Chatbots now solve many olympiad-style puzzles, yet no device is allowed in the IOL room. What the research shows, and a solve-first protocol for 2026-27 prep.
Central Yup’ik, Yélî Dnye, Iquito, Sakurabiat and Komnzo: what each IOL 2026 problem demands, with no rules given away, and how to sit the set as a timed mock.
When two rules both fit the data, you are not stuck. Four tests, a worked vowel-harmony case and a hedge template that still earns marks at a linguistics olympiad.
Your marker only sees the page. Three-line glosses, checkable rule statements and a clean paradigm table are how a correct analysis actually turns into marks.
You cracked the rule but the score came back low. Eight recurring failure modes behind lost marks at linguistics olympiads, plus a self-marking method to find yours.
A repeatable four-step routine for the opening minutes of any linguistics olympiad problem: inventory, alignment grid, one falsifiable rule, then commit or park.
