How can I get involved?
If you’re a high school student, register to take the First Round Exam, take a look at Resources for preparation, and tell all your friends!
For everyone else, we can always use help with funding so we can run a training camp and cover the team’s travel costs. If you’re qualified*, we’d love help with question-writing and coaching. Most importantly, though, make sure to tell everyone you know (especially high school students) about us!
*past IOAA medalist or physics/astronomy student at graduate level or above, international students in the US also welcome!
Who can participate?
Anyone can participate in the First Round Exam. Everyone who scores above the cutoff can participate in the NAC.
To qualify for the national team, however, you must be a high school student with US citizenship or permanent residency.
How do I register?
Check out the Registration page!
How does the selection process work?
Check out our Selection Process page!
Who can be a proctor?
In almost all cases, your proctor should be a teacher at your school. In exceptional cases (for which you must email us at info@usaaao.org), other proctors may be allowed, provided they satisfy the following criteria:
- Parents, relatives, or close friends and acquaintances of students are not acceptable proctors. It is expected and preferred that competitors will take the exam at their local school, though they may take the exam elsewhere if needed.
- For-profit test prep centers and educational services are not allowed to proctor the NAC exam.
- Homeschooled students should contact community colleges, universities, or libraries to ask if they have proctoring services.
- Libraries may proctor the test at a public library, provided they can observe the test for the entire duration to ensure exam integrity.
- Testing centers will need to acknowledge that they are a testing center and provide a web address to verify their Non-Profit status.
What topics are being tested?
Take a look at the IOAA Syllabus.
What is the NAC?
The NAC, or National Astronomy Competition, is a 2.5 hour written exam that covers a wide variety of material related to astronomy and astrophysics. To qualify for the NAC, you must score above a cutoff value on the First Round Exam. As of 2025, the top fifteen eligible scorers on the NAC will be invited to an online training program and Third Round Exam. Final selection of the five-member U.S. IOAA team will be based on a weighted combination of NAC and Third Round Exam performance.
What were the scores of students qualified to IOAA?
Every year top 5 best scores are invited to represent the USA at the next IOAA. If the host country permits, we also invite next 5 top scorers to join as the guest team. How students perform on the exam depends heavily on that year’s exam and students that are taking it. We do not want to bias students with previous scores since they vary over the years and are in no way indicative of the “good enough” score for the current year.
Why do we send a team to the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) and not to the International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO)?
IOAA and IAO are both international competitions for high-school students interested in astronomy and astrophysics in general. Historically, the first IAO was held in 1996 while IOAA was introduced more recently in 2007. Though both the competitions are similar in spirit, there are some differences. The number of participating countries in IAO 2019 (Romania) was 20 while it was 46 in IOAA 2019 (Hungary). The administrative structure of the IOAA is open and includes an international board consisting of team leaders with an elected President and General Secretary from among the member states. Hence, due to the broader scope of the IOAA on the world stage, and ease and transparency with logistics of the actual event, we choose to send a team only to the IOAA.
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