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Tell me about the International Linguistics Olympiad.
The International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) is one of 12 International Science Olympiads for secondary school students that has been held annually since 2003. Each year, teams of young linguists from around the world gather and test their minds against the world's toughest puzzles in language and linguistics.
How do I prepare for the International Linguistic Olympiad?
Preparation for The International Linguistics Olympiad (and national olympiads before that) generally consists of two parts: problem solving - find all linguistic problems that you can find and try to solve them. theoretical knowledge - this is not a strict requirement, but it may help you a lot.
How tough is the exam for the International Linguistic Olympiad?
The team contest has consisted of one extremely difficult and time-consuming problem since the 2nd IOL. Teams, which generally consist of four students, are given three to four hours to solve this problem.
What kind of problems can I expect during the exam for the International Linguistic Olympiad?
The setup differs from most of the other Science Olympiads, in that the olympiad contains both individual and team contests. The individual contest consists of 5 problems, covering the main fields of theoretical, mathematical and applied linguistics – phonetics, morphology, semantics, syntax, sociolinguistics, etc. – which must be solved in six hours.

Question: Tell me about the history of linguistics as a field.
Self-contained rewrite: Tell me about the history of linguistics as a field.