PhysicsBowl
- We are
- An independent guideNot AAPT, not a test centre
- We can
- Arrange your registrationPlus rules, divisions, preparation
- We cannot
- Change a score or an award
- Official contact
- programs@aapt.orgAAPT, for anything binding
Contact
Ask us the question you can’t find an answer to.
Most questions about the PhysicsBowl have a published answer somewhere, and this site exists to make those answers easy to find. When you can’t find one — or when what you found doesn’t match what your school told you — write to us.
We will point you at the published rule that applies, at the registration route for your region, or at the page on aapt.org that settles it. When the honest answer is that AAPT has not published anything yet, we will say that instead of guessing.
Scope
What we can and cannot do
We are an independent guide. That word does real work here, and it is worth being precise about where the line falls, because it decides who you should be writing to.
We can explain what has been published
The format, the two divisions and how to choose between them, how a school team score is worked out, which of the twenty-two regions you fall into, what the equation sheet gives you, who is allowed to proctor, and what the awards actually are. All of it traceable to something AAPT has published. If we cannot show you where an answer comes from, we will tell you it is our reading rather than a rule.
We can help you prepare
Which past papers exist and how to work through them, what the 67.5-seconds-a-question pace actually demands, where the paper reaches past a school syllabus, and how the contest compares with the other physics competitions students in China commonly sit.
We can register you for the contest
Entries always go through the official channel — in mainland China and the rest of Asia that is ASEEDER and a test centre, never an individual student. What we offer is to handle that for you: tell us the student’s name, school and year group, and we arrange the entry, confirm the region and division, and pass on the centre’s fee notice. If you would rather do it yourself, we will simply point you at the right body.
We cannot touch scores, results or certificates
Scoring, the Global Top Scores list, award decisions and any query about a result belong to AAPT alone. Nothing said on this site changes a mark, and we have no visibility of individual results. Write to AAPT directly for anything of that kind.
Anything binding goes to AAPT
Deadlines, fees, eligibility rulings, proctor approval and results are AAPT’s to decide. If a date or a rule matters to a decision you are about to make, confirm it with AAPT rather than with us — and if what we publish ever contradicts them, they are right and we will fix it.
Official routes
Who to write to for what
Three different organisations sit behind this contest depending on what you need and where you are. Sending a question to the wrong one is the most common reason people wait weeks for an answer.
| If you need | Write to | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Rules, deadlines, fees, results, awards, proctor questions | AAPTThe organisation that sets and scores the contest. | programs@aapt.org 301-209-3340 aapt.org |
| Registering a school or centre in mainland China | ASEEDER / SEED-ASDANAAPT routes regions 15–21 through them, not through its own registration. | physics@seedasdan.org seedasdan.asia |
| Registering in Asia outside China, or the Middle East | ASEEDER / SEED-ASDAN | physics@seedasdan.org seedcomp.asia |
| Registering — or understanding any of the above first | UsWe arrange entries through the official channel; the advice itself is free. | Scan the code in the footer |
Region numbers 15 to 19 cover the five China regions. Confirm the exact code for your centre when you register — AAPT publishes the grouping, not a public mapping of number to region, and you should not accept a guess about it, including one from this site.
How to reach us
A message, not a form
We answer on WeChat. The code sits in the footer of every page on this site, so you never have to come back here to find it — scan it from whichever page you happen to be reading. If you want us to handle the registration, say so in your first message and we will send the short list of details we need.
We are a small team in the same time zone as most of the students who write to us. Messages sent during a working day in China are usually answered the same day; messages sent overnight or at a weekend are answered the next working day. We do not run an automated reply, so if you hear nothing at all, assume the message did not arrive and send it again.
There is no contact form and no mailing list on this site. We are not collecting addresses, and we will not add you to anything.