Frequently Asked Questions

Registration

Q: What constitutes a team for the competition?
A: Each team should consist of at least two students and two teachers-in-charge. A typical team comprises three students.

Q: Can I take part if there are only two members in my team?
A: Yes, but it is not recommended as the workload on the members will be much heavier.

Q: Can a student be registered for more than one team?
A: No. Teachers may be registered for more than one team but not the students.

Q: Are foreign students eligible for the competition?
A: Yes. SYPT is open to all (Singaporeans, PRs and foreigners) secondary and pre-university students studying in Singapore schools (not inclusive of international schools). However, only Singaporeans and Permanent Residents are eligible to be selected for IYPT.

Q: What is the cost for registration?
A: There is no registration fee involved.

Q: Which category should I register for?
A: Current secondary 3 and below students should be registered as Category B. Current secondary 4 and above students should be registered as Category A.

Q: How many teams can each school register?
A: Each school can send in a maximum of 2 teams. IP schools with 6-year programmes can send 2 teams per category. 

​Working on problems

Q: My school does not have high-end equipment capable of generating highly precise data. In that case, will my team be disadvantaged in the experimentation stage?
A: The jurors understand this limitation. As such, the emphasis is placed on correct modeling of physics concepts and less on precision of experimentation.

Q: I am keen to participate but I am not confident of applying difficult theory to explain my team's experimental observations.
A: Difficult theory may not be the best theory. The jurors want to see how the team conceptualise the experiment, understand the physics behind it and model the phenomena observed. It will suffice if the team is able to apply simple theory to explain the observations.

Shortlisting

Q: Does the whole team have to be present during shortlisting?
A: Preferably, but if it is not possible, then at least one student member needs to be around for shortlisting.

Q: Are teacher mentors allowed to attend the shortlisting session?
A: Yes, teachers are encouraged to attend the shortlisting but they should not communicate with the student members during the shortlisting process.

Q: My teacher is a nominated juror for the competition. Does he/she sit on the panel for shortlisting?
A: No. All jurors for shortlisting are independent jurors. School jurors will only be involved in the SYPT Finals, though they will not be in fights involving the schools they mentor.

Q: What are the possible outcome of the shortlisting?
A: The independent jurors will rank the teams during the shortlisting. Top eight teams will be shortlisted to participate in the Physics Fights at the SYPT Finals based on juror recommendation.

SYPT Physics Fight

Q: What is the format of the Physics Fight (PF) at the SYPT Finals?
A: Each PF will follow the following format:

• Opponent challenges the Reporter.

• Reporter team captain accepts or rejects the challenge

• The Reporter prepares his/her presentation (2 mins)

• The Reporter presents the proposed solution to the problem (10 mins)

• The Opponent orally questions the Reporter (2 mins)

• The Opponent prepares his/her presentation (4 mins)

• The Opponent takes the floor and leads an oral discussion with the Reporter. The Opponent must engage in discussion within 4 minutes of taking the floor. (12 mins)

• The Opponent takes the floor to summarise the discussion (1 min)

• Final concluding remarks from the Reporter (1 min)

• Questions from each jury member (10 mins)

• All jurors write comments and scores for Reporter and Opponent (5 mins)

• Open scoring: Head juror requests all jurors to reveal their scores to everyone and request jurors with highest and lowest score to comment (5 min)

Q: How are the score computed?
A: After every stage, each Juror scores the teams with a mark from 1 (lowest) to 10 (Highest). One highest and one lowest mark are replaced by a single mark equal to their average. The team’s mark for the role is the sum of the marks, multiplied by the corresponding role coefficient.

• Role coefficients are:

  • a. Reporter: 3.0, or lower, as defined below, depending on the penalty awarded,

  • b. Opponent: 2.0.

• In a PF, a team may reject the challenge of four different problems without penalty. From then on, every subsequent rejection will result in a drop of coefficient of 0.2 (starting from 3.0). 

• The sum of points (SP) is the total score a team earns in a single physics fight (PF). Total Score in the Tournament (TSP) is the sum of SP scores across all PFs. All teams are ranked based on their TSP and in case of a tied TSP, Fight Wins (FW) is used as tie-breaker.

• FW is the number of PFs in which a team had the highest Normalized Points (NP) among the two teams competing in that PF. The normalization factor is the default coefficient for a reporter team and opponent team, regardless of their penalty (if any). The formula for NP computation are: (i) Reporting team: NP = SPx(1/3), (ii) Opponent team: NP = SPx(1/2).

Q: In the PF, how many times can the same member report and oppose?
A: Each member in the team can only report/oppose twice out of the four PFs (i.e. report once and oppose once, report twice or oppose twice).

Q: As opponent team in PF, what are the problems that we can't challenge the reporter team to?
A: The problems that an opponent cannot challenge will be informed by the chief juror in the room. Problems cannot be challenged if

• presented by the opponent earlier,

• opposed by the opponent earlier,

• presented by the reporter earlier,

• rejected by the reporter earlier.

There must be at least 2 problems left to challenge, otherwise the conditions are released in the order a, b, c, d.

SYPT Final Fight

Q: What is the Final Fight?
A: The two teams with the highest total score TSP will take part in the Final Fight.

Q: What are the details of the Final Fight?
A: Everything is reset for the Final Fight including scores, coefficient, problems allowed and reporters allowed. Within 15 minutes after announcement, both teams must choose their problems to report. The team with the highest score will choose 1 problem and decide the order of reporting. The team with the 2nd highest score will choose 2 problems in order of preference (They will present their 2nd choice if the problem is the same as the opponent).

​Q: In the event that a registered participant is not able to attend the finals, can the school send a replacement?
A: Schools must inform the MOE CPDD officers of any changes to the team members after the stipulated deadline. The replacement can only be made after approval is given by MOE and the YPT committee. Note that only the participants present on the day of the finals will be presented with awards. Schools should be fair to the students who are shortlisted and only send replacements if the students shortlisted are unable to attend the finals.

Responsible use of AI policy

Q: Are students permitted to use AI tools to assist them in the preparation for the competition?
A: Core principle: AI tools may support learning and preparation for SYPT, but should not replace the students’ own scientific investigation, judgement, authorship, or ability to explain and defend their work.

SYPT permits responsible AI support during preparation, but students must remain the authors and scientific owners of their work.

Students may use AI for

• routine editing, translation, search keywords, reference formatting, and basic code support.

• substantive assistance with code, models, analysis, draft content, or non-evidentiary diagrams only if you check it, understand it, can defend it, and declare it.

Students must not

• use AI to fabricate or alter data, evidence, images, sources, results, or references.

• conceal substantive AI use during live Physics Fights and controlled preparation periods.

Teams need to declare before the start of presentation and attribute the usage of AI in their report.

The SYPT Organising Committee reserves the right to request relevant supporting material where there is a reasonable basis to investigate a possible policy breach.