National Biology Bee
Middle & Elementary School Divisions

For the Middle & Elementary School Divisions, students first compete in the Qualifying Stage through the National Qualifying Exam. For these divisions, the National Qualifying Exam is a 35 question multiple choice exam. All questions have 4 possible answer choices. The National Qualifying Exams for the Middle and Elementary School Divisions are scored on the basis of 2 points for a correct answer, and 0 for a question left unanswered or for an incorrect answer. There is thus no penalty for guessing, and students taking these exams should answer every question as best as they can.

Students may take the National Biology Bee National Qualifying Exam online, at all in-person National Science, History and Geography Bee Regional Tournaments, or at all in-person National History Bee and Bowl Regional Tournaments during the lunch break. There are four versions of the Middle and Elementary School National Qualifying Exams, which are known as Red, White, Blue, and Gold. For National Qualifying Exams that are offered at National Science, History, and Geography Bee Regional Tournaments, the Exam Set corresponds to the question set that the tournament is using. If the Exams are taken at National History Bee and Bowl Regional Tournaments, then if the tournament is run on C Set, then the Red Set exam version is offered. If the tournament is run on B Set, the White Set exam version is offered. If the tournament is run on A Set, the Blue Set exam version is offered.

For the National Biology Bee, the questions on all four versions of the National Qualifying Exams follow the National Qualifying Exam Question Distribution.

If taking the National Biology Bee National Qualifying Exam online, students have a 20 minute time limit.

If taking the National Biology Bee National Qualifying Exam at an in-person National Science, History, and Geography Bee Regional Tournament, students may also take the National Qualifying Exams for the National Citizenship Bee, National Humanities Bee, National Mathematics Bee, US Geography Bee, and US History Bee. At these tournaments, National Qualifying Exams are not timed on an exam-by-exam basis, but rather, students can take them in the designated Exam Room whenever it is open. Students cannot leave the Exam Room and come back to an exam that they had previously started. Students should be mindful of their schedule for the day and plan the times when they wish to take exams accordingly.

If taking the National Biology Bee National Qualifying Exam at an in-person National History Bee and Bowl Regional Tournament, students may also take the National Qualifying Exams for the other five National Qualifying Exams as listed in the above paragraph. If a student takes just one exam, they have 20 minutes. If a student takes two exams, they have 40 minutes, but if they take three, four, or five exams, they still only have 40 minutes (as time is limited during the lunch break of a tournament).

Students qualify for Nationals through the National Qualifying Exams in one of three ways:

Students need only to qualify on any one version of the National Qualifying Exam in any given academic year to be able to compete at the National Championships. If a student qualifies on one version of the Exam, and then takes a different version of the exam but does not qualify on that version, they remain qualified.

The cost is $20 per Exam Version per student.

For all questions on the National Qualifying Exams of the National Biology Bee, please email ems-info@iacompetitions.com.

The second stage of the National Biology Bee for the Middle & Elementary School Divisions is the National Championships, which for the 2025-26 academic year will take place online for all age divisions. The preliminary rounds will take place on the late afternoon / evening of Sunday, May 17, 2026. The finals will take place online on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. A full schedule of all events at the National Championships is available here. We hope that you will be able to join us! Middle & Elementary School students will play three preliminary round matches using standard International Academic Competitions buzzer-based online rules with 30 questions each on Sunday. There will then be either one or two playoff rounds which will take place on Tuesday after school. One playoff round will be played if there are 30 students or fewer in an age division; two playoff rounds will be played if there are 31 or more students in an age division. The exact number of students who make the playoffs will be a function of the total number of registrants.

Different age divisions will be held at the National Championships for students in 8th Grade, 7th Grade, 6th Grade, 5th Grade, 4th Grade, and 3rd Grade & Younger.

The cost to compete at the 2026 National Biology Bee National Championships is $65. Registration for the National Championships of the National Biology Bee will open in November and run through early May on this page.

For all questions on the 2026 Middle & Elementary School National Championships, please email ems-info@iacompetitions.com.