The IYPT Australia Tournament

IYPT Australia is the official Australian qualifying tournament for the International Young Physicists' Tournament (IYPT)

The Brisbane Girls Grammar School is the host school. Australia.

IYPT Australia is organised by AuScience.


IYPT Australia Challenge Rules and Regulations

The winning team at IYPT Australia earns the right for all team members and one team leader to join the Australian Team to travel to the next IYPT in June/July that year.

The competition will be based on seven of the seventeen problems set for the International Young Physicists’ Tournament of the current year. If any international team attends IYPT Australia they must not be entered in IYPT for the same year.

The competition will be held over two days in early March each year. The first day will be a full day involving a number of preliminary rounds, up to a maximum of three Physics Fights, and a second day with a final for the top three competing teams after day one. One or both of these days could occur on the weekend. If there is an unexpected absence of a team from day one the IYPT Australia Organising Committee reserves the right to alter the structure of the day to allow ALL teams present to compete.

Day 1
a. Arrival, draw and information


At the start of the day the IAOC will either conduct a draw or announce a pre-drawn order of competition if an unexpected late withdrawal occurs.

The draw will ensure that no two teams meet twice or meet the same jury twice during selective fights but occasionally jurors may have to swap juries or might not be available for the whole day.

b. Three selective physics fights
In normal circumstances, a selective fight will consist of two teams who will report one problem and oppose one problem. There is no reviewer role. The first named team reports first.

A jury of respected physicists, teachers and previous members of the Australian IYPT Team will form a jury of between three and six persons.

Any team is permitted to reject a challenge to present a problem without penalty on two occasions. (If challenged on a problem already previously rejected this will not add to the number of rejections). If a third or fourth rejection is made then the following penalties apply:

Rejection Penalty Scaling Factor
3 0.2 X2.8
4 0.4 x2.6


All problems presented in any one Physics Fight must be different.
All problems presented by a team during the three selective physics fights must be different.

Each team is scored using a ten point system by each juror. Their average score for each Team are then scaled. Scaling factors are shown below:

Role Scaling Factor
Reporter x3
Opponent x2


Therefore, with scaling, the Reporter can score a maximum of 30 points and the Opponent a maximum of 20 points. The maximum total for each team in a Physics Fight is 50 points.

After a normal three rounds, all teams have a score out of 150. All points from each round being simply summed.

The three highest scoring teams will progress to the final.

The order and timing of performance in a Selective Physics Fight:

The Opponent challenges the Reporter for the problem 1 min
The Reporter accepts or rejects the challenge 1 min
Preparation of the Reporter 5 min
Presentation of the report 12 min
The Opponent questions the Reporter and receives the answers of the Reporter 2 min
Preparation of the Opponent 3 min
The Opponent takes the floor 5 min (any unused time is added to the Discussion)
and Discussion between the Reporter and the Opponent 10 min (+ time from previous)
Preparation of the Reporter 1 min
Concluding remarks of the Reporter 2 min
Questions by the Jury and Grading 2 min
Time 44 min
Short break 10 min
Repeat with roles reversed 44min
Duration of Physics Fight for each of rounds 1, 2 and 3 98mins


c. Finalists announced and certificates distributed

The finalists, once announced, have 20 minutes to choose the problems that are to be presented in the final. The highest scoring team chooses first (Team 1), then the second highest scoring (Team 2) and finally the third highest scoring team (Team 3).

The teams may present a problem they have presented during the selective fights but all three problems presented in the final must be different.

Day Two – The Final

The Final will include the additional role of the Reviewer. Refreshments will be available outside the Theatre all morning. The order of the performance is:

Team Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
1 Reviewer Opponent Reporter
2 Opponent Reporter Reviewer
3 Reporter Reviewer Opponent


Each team is still scored using a ten point system and the Team scores are then scaled. Scaling factors for the final are shown below:

Role Scaling Factor
Reporter x3
Opponent x2
Reviewer x1


The team to be declared the winner of IYPT Australia for that year will have the highest total of points from all the preliminary rounds and the final. It is the total of their qualifying score and their score for the Final.

The order and of performance in the Final Physics Fight:

Final preparation of pre-selected problem 1 min
Presentation of the report 12 min
The Opponent questions the Reporter and receives the answers of the Reporter 2 min
Preparation of the Opponent 3 min
The Opponent takes the floor 5 min (any unused time is added to the Discussion)
and Discussion between the Reporter and the Opponent 10 min + time from previous)
The Reviewer questions the Reporter and the Opponent and receives answers to the questions 2 min
Preparation of the Reviewer 2 min
The Reviewer takes the floor 3 min
Concluding remarks of the Reporter 2 min
Questions by the Jury and Grading 2 min
Total Time 44 min
Short break 15 min
Repeat with roles reversed 44min
Short break 15 min
Repeat with roles reversed 44min
Duration of Final Physics Fight 162mins


Scoring for the Final

The jury in the final may be larger than in the preliminary rounds up to a maximum of eight persons.

All jurors will be asked for feedback regarding the performances of individuals and this will be used by the selectors to decide upon the two additional selections to form the Australian Team. The selections can come from any team in the event and will be made to create the team the selectors feel provide the most competitive Australian Team. Additional selections will be announced on the Monday following the final.

Roles and Responsibilities of IYPT Australia Organising Committee (IAOC) members

Director of Centre for Science Research
The Director is responsible for the day to day organisation of the IYPT Australia Challenge. He/She invites teams, team leaders and jurors to the competition and promotes the competition in Australia.
The Director will liaise with representatives from other interested schools to make the event as open to as many schools as possible. If numbers of entrants are too large he/she will help arrange preliminary qualification tournaments as appropriate.
The Director will seek to raise the profile of the tournament in Australia and increase the numbers of schools entering teams into the competition.
He/She will, in normal circumstances, act as the Australian IOC Member of IYPT but another can act in that role if the Director is unable to attend the IYPT in any one year.
The Director will act as Chair of the IAOC

Australian IOC Member(AIOC)
The IOC member is responsible for representing Australia in international dealings with the IYPT and will attend the IYPT competition.
He/She will be a member of the Selection Committee.

Independent Chair of Jurors
The Independent Chair of Jurors will liaise with university personnel to recruit respected persons to sit on juries as independent jurors. This will effectively raise the profile of the tournament in the Higher Education sector within Australia.

The Chair will normally not sit upon a jury in the selective rounds of the competition.
He/She will circulate through all fight rooms and look for outstanding individuals. Once identified, he/she will monitor them throughout the two days.
He will talk with jurors to collect their opinions on individual performances.
He/She will normally act as Chair of the Final Jury.

Selection Committee Members
The task of selecting the two additional team members is to pick the two people that will produce the strongest Australian Team.

A strong individual may not always produce the best team member. Factors such as the particular strengths in the roles of Reporter or Opponent may be more important; a good experimentalist or excellent mathematician may be needed; and the ability to work with the qualified team members is vital.

The final choices need to complement the winning team. Even if members of the Selection Committee think one individual is outstanding it does not mean they will be the best choice to add to the team.

Chair of Selection Committee (a past Australian Team Leader)
The Chair will normally not sit upon a jury in the selective rounds of the competition.
He/She will circulate through all fight rooms and look for outstanding individuals. Once identified, he/she will monitor them throughout the two days.
He/She will talk with jurors to collect their opinions on individual performances.
He/She will sit on the Final Jury unless his/her own school is represented.
After the results have been announced he/she will Chair the meeting of the Selection Committee and:
• Report back on findings of his/her observations and those of the jurors
• Ask others to report back on their observations
• Lead the discussion of the identified candidates to be the additional two team members.
• If a student from his/her school is a candidate, he/she should allow the discussion to be led by the Independent Chair of Jurors

The final selection should be a consensus of who would be the best two students to add to the team. If differences of opinion exist the Chair should reach a compromise all members of the committee feel is in the best interests of the team.

Other members of the Selection Committee
The exact number of members may vary as some positions may apply to the same person in any one year to a maximum of 6 persons

Australian IOC Member IYPT x1
The Team Leader of the winning team in the current year x1
The Australian Team Leaders of the previous year if present at the competition x2
The Independent Chair of Jurors (or a member of the independent jurors in his/her absence - if one has been present for the full competition). x1