Guidelines, Rules, and Mechanics

GENERAL GUIDELINES
Participating Teams
1. The Olympiad is open to all secondary schools in the Philippines.
2. A school may send at most two (2) teams.
3. Each team shall consist of two (2) students enrolled as Grade 9 or 3rd Year (or any equivalent
designation) in the school they shall represent. A student can join in only one team.
4. Each team shall be accompanied by only one (1) coach. If a school shall send two teams, one coach may
serve as such for both teams.
5. The coach must be a duly appointed regular teaching staff of the participating school.
6. In case a team wishes to withdraw from the Olympiad or replace any of its members and/or the coach, the
school must inform the organizers (see invitation page for organizers contact information) at least two (2)
weeks before the Olympiad.

Registration Details
1. Schools who wish to participate must completely and properly accomplish both 1) the Registration Form
attached herewith and 2) the Online Registration Form. Both forms must be submitted on or before
November 14, 2014 (Friday), 5:00 PM.
1) The Registration Form attached herewith may be submitted through any of the following:

Hand carried / mailed to

Geographic Society of the University of the Philippines
c/o The UP Department of Geography
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) Faculty Center
Silangang Palma, University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
(Back of CASAA Canteen and Palma Hall Annex)

Scanned and e-mailed to gsup.pgo@gmail.com*

Faxed at (02) 981-8500 local 2222*

*For forms sent through e-mail or fax, kindly inform Ms. Cibyl Atacador via text message at
09066873667.
2) The Online Registration Form may be accessed through the following links:

For schools with one team: tinyurl.com/pgo5-1team

For schools with two teams: tinyurl.com/pgo5-2teams

2. There shall be a registration fee for each team. Schools are given two options on what registration
package/s to avail:
a) Package A

P 1,000 / team = registration fee + three (3) PGO 5 shirts

b) Package B

600 / team = registration fee only

3. The registration fee must be paid on or before November 14, 2014 (Friday). Payment can be made through
any of these GSUPs Bank Accounts:

Landbank of the Philippines (Landbank)

Account Name: Clarrie Mae Castillo
Account Number: 3076-0797-05

Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI)

Account Name: Mary Cibyl Claire Atacador
Account Number: 1999-1448-68

4. As proof of payment, the deposit slip should be scanned and e-mailed at gsup.pgo@gmail.com on or
before November 14, 2014 (Friday). Along with the file attachment of the deposit slip shall be the following
information.

School

Team members

Coach

Date of payment

5. The registration fee package A is inclusive of three (3) PGO shirts, which will be distributed during the day
of the Olympiad. If you wish to avail extra shirts, an order can be made through this link:
tinyurl.com/pgo5shirt-orderform.
6. For verification purposes, there shall be a registration at the event venue on the day of the Olympiad. All
participating students shall be required to present their valid school IDs upon registration.
7. Only teams with complete payment as determined by the e-mail of the deposit slip and fully
accomplished forms (Registration Form attached herewith and Online Registration Form) shall be allowed
to register on the day of the Olympiad. Consequently, only those teams shall be included in the official list of
participants of the 5th PGO.

8. All teams are expected to report promptly at the event venue. Failure of a team to report as soon as the
Qualifying Round begins shall forfeit its chance to join the Olympiad.

GENERAL RULES
1. The organizers shall entertain clarifications regarding qualifications only before the Qualifying Round.
Likewise, clarifications on the rules and mechanics of a particular round (e.g. Qualifying Round, Semi-Final
Round, Final Round) shall be entertained only before the start of every round.
2. Complaints and protests regarding the questions/answers can only be raised by the participating
students. Only the students shall be allowed to speak in such cases. The coaches may, however, provide
the reference material/s if the team shall need such as support.
3. The use of calculators, dictionaries, pocket references, cellular phones and other electronic devices, and the
like is not allowed in all rounds of the competition.
4. Rules on correct spelling and capitalization, proper units, and the like will be imposed. No abbreviations shall
be honored unless otherwise stated. Answers should be in the simplest form.
5. Unreadable and incomprehensible answers will not be honored.
6. Any form of cheating of a member/s will result in the disqualification of the team from the Olympiad.
7. Misbehavior shall likewise not be allowed. A team will be allowed only two (2) warnings, before being
meted out disqualification from the Olympiad.
8. Coaching (e.g. giving of audible or visual signs) will result to the invalidation of the given question. The
organizers reserve the right to replace the question in such cases.
9. Once a round has already started, no contestant shall be allowed to leave the exam/contest area.

Council of Judges
1. The Council of Judges shall be composed of two (2) professors from the UP Department of Geography and
one (1) representative from the Alumni Association of the Geographic Society of the University of the
Philippines Inc. (GSUP Alumni Inc.)
2. It shall decide on all cases of complaints or protests raised.
3. The decisions of the Council of Judges are final and irrevocable.
4. The organizers reserve the right to choose and invite the members of the Council of Judges.

GAME MECHANICS
Qualifying Round
1. All teams shall undergo a Qualifying Round which shall be a fifty (50) item multiple choice examination
good for sixty (60) minutes. Latecomers shall not be given extensions.
2. The two (2) members of a team shall take the exam individually. The team score shall be the sum of their
individual scores.
3. Questions in the exam shall cover the following fields:

General geographic concepts (Map questions, Location, Time)

Hazards and Disasters

Cultural Geography

Economic and Urban Geography (Agriculture, Development Issues, Urbanization)

Population Geography

Geography of the Philippines

Earth Science (Weather and Climate, Landforms, Waterforms)

Biogeography

Environmental Issues and Sustainability

General Knowledge and Current Events

4. Each contestant shall be provided with a pen, a questionnaire, a separate answer sheet, and scratch
papers. The participants shall not be allowed to use anything during this round except these things provided
by the proctors.
5. Solutions, notes, or any marks should be written only on the scratch papers and questionnaire. Only the final
answers and required information should be written on the answer sheet.
6. All scores shall be based only on the answers written on the answer sheet provided.
7. No parent, coach, faculty, staff, or any representative from the participating schools other than the
contestants will be allowed to enter the examination room before and during the exam.
8. All questions or clarifications of the contestants should be addressed only to the proctors inside the exam
room.
9. The top forty (40) teams shall qualify for the Semi-Final Round.
10. The individual/s to get the highest score in this round shall be recognized during the closing/awarding
program, even if his/her team does not qualify for the Semi-Final Round.
11. Any tie in the rankings shall be resolved by the organizers.

Semi-Final Round

1. All teams who qualify for the Semi-Final Round shall compete in a show-me board quiz to advance to the
Final Round.
2. Each team will be provided with a mini board and chalks with which to write their answers. Contestants can
bring their pens only. Scratch papers will be provided.
3. The coverage of this round shall be general knowledge and trivia about geography. Certain questions shall
be accompanied by photos, maps, videos, and other media files. Category titles shall be the following:

Pilipinas, Geog Ka Na Ba?

Map It Out!

Did Geog Know?

Mind Sweeper

Picture This!

To See is to Believe!

4. There shall be five (5) questions under each category, hence a total of thirty (30) questions.
5. The questions shall have corresponding points depending on its difficulty. More difficult questions shall have
bigger equivalent points.
6. The categories and corresponding points per question shall be projected like this:
Category 1

Category 2

Category 3

Category 4

Category 5

Category 6

10 points

10 points

10 points

10 points

10 points

10 points

20 points

20 points

20 points

20 points

20 points

20 points

30 points

30 points

30 points

30 points

30 points

30 points

40 points

40 points

40 points

40 points

40 points

40 points

50 points

50 points

50 points

50 points

50 points

50 points

7. The quizmasters shall choose all of the questions to be asked.

8. The quizmasters shall read the question twice and shall say the word go, after which the contestants are
allowed to write on their boards and the time allotted to answer begins.
9. The contestants shall be given fifteen (15) seconds to answer. Otherwise, time limit shall be stated by the
quizmasters.
10. Teams must immediately stop writing and raise their boards once the time allotted expires.
11. The marshals shall verify the answer/s of each team.
12. The round ends when all thirty (30) questions have been exhausted.
13. The sixteen (16) teams with the most number of points for this round shall advance to the Final Round.
14. In case of a tie, the involved teams shall compete in a sudden death round to fill in the remaining slots.

Final Round
1. The top sixteen (16) teams of the Semi-Final Round shall compete for the three (3) highest places.
2. This round is an oral quiz bee type and shall employ a buzzer system.
3. A team shall battle against another team in order to advance to the next level.

4. Each team shall draw a number from one to eight (1-8). The number shall determine which team they shall
compete with. Refer to the diagram on the next page.
5. Questions in this round shall be formulated from the following themes/topics used in the International
Geography Olympiad (iGeo) 2014 held in Krakow, Poland:

Cultural Geography & Regional Identities

Hazards & Hazard Management

Resources & Resource Management

Population & Population Change

Environmental Geography & Sustainable Development

Tourism & Tourism Management

Urban Geography, Urban Renewal & Urban Planning

Economic Geography & Globalization

Agricultural Geography & Food Problems

Landforms, Landscapes & Land Use

Development Geography & Spatial Inequality

Climate & Climate Change

6. The quizmasters shall read the question twice. The teams may press the buzzer anytime while the question
is being read until five (5) seconds after the reading.
7. The team to press the buzzer first shall be entitled to answer the question for ten (10) seconds.
8. Failure of the team to give the correct answer/s within the allotted time gives the other team a chance to
steal.
9. The quizmasters shall read the question once again, after which the opposing team may answer for the
same time duration.
10. The basis to move to the next level shall be as
follows:

Teams

in

each

championship,

face-off,

shall

be

except
given

in

the

three

(3)

questions. The team with most points shall

advance to the next level.

For the championship, teams shall be given

seven (7) questions. The team with the higher
score wins.

11. In case of a tie during the face-offs, each team

shall be given a maximum of three (3) sudden
death question/s.
12. The team who wins the championship shall be the
first place, while the other team in the leg shall be
the second place.
13. The third place shall be determined by another
face-off between the two losing teams of the
semi-final leg.

Note: The organizers reserve the right to change any part of the Rules and Mechanics without prior notice.