How does Pakistan choose its IBO team?

A nationwide screening test and board position holders fill a first camp of about 100 students, and a series of camps run by NIBGE in Faisalabad narrows the group. The sources we could read do not state the final team size or the rule that picks the students.

The IBO lists the STEM Careers Programme of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad, as the appointing body, with the National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering (NIBGE) in Faisalabad hosting and running the camps.

Is this guide written by a Pakistani participant?

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

Pakistan National Biology Talent Contest (NBTC): Official Outline of the Path to IBO

Q: Is there a Pakistan Biology Olympiad?

Under that name, not according to the IBO. The IBO lists the National Biology Talent Contest (NBTC), part of the National Science Talent Contest, as Pakistan's national biology olympiad.

Pakistan sends students to the International Biology Olympiad (IBO) through a contest that is not called an olympiad at home: the National Biology Talent Contest (NBTC), part of the National Science Talent Contest.² The IBO says it has existed since 2003, and its list of countries names it as Pakistan’s national biology programme.¹ This page outlines the path according to the sources we could read. It is a map of the structure, not an insider’s account, and several of the sources we tried to open were unavailable, so it is shorter than the others in this series.

Programme: National Biology Talent Contest (NBTC), part of the National Science Talent Contest²
Organiser: STEM Careers Programme of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), Islamabad; camps run by NIBGE, Faisalabad²
Who can enter: Students with a stated minimum of marks in their last exam; the two sources give different thresholds^2,3
Stages: Nationwide screening test, first camp, further camps, IBO team
Official website: stem.edu.pk
Language: English

The path at a glance

Stage	What happens	How sure we are
Application	Applications are invited through the press, usually in August or September	Low: the IBO’s undated page
Screening test	A multiple-choice and short-answer test held the same day in major cities	Medium: IBO page, with a lower-confidence second source
First camp	About 100 students: 50 from the screening test and 50 board position holders	Medium: IBO page; the official site says top 50
Later camps	Four selection rounds in total, narrowing the group, with practicals in the last	Medium: IBO page
IBO team	The final team size is not stated	Low: the sources disagree and are unclear

Stage 1: application and the screening test

The IBO’s page says applications are usually invited through the press in August or September, and that the STEM Careers Programme runs an open-merit screening test on the same day in major cities, made up of 60% to 70% multiple-choice questions and 30% to 40% short questions.² The official site describes registration and a nationwide screening test, after which the top 50 per subject are invited to a one-week residential camp.³ It also lists sample and past papers from earlier editions of the contest.³ Eligibility is covered in the box below.

Stage 2: the first camp

The IBO’s page says the first camp has about 100 students: 50 chosen by the screening test and 50 board position holders.² The camps are hosted and run by NIBGE in Faisalabad, with tests set by NIBGE after the first camp.²

Stage 3: later camps and the team

The IBO’s page says there are four selection rounds in total, usually around October or November, January, March and June. Rounds one and two have lectures and tests, round three has tests only, and round four includes practicals. NIBGE training in total is no more than five to six weeks.² The official site says successive camps narrow each subject’s group to a team.³ The IBO’s page offers prize money for participants and medallists at the national level, but its figures are undated, so we do not repeat them.² We found news reports of Pakistani results at recent IBOs, but only in search summaries of pages we could not open, so we do not cite them.

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

The name. Our dataset said “Pakistan Biology Olympiad”; the IBO uses National Biology Talent Contest.^1,2
Who can enter. The IBO’s page says students who have passed grade 9 or 10, O Levels, grade 11, FSc Part I or A Levels Part I with at least 70%;² the official site says an aggregate of at least 60% in physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics in the last exam, and under 20 at the time of the international olympiad.³
Size of the first camp. The IBO’s page says about 100 students,² while the official site says the top 50 per subject.³ The second may leave out the board position holders.
Team size. The official site speaks of teams of four to six per subject,³ while the IBO’s page does not state a team size.² Our reading is that the IBO limits delegations to four students, so how the team is chosen from four to six is unclear.
When it began. The IBO says 2003.¹ A search summary we could not trace to its page suggested the wider national contest dates to 1989.

Gaps a firsthand author could fill

The current dates, registration steps and test format for the biology strand.
How many students are kept at each camp after the first, and the rule that picks the IBO team.
Pakistan’s recent IBO medals. We found no source we could open and confirm.
An official biology syllabus. The sources we could read do not give one.
What the screening test and the camps are actually like, 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 Pakistani participant, and they apply to any student aiming at an IBO team.

Train for the international format early. The IBO papers test reasoning on data and experiments, not only recall. The IBO preparation guide explains the format, and past IBO papers are in our practice papers.
Cover the whole IBO syllabus. With no official biology syllabus found, the IBO syllabus is the safest guide; our notes run from cell and molecular biology to evolution.
Practise the practical side. The last selection round includes practicals, so learn lab techniques as well as theory. Our practical notes are a start.
Use past papers. The official site lists sample and past contest papers, so try those alongside IBO papers.
Use the official channels for anything dated. Eligibility, dates and formats change every year. The STEM Careers Programme decides, not us.

Official links and sources

International Biology Olympiad, list of countries and regions (undated). ibo-info.org
International Biology Olympiad, country page for the National Biology Talent Contest (undated, English; some figures may be old). ibo-info.org
STEM Careers Programme, official site (undated, English). stem.edu.pk

Two more notes on sources. Several news sites and pages on the official site, including a page for the contest itself, did not load for us. Everything in this guide was read in English, so nothing depends on a translation.

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