The Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How many people per team? The maximum number of people in a team is four. We recommend, where possible, having full teams of four. In some cases (for instance if a student is sick) it is necessary to run a team of three. This is possible, but will likely be at a disadvantage to a full group.
Do they each need a computer? Each team needs one computer. You should print out a copy of the question book for each team member so they can all work independently. The team then enters their final agreed answers into the online form.
Can teams look through the problems during the preparation time? No.
What is the team name/registration number? All teams will been issued a username which consists of ozclo followed by three numbers, e.g. ozclo123. This is the group name/ team name/ registration number. This is the account students will need to login with to participate on competition day, NOT the teacher’s login account.
Can we use iPads? An ongoing issue with iPads has been easily entering the special characters needed for the competition. We always ensure that any special characters needed are in the question so teams can copy/paste them into their responses. However, this often doesn’t work on an iPad. We therefore recommend using computers. If you do not have access to sufficient computers please get in touch with the organising team and we’ll see what we can do.
When is the Online competition held this year? Wednesday 1st of March, 2023. The competition is held simultaneously across Australia and so the time varies according to your timezone. The table below provides the local times of both the preparation period (1 hour) and the competition period (2 hours). Schools will need to agree to provide an appropriate venue and nominate a staff member to supervise throughout the session. There is no limit to the number of teams from each school that can compete.
State
Preparation Time
Competition Time
ACT
1:30 – 2:30pm
2:30 – 4:30pm
NSW
1:30 – 2:30pm
2:30 – 4:30pm
NT
12:00 – 1:00pm
1:00 – 3:00pm
QLD
12:30 – 1:30pm
1:30 – 3:30pm
SA
1:00 – 2:00pm
2:00 – 4:00pm
VIC
1:30 – 2:30pm
2:30 – 4:30pm
WA
10:30 – 11:30am
11:30am – 1:30pm
Online versus Offline? In some cases it is possible to compete offline. If you wish to do this, you should email your local organisers to discuss the options. You will still need to follow the standard registration procedure.
What’s the difference between Junior and Senior teams? There are two divisions in the OzCLO competition: Junior and Senior. Both divisions attempt the same set of questions. The difference is that they are graded separately. So the top Junior teams will receive Gold certificates and potentially be invited to the National round regardless of the scores achieved by the Senior division teams. If at least one student in a team is in Year 11 or 12 that team is a Senior team.
How long does the competition last? Teams have 2 hours to complete the competition. There is also 1 hour provided for preparation before the competition for teachers to print the question books and for team members to fill out their details in the team membership questionnaire. This should only take a few minutes.
How much does it cost? $40 per team.
How do we run the competition on the day?
Teachers will receive log-in details for the Teacher site as well as Team log-in details to the Competition site. Please ensure you keep this information and test that you can log in to these sites.
Please provide a computer for each team.
Preparation time opens one hour before the start of the competition. During this time, teachers will be able to access a pdf of the Question book via the Teacher site. Please print a copy for each student.
During this preparation time, Teams should log into the competition site and complete the Team Information questionnaire. This questionnaire asks for Teacher’s name, email address, School name, School address, Student’s name and year level. It is important this questionnaire is accurately filled in, because we use this information on certificates.
Students work within their teams to finalise their answers and then enter them online before the cutoff time. A separate computer is required for each team.
Schools must agree to provide a teacher or other responsible supervisor for the whole two hour competition period. Students are not permitted to access other information online or elsewhere during the competition, and there must be no conferring between teams.
We recommend testing the log-in process before the day of the competition.
When is the National Round held this year? The top competitors in the Regional/State Round will be invited to go on to represent their region in the National Round. The National Round will be held in university centres around Australia. This year’s National Round competition will be held on Wednesday March 22 2023.
How can students prepare beforehand at their schools?All students can prepare individually or in teams by trying some of the practice problems in the Preparation Package. Solutions are provided.
Can schools hold mini-comps to select their teams? Yes. Some schools choose one or more problems from the training materials to hold an in-school competition to select their best students to go into teams for the Regional Round.
Are training sessions provided? Yes – some local campuses provide an optional training session. Equivalent training materials can also be found on the online competition site. Information on these sessions may be found on the current competition information page, or by contacting your local committee. The training sessions include details of the competition as well as general information about linguistics, computational linguistics and language technologies. We will also provide sample problems and give tips for solving them!
Can you do the competition Offline? Yes, but not in all regions. In some States/Regions, paper rounds will be held at schools or on campus, and may be scheduled to occur BEFORE the date of the online competition.
I can’t log in to my account. The log-in page offers an “I forgot my password” link to recover your password. If you do not know the email address you registered with or are still having difficulty, you can contact us at [email protected]
HELP! There was an error submitting my answers during the competition! Don’t worry. Firstly, this only very rarely happens. And in almost all cases the system did actually save your responses. If you get an error, just contact us on [email protected]. We will check whether your responses have been saved in the system. In the very rare case that some responses were lost, it’s still OK! Just scan your written responses and email them to us. We’ll make sure your responses are still graded.
I have another question about the online competition. You can contact us at [email protected]. This is the best way to get in contact with us during the competition. There is also a live chat running for teachers on competition day that OzCLO people will be monitoring.
