A Preparation guide for International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics

July 21, 2024 • 4 min read • views

Nepal is on the cusp of a historic moment as it hosts its first-ever International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) Junior. This event presents a unique opportunity for young Nepali astronomers to showcase their skills and compete against the best in the world.

To help you make the most of this opportunity, I've compiled a comprehensive preparation guide. This resource is designed to provide you with the necessary tools and information to excel in the IOAA Junior.

A Brief About Me

I'm a former participant of the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) 2021, representing Nepal. Back then, I was fortunate enough to secure a bronze medal. While I've since shifted my academic focus to physics and mathematics, my passion for astronomy remains ignited. This is a compilation of the materials that served me well, with adjustments to align with the unique needs and challenges of the IOAA Junior.

A note on using resources

Olympiads are different from your school exams or your board exams (like SEE). The questions are rarely repeated, and they aim to assess your knowledge on the field as well as your problem-solving skills and critical thinking. Similarly, the resources you use should be of both kinds, textbooks to gain knowledge as well as problem-sets and past questions to gain famalarity with problems.

A good strategy for approaching these resources could be: first spend some time on a particular "knowledge" resource, and then practice problems until you get stuck / frustated, then get back to "knowledge" type resource and repeat. The trick is to understand how much time should you allocate to learn astronomy and how much to actually prepare to ace the Olympiad. If you just spend time on practicing problems without a good eough foundation of knowledge, you will get frustated very quickly and won't be able to understand solutions. But, if you just study astronomy from those "knowledge" type resources you won't do well on Olympiad. The trick is the balance, which is different for everyone based on how quickly they can grasp the concepts.

Make a habit of making notes as you study through. Having your own notebook helps you connect the dots as you study through mutiple resources with overwhelming amount of resources.

Do not hesitate to change resources if you need to. As you go through a particular book or playlist, you will feel like you don't understand it anymore, and don't feel like working through. Switch up the resource at that point but keep working. In most cases when you change resource, you start from a easier topic which you might have already studied. This helps to re-energize your interest on the topic.

Learn to emphasize syllabus. Go thorough the syllabus and you should know at least something (few sentences) about every word mentioned there. However, not every section requires equal depth of knowledge. To better grasp on which parts you should work more on, work through the practice/past questions, and you will quickly understand the relevance of each topic.

But. These are mere suggestions. As long as you are investing your time for astronomy, you will be improving, and moving towards your goal. Also Remember, the goal isn't merely to win a medal but to deepen your understanding of the cosmos. As Rancho from 3 idiots says, Kamiyab hone ki liye mat padho, Kabil banne ki liye padho. Kabiyabi jhap marke tumhare pass aajayegi (Don't Study to be successful, Study to be knowledgeable, everything else follows).

A note on time management

Since you also have to study your school's curriculum, time management will be a big issue for you. In my case, I was preparing majorly during COVID lockdown which made it easier for me to manage my time. But, even during school session you can succefully prepare for your Olympiad. I used to take my notes/problems to classes and work on them in between periods and on half-time. Try to spend more time for your olympiad as much as you can because it will ultimately pay off very heavily than your school's curricula (which you can cover on your own very easily during exams).

Knowledge type resources

Books

• Astronomy (Openstax)
• Universe (Freedman, Kaufmann)

Both of them are similiar books, you can choose any one of them and go through it. Do note that they are very vast, but they are very easy to read.

Youtube

• Michel Von Biezen Scroll down to the section on Astronomy and Astrophysics. They are easy to digest and detailed enough to cover everything.