PhysicsBowl
- Fee
- Per test-centre noticeUS$10 direct via AAPT (US route)
- Entered by
- A school or centreNever by a student directly
- Team minimum
- 5 students
- Teacher codes
- 1 per school
- 2027 deadline
- Not announced2026 closed 23 Feb
Registration
How a student actually gets entered.
You do not register yourself. Entries are made by a school or a test centre, and which body handles them depends entirely on where you are sitting the exam — or ask us, and we arrange it for you.
That last point catches people out more than anything else on this site: if you are in mainland China, or anywhere else in Asia or the Middle East, your entry does not go through AAPT’s own registration. It goes through a separate organisation, and writing to the wrong one is the most common reason a school loses a fortnight.
Step one
Find your route before anything else
There are two, and they do not overlap. Your region decides which one applies.
Regions 00–14
United States, Canada and elsewhere
Registered directly with AAPT by the school.
- Register
- Online by credit cardOr by printable PDF form for cheques and purchase orders.
- If posting a form
- Email it as wellSend the same form to programs@aapt.org so it is not waiting on the post.
- Contact
- programs@aapt.orgOr 301-209-3340.
Regions 15–21
China, the rest of Asia, and the Middle East
Registered through ASEEDER / SEED-ASDAN, not through AAPT directly.
- Applies to
- China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Qatar
- Contact
- physics@seedasdan.org
- Schools in China
- seedasdan.asia
- Elsewhere in Asia and the Middle East
- seedcomp.asia
The sequence
What entering involves
In the order the decisions actually arrive.
A school or centre takes it on
An individual student cannot enter. A teacher at the school, or the centre where the student will sit, makes the entry and takes responsibility for supervising the exam. If your school has never run the PhysicsBowl, this is the conversation to have first — everything else waits on it.
One teacher code, per school
A school uses exactly one teacher code, which is the AAPT member number. Even where several teachers are involved in giving the exam, only one code is used. AAPT can supply or recover the code; schools that are not AAPT members are issued one.
Choose a division for each student
Division I for a first physics course, Division II for a second or beyond — or for anyone who wants the harder paper. A school may field teams in both. This is decided at registration, so make it deliberately rather than by default.
Line up a proctor who qualifies
This is where entries most often stall. The proctor may not be a parent, relative or close acquaintance of any student sitting, needs at least a two-year degree, and is expected to contact AAPT from an official school email address. Sort this before the deadline, not after.
Pick a delivery method
The exam comes through Educational Vistas (EdVistas) either as a web-based online exam or as a printable PDF with a printable answer sheet. The online route needs internet access and no extra software; the PDF route means the school scans the completed answer sheets and uploads them to EdVistas afterwards.
Sit it inside the window
The exam is not on a single fixed day. AAPT sets a window — in 2026 it ran from 18 March to 3 April — and the school picks a day inside it, with all its students sitting at the same time.
Cost
What it costs
One published price, per student.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Exam fee | US$10 per student when registering directly with AAPT (the US route). Entries through a test centre in China are priced by the centre — the exact fee is the one in your centre’s notice, so confirm there before budgeting. |
| Team qualification | Five students are needed to qualify for the team competition. Fewer may sit, but a short team has less to add together. |
| Delivery | Included — both the online exam and the printable PDF come through EdVistas. |
| Regions 15–21 | Handled by ASEEDER rather than AAPT; confirm the local arrangement with them. |
Older pricing still circulates
You may still find pages — including, until recently, this one — quoting $25 per set of five printable PDFs or $5.00 per student via WebAssign. That reflects an older delivery system. AAPT’s current published direct price is US$10 per student through EdVistas. If you enter through a test centre in China, the fee in the centre’s own notice is the one that applies — confirm there before you budget.
Cycle status
The 2027 cycle has not been announced
Checked against aapt.org on 25 August 2026. What follows is a record of one completed cycle, not a forecast.
| Field | 2027 | 2026, for reference |
|---|---|---|
| Registration deadline | Not announced | 23 February 2026, extended to 25 February, 11:59pm EST |
| Exam window | Not announced | 18 March to 3 April 2026 |
| Fee | Not announced | US$10 per student direct via AAPT; China entries per the test centre’s notice |
| Delivery | Not announced | EdVistas, online or printable PDF |
Historically the contest has run in March, with the window reaching into early April so that schools with different spring breaks can all take part, and with registration closing in February. That is a pattern, not an announcement — treat it as a reason to keep an eye on aapt.org from January, not as a date to plan around.
Registration service
We can handle the entry for you
Tell us the student’s school or centre, city and year group. We confirm the route and the region, arrange the entry through the official channel, and pass on the centre’s fee notice — or, if you would rather register yourself, we simply point you at the right body. Either way the advice is free.