Terms of Service

Student Competitors

By registering for the NBC, you acknowledge that you agree to follow the procedures described in this Terms of Service.

Registration

  • You must register for the exam online by 11:59pm ET on 16th April 2024, using the student key provided by your school coordinator.
  • You are expected to follow all exam directions of your school coordinator/exam proctor before, during, and after the exam.
  • Students in grades 9-12 attending an accredited in-person school are permitted to write the exam in their school and are considered official contestants.

Exam Security and Misconduct

  • Any form of academic misconduct will result in disqualification from both the 2024 exam and any future NBC exams.
  • No aids are permitted during the exam, including, but not limited to: cellphones, smart watches, headphones, calculators, dictionaries, books, and scrap paper.
  • During the exam, you must refrain from sharing or receiving information of any kind to other students, using a prohibited aid, disturbing other students, or failing to adhere to any other testing regulations.
  • After the exam, you must not communicate or discuss the exam content with other students.

Proctors & School Coordinators

By registering your school for the NBC, you acknowledge that you agree to follow the procedures described in this Terms or Service.

Registration

  • The registration fee is $10 CAD per student, with a minimum of 3 students per school. The Competition Office will not refund the registration fee for students who fail to write the exam. Please contact us at nbc.csb@utoronto.ca if you or your students encounter technical issues while registering for the competition.
  • Students in grades 9-12 attending an accredited in-person school are classified as official contestants and are eligible for individual awards and the team competition. Students in their first year of CEGEP in Quebec are also eligible.

Exam Preparation

  • All participating students in your school must write the exam as one group. The exam must start and end between 10am ET April 18 and 4am ET April 19, 2024. Students who finish the exam early can leave only after 50 minutes have passed since the exam started.
  • The multiple-choice questions on the exam are confidential. No one should examine any questions except the participants in the competition while they take the exam, nor should anyone copy these questions or make notes about them at any time during the exam.
  • It is assumed that in almost all cases you (the Competition Coordinator) will be the person proctoring the exam. If this is not possible, you should select a responsible adult who is a member of the staff of your school. If students will be writing the exam in more than one room, then a proctor is required for each room. If more than 30 students will be writing in one room, then you should have an additional proctor to assist you. An assistant should also be available to accompany students to the washroom.
  • Since classrooms may be used as exam rooms, please be sure that no charts, posters, etc., of a biological nature are evident. If the room is not equipped with a wall clock that is clearly visible to all students, the time remaining should be posted at regular intervals.

Exam Security and Misconduct

  • No aids are permitted during the exam (i.e., no cell phones, smart watches, headphones, calculators, dictionaries, books, scrap paper etc.).
  • The scores of all students can be comparable only if the exams are administered in a uniform manner with uniform instructions. No student should experience an advantage or disadvantage of any kind. It is your responsibility to ensure that exam security measures are taken to assure that all students are given the same opportunity to demonstrate their abilities and to prevent some students from gaining an unfair advantage over others because of testing irregularities or improper conduct. A breach of security at your school might result in the invalidation of exam scores for individual students or for the entire school. The Competition Office reserves the right to cancel any exam score if a student engages in misconduct, if there is an irregularity in the administration of the exam, or if the Competition Office believes there is reason to question a score’s validity.
  • After you have issued a warning, you may dismiss a student from the exam who persists in violating instructions or procedures, such as giving or receiving information of any kind, using a prohibited aid, disturbing other students, or refusing to adhere to any other testing regulations.
  • Report any irregularities regarding security or misconduct by emailing us; if you suspected a student of misconduct, also report their name.