<p>Hmm. My AP Physics teacher wants me and my friend to go to the Intl Physics Olympiad b/c we're the most advanced math/science students in school. How hard is it?</p>
<p>College-standard anyway. A friend of mine did this 3 years ago and got to go to Bali for it. :)</p>
<p>aha123 - your teacher wants you to take the preliminary exam. That's just the first step in the selection process for the team that goes to the int'l competition. From that group, the top 10% or so are semifinalists and take a more difficult exam. Then the top 10% or so from that group are invited to a training camp where they spend a week taking exams. And finally, the traveling team is selected to go to the IPhO. Its a fabulous thing to be selected, but the odds are long.</p>
<p>Sample prelim and semi exams here:
<a href="http://www.compadre.org/psrc/evals/olympiad.cfm%5B/url%5D">http://www.compadre.org/psrc/evals/olympiad.cfm</a></p>
<p>when are you supposed to take the preliminary one?</p>
<p>this past school year the prelim exam was in Feb and the semi exam was in March.</p>