Odyssey of The Mind - Organization

Organization

Odyssey of the Mind teams are divided into five divisions:

Primaries for children in K-2. Primaries do not actually compete against each other. They simply perform for the judges and participate in the program. They can choose to go to their state competition, but are not able to go past that to World.

Division I for students in grades K-5 for the U.S. teams and members less than 12 years of age for international teams.

Division II for grades 6-8 in the U.S. and members younger than 15 for international teams.

Division III for grades 9-12 in the U.S. and members who do not fall into the other divisions for international teams.

Division IV for collegiate groups and adults.

The oldest team member determines the team's division. Division IV is specifically for college students, and all team members must have a high school diploma or its equivalent and be enrolled in at least one course at a two-year or four-year college or university.

There is also a non-competitive primary division for young children, who are given a simplified problem and fewer constraints than the higher divisions. They present and are given feedback at the first level tournament and cannot advance except for special occasions where officials invite a team to perform again at the State level. This is also a form of Odyssey of the Mind preparation for future years.

In the United States, each participating state has its own Odyssey association. Most states are further broken down into regions. Teams compete at the regional level first and then, if they win, progress to the state level. In the U.S., there is no national level. State-winning teams go directly to the World Finals, which have always been held in the U.S., usually at the end of May.