Multiple Choice Exams

The 2025 International History Olympiad will feature an exam on the history of the countries and peoples of Africa. It will feature questions from the dawn of civilization to twentieth-century decolonization efforts and the modern era. All countries in Africa, including the Seychelles, Madagascar, Cape Verde, the Comoros, and Sao Tome and Principe will be considered.

This new exam will test players’ knowledge of the history of Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia, and the remainder of Polynesia (including Hawaii and Rapa Nui). A distribution will be forthcoming. This exam is recommended particularly for players either from the region, or players looking for a chance to medal in an event where relatively few players at the Olympiad will possess a great deal of prior knowledge (thus studying will be perhaps more rewarded here than elsewhere).

The Battery Exam is a required individual event at the Olympiad. For all age divisions, it counts towards the individual Olympiad Championship: it is one-third (for Middle School, Intermediate and Elementary division students) and one-quarter (for Varsity and Junior Varsity students) of the Olympiad Championship calculation. The Battery, however, is also an event in its own right, with 250-400 multiple-choice questions (depending on age division) on all aspects, eras, and places in history. Note that the Battery is also used, in part, though not exclusively, to determine seedings in the International History Bee World Championships. The preliminary round results of the International History Bee World Championships will then determine the composition of teams for the International History Bowl World Championships and the Hextathlon.

Normally, the top three students from a country or state will form the A Team for that country or state, the next top three scoring students will form Team B and so on per age group. However, some teams may consist of just two students due to the need for rounding, while solo students will be paired up with students from a different country and/or state in their same division. Solo teams will not be permitted.

In 2025, there will be four separate versions of the Battery Exam. For younger age divisions, the questions will primarily deal with direct knowledge of topics in history (i.e. shorter questions focusing more on specific facts). The Varsity and Junior Varsity Divisions will consist of questions that primarily deal with applied knowledge of topics in history and historical analysis (somewhat similar to Advanced Placement exam questions). For the Varsity and Junior Varsity Division Battery Exam, direct knowledge of historical topics will still be important, but for most questions, greater insight than just recalling facts in and of themselves will be required. For example, “Which Mongol conqueror was born with the name Temujin?” would be a more appropriate question in most cases for the younger age divisions. “Which of these was a consequence of the period in history referred to as the Pax Mongolica?” would be an appropriate Varsity and Junior Varsity Division question. Note that question difficulty on all versions of the exam will vary widely within the questions; these sample questions are not meant to reflect the difficulty of all or most questions on the Exam (and of course, on the actual exam, four possible answer choices will be provided too).
The four versions of the Battery for the Olympiad are summarized as follows:
1. Varsity and Junior Varsity Divisions (same version) – 400 questions, more analysis required to answer the questions, highest overall difficulty level
2. Middle School Division – 400 questions, somewhat easier and less analysis required than for the Varsity and Junior Varsity exam version
3. Intermediate Division – 300 questions, significantly easier than the Middle School exam version
4. Elementary School Division – 250 questions, slightly easier than the Elementary School Division exam version

2025 International History Olympiad Battery Exam Question Distribution Specifications (Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Middle School Divisions – Updated June 11
(Younger age divisions will have proportionally fewer questions across each element of the distribution)

Part 1 – Europe (100 questions)

50 – Europe (until 1648)
50 – Europe (since 1648)

Part 2 – Americas and Oceania (100 questions)

40 – USA (including colonial period)
40 – Other Americas (Canada, Latin America, Caribbean)
20 – Australia / New Zealand / Oceania

Part 3 – Middle East and Africa (100 questions)

30 – Middle East (including ancient) / Central Asia
50 – Africa (including Ancient Egypt, Carthage, etc.)
20 – Miscellaneous

Part 4 – Asia (100 questions)

35 China
35 South Asia (India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan)
30 East Asia / Southeast Asia

Speed is of the essence; students have roughly 20-25 seconds per question; the Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Middle School Division Battery Exams will last 130 minutes, the Intermediate Division Battery Exam will last 120 minutes, and the Elementary School Division Battery Exam will last 110 minutes. There will be one bathroom break in the middle of the exam; the second part of the exam will only be distributed after this, and students will not be able to go back and fix answers from the first part of the exam after the first part is over.

In buzzer-based competitions at the International History Olympiad, Western history comprises the majority of the questions. To give more emphasis to the history of East Asia, home to roughly a third of the world’s population, we will be again offering the East Asian History Exam at the 2025 Olympiad.

The questions on the East Asian History Exam may be either more in line with the simpler approach featured in the questions on the Intermediate and Elementary version of the Battery Exam or the more analytical approach featured in the questions on the Varsity and Junior Varsity version of the Battery Exam (the Middle School Division features a mix of these approaches). Note that for syllabus purposes, this exam will cover both East Asia and Southeast Asia (i.e. any country shaded in yellow or red in the map shown on this page).

The 2025 International History Olympiad will feature an exam on the history of the countries and peoples of the Middle East. It will feature questions from Mesopotamia and the Great Rift Valley to twentieth-century decolonization efforts and the modern era. The questions on this exam may also include questions regarding interactions between the Middle East and other civilizations and countries from outside the region. Note that this exam will include a certain number of questions on North African history. While the exam does not cover current events, questions on recent history will be included. The finalized distribution of this exam can be found on the 2025 International History Olympiad Syllabus..

The 2025 Olympiad will see the return of the Modern European History Exam, covering the history of Europe from the year 1453 (and including that year) through the beginning of the twenty-first century.

This new exam will test players’ knowledge of the history of the USA and Canada, as well as the colonial and pre-colonial histories of the lands that those countries now encompass (including Hawaii and Washington, DC, but not other US territories). The finalized distribution of this exam can be found on the 2025 International History Olympiad Syllabus.

The 2025 Olympiad will feature the debut of the South American History Exam. This exam will focus exclusively on the history of South America, though offshore islands either belonging to South American countries as well as the Falkland Islands will also be considered.