--- title: "SOF IMO Preparation Classes Online, Classes 1 to 12 | Live" description: "Live online SOF IMO preparation for Classes 1 to 12: four sections, the three 2026 dates (23 Oct, 26 Nov, 10 Dec), Level 2 qualification, batches of 5 to 10." canonical: https://learn.modernagecoders.com/sof-imo-preparation source: src/pages/sof-imo-preparation.html --- > Live online SOF IMO preparation for Classes 1 to 12: four sections, the three 2026 dates (23 Oct, 26 Nov, 10 Dec), Level 2 qualification, batches of 5 to 10. Start here ## The courses the SOF IMO batches are built from SOF sets its paper on the school syllabus, so the preparation is built on our live maths courses for each class band, with the olympiad course for the student who tops the school and wants the real thing. [![Elementary Maths for Grades 1 to 5 course thumbnail](/images/elementary-maths.webp) Classes 1 to 5 / the base Elementary Maths, Grades 1 to 5 Number sense, operations and word problems taught for understanding, which is where the Everyday Mathematics and Mathematical Reasoning sections come from for the youngest classes. Open the syllabus →](/courses/elementary-mathematics-complete-masterclass)[![Middle School Mathematics Mastery course thumbnail](/images/middle-school-maths.webp) Classes 6 to 8 / the base Middle School Mathematics Pre-algebra, geometry, ratio, percentages and data, the topics the Class 6 to 8 papers lean on hardest, taught in a small live batch with a teacher who asks why. Open the syllabus →](/courses/comprehensive-middle-school-mathematics-mastery)[![Olympiad Mathematics: IOQM, INMO and AMC preparation course thumbnail](/images/olympiad-maths-premium.webp) Next step / the real olympiads Olympiad Mathematics: IOQM, INMO and AMC For the student who tops SOF IMO and wants the proof-based pathway. A different kind of paper and a different course, and we say so rather than stretch this one. Open the syllabus →](/courses/olympiad-mathematics-premium-course) Ans. The short version SOF IMO is the International Mathematics Olympiad run by the Science Olympiad Foundation, a school-based, multiple-choice assessment for Classes 1 to 12, and it is not the International Mathematical Olympiad that national teams compete in. Level 1 is a 60-minute paper of 35 questions (Classes 1 to 4) or 50 questions (Classes 5 to 12) in four sections, set on the CBSE, ICSE and State Board syllabi and sat at school on one of three dates the school chooses: 23 October, 26 November or 10 December 2026. Registration is through the school only. Modern Age Coders prepares students for it live online, in batches of five to ten grouped by class band, two classes a week: one on the sections and the reasoning behind them, one on timed practice in the exact shape of the paper. The first class is a free demo, and the group batch fee is shown on this page in your own currency. Q1. What exactly is the paper? ## The SOF IMO format, straight from the organiser Everything below is taken from SOF's own pages on sofworld.org, read on 22 September 2026. We quote them rather than paraphrase them, because half the bad advice about this exam comes from people describing a different one. | What SOF publishes | Level 1 | Level 2 | | --- | --- | --- | | Who can sit it | Classes 1 to 12 | Classes 3 to 12, qualifiers only | | Where and when | At the student's own school, during school hours, on the date the school chose | A second round for those who qualify | | Length | 60 minutes | Set by SOF for the round | | Questions | 35 multiple choice (Classes 1 to 4); 50 multiple choice (Classes 5 to 12) | Announced to qualifiers | | Sections, Classes 1 to 10 | Logical Reasoning; Mathematical Reasoning; Everyday Mathematics; Achievers Section | | | Sections, Classes 11 and 12 | Logical Reasoning; Mathematical Reasoning or Applied Mathematics; Everyday Mathematics; Achievers Section | | | Syllabus | CBSE, ICSE/ISC and State Board syllabi, medium English | | | 2026 dates | 23 October, 26 November or 10 December; a separate paper for each date | Later, announced by SOF | | How to qualify | | Top 5% class-wise internationally, or top 25 in each zone and class, or class topper where 10 or more sat and the topper scored 50% or more | | How to enter | Through the school only. "Individual registrations are not accepted." Any school can register as a Level 1 centre at no cost to the school. | | Fee paid to SOF (via the school) | Rs 170 per student per olympiad in India, Bhutan and Nepal, plus up to Rs 30 the school may keep for its own costs; US$11 plus up to US$1 elsewhere. SOF's published figures, not ours. | Read that table and two things follow. First, this is a curriculum exam wearing an olympiad's name: the questions stay inside what the class has been taught, and the child who understands the term's topics well and can reason quickly under a clock will do well. Second, one section, the Achievers Section, is built to separate the top of the class from the rest, and it is the section almost nobody prepares for separately. Our batches are organised around those two facts. The name deserves one paragraph of its own. SOF is the Science Olympiad Foundation, a private organisation based in Gurugram that runs eight olympiads and, by its own count, works with more than 99,000 schools in 72 countries. Its IMO is a mass-participation exam with awards down to participation level. The other IMO, the International Mathematical Olympiad, is a two-day proof exam between national teams, reached in India through IOQM, RMO and INMO. A search for "IMO preparation" mixes the two, and a family that buys the wrong preparation wastes a year. This page is about the SOF exam. Our [Olympiad Mathematics course](/courses/olympiad-mathematics-premium-course) is about the other one. Q2. What does each section test? ## Four sections, four different habits of mind A child who is good at school maths is usually good at one of these sections. The exam rewards the child who is competent at all four, and that is a training question, not a talent question. Section 1 ### Logical Reasoning Patterns, series, odd-one-out, coding and decoding, direction sense, mirror images, Venn diagrams and, in the older classes, analytical puzzles with several conditions. None of it is on the school syllabus, which is why it decides so many results: a child who has never seen a number series question loses a minute working out what is being asked before working out the answer. We teach the question families by name and the two or three methods each one yields to, then drill them until recognition is instant. Section 2 ### Mathematical Reasoning The term's syllabus, asked sideways. For a Class 5 student that is fractions, decimals, factors and geometry; for Class 9 it is polynomials, coordinate geometry, linear equations and statistics; for Classes 11 and 12 the section splits into Mathematical Reasoning or Applied Mathematics. The questions are curriculum questions with a twist: two steps where the textbook needed one, or a familiar idea in an unfamiliar costume. This is the section our base courses feed directly, and where a student who understands rather than memorises pulls ahead. Section 3 ### Everyday Mathematics Word problems from ordinary life: bills, discounts, time, distance, mixtures, schedules, sharing. The maths is easier than Section 2; the reading is harder. Children lose marks here by answering the question they expected rather than the one on the page, and by not knowing what to do with a number left over. We practise it as a reading skill first: underline what is given, name what is asked, decide what the leftover means, then calculate. Section 4 ### Achievers Section SOF describes it as topic-specific and harder, and it is where the ranking is decided. Fewer questions, tougher ones, on the same syllabus, with the reasoning of Section 1 and the content of Section 2 combined. Most children skip it or guess it. Ours meet it in a dedicated block every week, from the first month, and learn the two things it rewards: reading a hard question without panic, and knowing when to leave one and return with the last four minutes. The exact split of questions and marks between the sections varies by class, and SOF publishes it in its own materials rather than on the pages we quote here, so we do not reproduce a number we have not verified. What we do is show every student the split for their own class on the first day, from the official sample paper for that class, and build the weekly plan around it. Q3. Why understanding beats memorising in a 60-minute paper ## The same question, answered by two students A Class 6 Everyday Mathematics question, the kind that appears in every paper in some costume. Watch what a memorised method does when the costume changes. ***The memorised answer**a formula, applied* ``` A shop marks a bag at Rs 800 and gives 25% off. What is the price? Discount = 25% of 800 = 200 Price = 800 - 200 = 600 (correct) # Then the paper asks: # "After 25% off, a bag costs # Rs 600. What was the marked price?" # Student: 600 + 25% of 600 = 750. # Wrong. The formula was a photograph. ``` Two marks lost in Section 3, and the same trap waits in Section 4 with bigger numbers. The method was never understood, only rehearsed in one direction. ***The understood answer**reasoned in class* ``` "After 25% off, the bag costs Rs 600. What was the marked price?" 25% off means I pay 75%. 75% of the marked price = 600 1% of the marked price = 8 100% = Rs 800. # Check: 25% of 800 is 200, # 800 - 200 = 600. Yes. # 40 seconds, and the method works # in every direction the paper turns it. ``` Same topic, same class, no formula. The student knows what a percentage is of, which is what the weekly section class is for. The check at the end is a habit we insist on, because it turns a guess into a mark. Every section has a version of this. In Logical Reasoning it is the child who has learned to spot a difference-of-differences series rather than one who has memorised last year's series. In the Achievers Section it is the child who reads the whole question before touching a number. The batch is built to produce the second kind of student, and it takes weeks rather than days, which is why the plan starts well before the date. Q4. How does the batch prepare? ## Five steps, spread across the weeks before your school's date Two live classes a week. One on a section and the reasoning behind it, one on timed practice in the shape of the paper. The timeline counts backwards from the date your school has chosen. 1. #### A placement check in the first week, by class and board Twenty questions, four sections, at the child's class level, sat alone and then walked through together. It tells the teacher which section will earn the marks and which will lose them, and it tells you, honestly, where your child stands before any preparation. The plan for that student is written from it. 2. #### One section at a time, taught for the method Logical Reasoning first, because it is off the school syllabus and pays back fastest. Then Mathematical Reasoning on the topics the class is studying that term, then Everyday Mathematics as a reading skill. Each session ends with a short set the student does alone, marked before the next class, so every week starts with something the student produced. 3. #### The Achievers Section gets its own block every week From the first month, not the last. A small number of hard questions, attempted with a clock, then discussed: which ones to attempt, which to leave, how to come back. By the exam the section that frightens most children is the one ours have seen most often. 4. #### Timed papers in the exact shape of the real one The same four sections, the same question count for the class, the same 60 minutes, on questions the teacher wrote. We do not reproduce SOF's papers; we point you to SOF's own sample papers for the official look, and we practise on ours because the real paper is never the one you rehearsed. Every mock is reviewed question by question the next class. 5. #### A Level 2 track for the students who qualify Qualification comes by three routes, and the school-topper route in particular is reachable for a strong student at a school with a full class entry. Students who qualify move to a shorter, harder block aimed at the second round, and the students who narrowly miss carry on with their base maths course, which was the point all along. Timings are after-school and weekend slots in Indian Standard Time, fixed on the call once we know the class band and your school's date, so a Class 3 batch is never asked to sit at a Class 9 hour. Families abroad on the same syllabus join the same batches; the fee for families outside India is shown in your own currency on this page. Q5. Is this batch right for my child? ## Who it suits, and who it does not ### It suits A Class 1 to 12 student whose school has registered for SOF IMO this cycle, or is about to, and who wants to sit the paper prepared rather than surprised. A child who is fine at school maths and freezes at reasoning questions, which is most children the first time. A family that wants the preparation to leave better maths behind, not just a certificate. ### It also suits A student who did well last year without preparing and wants Level 2 this time. A CBSE or ICSE family abroad whose school runs the SOF olympiads and who wants an English-medium batch on the same syllabus, at an evening hour in their own time zone. ### It does not suit A student whose school does not run SOF IMO and cannot be persuaded to, because there is no individual entry and we will not pretend otherwise. A student aiming at IOQM, RMO and the national olympiad pathway, who needs our olympiad course instead. A family looking for a two-session crash the week before the paper. Q6. What does it cost? ## Monthly fees, the same for every course we teach Billed monthly, no admission fee, stop at any month end. The free demo class comes first, or book a Priority Live Demo for a full class today or tomorrow. Group batch · by class band ₹1,499 per month - Five to ten students in the same class band - Two live classes a week, sections and timed practice - Placement check, weekly marked sets, reviewed mocks - Certificate on completion Book the free demo Mini batch ₹2,999 per month - Three to four students - Timings agreed around the family - More time per student on the Achievers Section Ask about timings One to one ₹4,999 per month - Private teaching on your own schedule - Pace set by the student, not the batch - The usual choice when the school's date is close Enquire What families say ## Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews Real reviews from real families. We neither write nor commission them. ★★★★★ "The one step solution for my son. Modern Age Coders make learning coding so simple that kids love it. The teachers explain complex concepts clearly with practical exercises and interactive content." Ria Mukherjee Parent ★★★★★ "Modern Age Coders has been a game-changer for me. I struggled to grasp IT concepts and coding before joining, but their classes transformed everything. I can now confidently write complex programs with ease." Samriddha Mondal Student ★★★★★ "One of the most wonderful education centres out there. Education is not limited to school syllabus but focuses on skill development." Vansh Agarwal Student ★★★★★ "My child Dhairya is really enjoying the Modern Age Coders classes. This is his first online class and he eagerly looks forward to it. I can already see his improvement, and the teachers are very cooperative." Sonam Oswal Parent of Dhairya ★★★★★ "Modern Age Coders have wonderful teachers who teach in a clear, easy and practical way. The teacher boosts students' confidence and inspires them to learn without hesitation." Sonu Goyal Parent ★★★★★ "I highly recommend this computer coding class! The teachers are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about coding." Ritu Kedia Parent Related pages ## The other olympiads, and the maths underneath them SOF's computer science olympiad, the contest pages for families aiming higher, and the live maths courses this batch is built on. [SOF ICSO (formerly NCO) preparation/sof-icso-preparation](/sof-icso-preparation)[Maths challenges and competitions/maths-challenges](/maths-challenges)[AMC 8, 10, 12 and AIME coaching/math-olympiad-amc-tutoring](/math-olympiad-amc-tutoring)[Olympiad Mathematics: IOQM, INMO, AMC/courses/olympiad-mathematics-premium-course](/courses/olympiad-mathematics-premium-course)[JEE Foundation Maths, Class 8 to 10/courses/jee-foundation-maths-course-class-8-10](/courses/jee-foundation-maths-course-class-8-10)[CBSE Class 10 Maths board prep/courses/cbse-class-10-maths-board-exam-prep-course](/courses/cbse-class-10-maths-board-exam-prep-course)[Online maths tuition, all classes/online-maths-tuition](/online-maths-tuition)[CBSE Class 10 AI (417) classes/cbse-class-10-ai-classes-online](/cbse-class-10-ai-classes-online) Questions parents ask ## About SOF IMO and the preparation batch ### Is SOF IMO the same as the International Mathematical Olympiad? No, and the confusion costs families real decisions. SOF IMO is the International Mathematics Olympiad run by the Science Olympiad Foundation, a private organisation in Gurugram: a multiple-choice, school-based assessment open to any registered school, for Classes 1 to 12. The International Mathematical Olympiad is the proof-based contest between national teams of six students, reached in India through IOQM, RMO and INMO. This page prepares students for the SOF exam. If your child is aiming at the national olympiad pathway, our olympiad mathematics course is the right place, and we will tell you so on the call. ### Can I register my child for SOF IMO directly? No. SOF's own FAQ states that students register through their respective schools only and that individual registrations are not accepted. Any school can become a registered exam centre at no cost to the school, so if yours has never run it, the route is a conversation with the principal or the coordinating teacher. We prepare students for the paper; we cannot enter them for it, and we would be wary of anyone who says they can. ### Which classes can sit SOF IMO, and which class does my child prepare for? Level 1 is open to Classes 1 to 12, and the paper follows the class the student is enrolled in at school. Level 2, the qualifying second round, is for Classes 3 to 12 only. We batch by class band, so a Class 4 student and a Class 9 student are never in the same room, and the practice papers each student sees are set at their own class level and syllabus. ### What are the SOF IMO dates for 2026 and can we choose one? SOF has published three Level 1 dates for this cycle: 23 October 2026, 26 November 2026 and 10 December 2026. The school chooses one of the three, each date has its own separate question paper, and once a school has chosen it cannot change. Families do not pick the date; ask the coordinating teacher which one your school has taken, and tell us on the call so the practice timeline ends on the right week. ### What is actually in the Level 1 paper? A 60-minute objective test: 35 multiple-choice questions for Classes 1 to 4 and 50 for Classes 5 to 12, in four sections. For Classes 1 to 10 the sections are Logical Reasoning, Mathematical Reasoning, Everyday Mathematics and the Achievers Section; for Classes 11 and 12 the second section becomes Mathematical Reasoning or Applied Mathematics. The papers are set on the CBSE, ICSE and State Board syllabi, in English, and are sat at school during school hours. ### How does a student qualify for Level 2? Any one of three routes, as SOF publishes them: the top 5 percent of candidates class-wise across all Level 1 participants internationally; the top 25 rank holders from each zone or state in each class; or the class topper at a school where at least ten students from that class appeared and the topper scored at least 50 percent. The third route is why a strong student at a school with a full class entry has a real chance, and it is the route we plan for with most families. ### Do you use SOF's past papers in class? No. SOF sells its own sample papers and reference books, and its site is explicit that its content may not be copied. We point families to those for the official look of the paper, and we set our own practice in the same shape: the same four sections, the same question count for the class, the same 60 minutes, with our own questions written by the teacher. That is also better preparation, because the real paper is never the one you practised. ### Which board syllabus do you follow? The one your child's school follows, because SOF sets the paper on the CBSE, ICSE and State Board syllabi and the questions stay inside what the class has been taught. A CBSE Class 6 student and an ICSE Class 6 student share most of the content and differ in a few topic orders; the teacher places each student by a short check in the first week and works from there. ### Does SOF IMO preparation help with IOQM, RMO or the real olympiads? Partly, and it is worth being clear about which part. The Logical Reasoning and Mathematical Reasoning habits transfer, and the Achievers Section is a first taste of harder problems. But IOQM and RMO are integer-answer and proof-based papers that reward a different kind of thinking over hours, not minutes. A student who tops SOF IMO and wants more is exactly who our Olympiad Mathematics course is for, and we will say so rather than stretch this batch past what it is. ### What happens after I send the form? A mentor calls within a few hours, asks which class and board your child is in and which SOF date the school has taken, and books a free demo class at a time that suits you. The demo is a real session: a short set of section questions at your child's level, worked live, with the teacher showing the reasoning rather than the answer key. There is no card, no enrolment fee and no pressure on the call. Start ## The free demo is a real section class Book it and your child joins a live session at their own class level: a handful of Logical Reasoning questions worked out loud, one Everyday Mathematics problem read the way we teach reading it, and one Achievers-style question attempted with a clock. You watch from the next chair. Afterwards you know whether the teacher and your child click, and whether two live classes a week fit the household. Then you decide, in your own time. If you would rather see a full 45 to 60 minute class today or tomorrow, book a [Priority Live Demo](/priority-demo) instead. Read first instead? The [maths challenges guide](/maths-challenges) compares the contests Indian students sit, and the [SOF ICSO page](/sof-icso-preparation) covers the computer science olympiad many of the same schools run. [WhatsApp us](https://wa.me/919123366161?text=Hello%20Modern%20Age%20Coders.%20I%20want%20to%20know%20about%20SOF%20IMO%20preparation%20classes.) · [+91 91233 66161](tel:+919123366161) · [contact@modernagecoders.com](mailto:contact@modernagecoders.com) Every session is a live video class. Sending the form books a callback and nothing else; no seat is reserved or lost by it. ## Keep exploring Modern Age Coders ### Related courses and guides - [Bug Fixing, QA & Software Maintenance Services](/software-maintenance-and-support) - [Software Scaling & Modernization Services](/software-scaling-and-modernization) - [Small Live Batches and 1-on-1 Classes](/small-batches-and-1-on-1-classes) - [Student Hackathons UK](/student-hackathons-uk) - [SEO Services](/seo-services) - [Student Labs: Real, Live Coding Projects Built by Kids, Teens & Students](/student-labs) - [Astro Pi Mission Zero Help](/astro-pi-mission-zero-and-space-lab-help) - [How Much Do Coding Classes Cost in 2026? 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