participant, and they apply to any student aiming at an IBO team.

Start with the official past papers. The organisers publish entrance exam papers for 2021, 2022 and 2025 with answers, and a 2011 sample selection exam with model answers; the rest are embargoed.^5,6 Work through those first.
Practise reasoning, not recall. The entrance exam is described as a test of thinking skills. Questions that make you read data and experiments are the best practice, and past IBO papers in our practice papers are full of them.
Read Campbell alongside the tutorials. The programme names Campbell Biology as its textbook.⁶ Our notes on cell and molecular biology, animal anatomy and animal physiology follow the same ground in a shorter form.
Take the practical side seriously. The camp includes practical exams and the IBO does too, so use every chance at school to handle a microscope, a pipette and real data.
Know the international format. The IBO preparation guide explains how the international exams work.
Use the official channels for anything dated. Registration windows, fees and camp dates change every year. The organisers decide, not us.

Official links and sources

NZIBO, 20 July 2026, report on the team’s results at the 37th IBO (official national site, in English). nzibo.org
International Biology Olympiad, country page for the New Zealand International Biology Olympiad (in English). ibo-info.org. The page is undated and its statistics run to 2024.
NZIBO, programme stages (official national site, undated, in English). nzibo.org/programme-stages
NZIBO, registration, for the 2026/27 cycle (official national site, in English). nzibo.org/registration
NZIBO, frequently asked questions (official national site, undated, in English). nzibo.org/faqs
NZIBO, preparing for exams (official national site, undated, in English). nzibo.org/preparing-for-exams
NZIBO, key dates for 2026 and 2027 (official national site, in English). nzibo.org/key-dates. When we read it, the page still listed the April 2026 camp as to be confirmed, so parts of it lag behind.
NZIBO, programme overview (official national site, undated, in English). nzibo.org/nzibo-programme

One more note on sources. Everything here comes from the organiser and the IBO; we did not find an independent news report or a government page to check them against. Fees are quoted as the official site lists them and two of the three were marked as to be confirmed.

This outline was last checked on 8 October 2026 and will age. Spotted an error or out-of-date detail? Email r6394175@gmail.com.