Why participate in the IYPT?

The preparation for and the participation in the IYPT have a lot of advantages, from student's and from teacher's perspective. Some of these advantages will be listed here.

The Advantages

Team Work: The structure of the tournament and of the preparation requires a high amount of team work. The ability to cooperate in an organized way as well as the ability to organize oneself's own work is one of the most important soft-skills which are required by today's economy.
Knowledge: Of course working with the IYPT problems teaches a lot of scientific knowledge. This, however, is done quite differently than in usual science classes. Due to the more project-oriented and practical work the knowledge will be retained much longer. Furthermore one also learns how to apply the new knowledge.
Research: Since IYPT problems are formulated in a very open way they offer a perfect way to accomodate oneself with the methods of scientific research. Working on IYPT problems can help in finding a way to deal with completely new questions and tasks.
Rhetorical Skills: Rhetorical skills are one of the very important aspects of the IYPT. It is important to present the prepared solutions in a convincing and impressive way. Moreover one needs to be spontaneous to be able to react on the reports of others and to prepare an opponence speech and a discussion within very little time. The IYPT offers a possibilty to train how to sell oneself at best.
Language Skills: Since the official language of the IYPT is English (which is a foreign language for most of the participants) it offers also a great opportunity to train language skills. In particular one learns a lot of technical terms and science English, which is usually not the case in regular classes.
International Aspect: The IYPT is is an excellent chance to visit another country and to get to know young people from all over the world and possibly to form friendship.