World Class: BSN Alumnus Achieves Third Place at the Economics Olympiad Competition

As a BSN student in the Sixth Form graduating class of 2025, Ishaan participated in the global Economics Olympiad and achieved an impressive third place.

This challenging, multi-round competition focusing on Economics in the broad sense was held in the Netherlands for the first time. 1,750 students participated in the preliminary round, and five students progressed to the final, held in Ancient Olympia. It is the first time in the history of the International Olympiad that a participant from a debuting country achieved third place.

Nearly 125,000 students participated internationally, and 130 students from 28 countries competed in the final, making Ishaan’s achievement even more impressive. Our congratulations to Ishaan on an incredible performance!  

This is Ishaan’s story about competition

Overall, the Economics Olympiad was an amazing experience that I was very grateful to be a part of.  

The first round was a multiple-choice round conducted during lessons, for which we were signed up by our teacher, Ms Kay. Following that, there was a national final where the top-performing students were invited to De Nederlandsche Bank in Amsterdam. Here, we listened to a talk from the governor of the bank, followed by multiple-choice and long-answer questions. Then, the top ten students were invited to an oral round in which they analysed a case study in front of a panel of judges and the audience. Finally, the top five students from this were selected to represent the Netherlands at the International Finals in Greece (Ancient Olympia). 

A few months later, in Greece, the Dutch team travelled to the International Olympic Academy, where we spent 3 days and 2 nights. As before, we had a long-answer round and a multiple-choice round. However, there were also lots of opportunities to immerse ourselves in Greek culture. We got to see the ancient ruins where the first Olympic Games were held, along with a Greek dancing performance. The International Olympic Academy facilities were also very modern with full-sized swimming pools, football pitches and tennis courts.

Following the two rounds, I was very happy to have been chosen as one of the top 10 finalists as I prepared for the oral round. This was somewhat stressful but also enjoyable, having to prepare to deliver an impromptu 7–8-minute speech to a panel of judges.

Ultimately, I felt honoured to finish 3rd out of 130 finalists from countries all over the world (from Canada to Montenegro and Malaysia). Being a member of a debuting country made it very special, as I was proud to represent the Netherlands and do well.