<p>Thank you, old guy (haha), for your sound advice. I’ll be sure to purchase Raven’s Plant soon. What is the earliest edition I should buy to still be able to glean the valuable information I need without having to bust my wallet? </p>
<p>I’m going to be a sophomore next year, so I think I’ve got quite a bit of time to study. You say you started studying freshman year–what year did you make it to camp?</p>
<p>My copy is a 6th edition. I’ve only ever had a 6th edition, and it worked for me, but I couldn’t tell you about how great any of the other editions are. </p>
<p>I made camp in sophomore year (that was this year). Now I’m a rising junior.</p>
<p>How’d you do your freshman year? And congratulations! </p>
<p>I know you said you didn’t have a set time for studying, but, on average, how much do you think you studied per day (at least sophomore year)? Or how many times did you go through each book? I just want to know how much time I should keep free.</p>
<p>Do you expect to make IBO this year? It must be a huge hook for college if you make it to camp–you’ll probably get in anywhere!</p>
<p>EDIT: Sorry for the interrogation… :D</p>
<p>To build on what NSQ said, nothing is guaranteed. But her mark of 90% Campbell + 50% Raven + above-average test taking skills seems about right to me. Probably not enough to make team, but it would give you a shot at camp.</p>
<p>Also, the X% doesn’t mean you should only pick that much of the book and read it. For Campbell, pretty much everything in that book is fair game. For the more advanced texts, this isn’t the case…you don’t have to know everything. You should read it, see how the extra details connect to what you know already, and see the logic behind things you might have just memorized before. If you extract 50% of the information in Raven Plant this way, you’re going to get significantly more than 50% of the points that memorizing the whole thing would get you, and you’ll spend far less time doing it.</p>
<p>Okay. On books:</p>
<p>From what I have seen of Purves, it’s at a lower level than Campbell. I wouldn’t bother. Griffiths I remember as okay, though it’s been a while. Use it for practice questions; the ones in Campbell are far too easy. I also remember using some pocket review book (Sparknotes?) for more portable fun.</p>
<p>On Campbell editions:</p>
<p>I’ve said it before, but 6th or above. Shop around, though; right now there’s a used 8th on Amazon for 30 bucks.</p>
<p>On Campbell contents:</p>
<p>The first chapters are stuff you probably know, except amino acid side chains. Then there’s the mitochondria chapter, which has an awful lot of moving parts to memorize. The chloroplast is somewhat better (only because they spare you the real Calvin cycle), as is the signaling, but these three will bog you down.</p>
<p>The cell cycle, genetics, and central dogma chapters are probably familiar as well, and the genetics in particular is a breeze if you’ve seen Mendel’s laws before.</p>
<p>Then there’s some lengthy background on evolution; if your school has an allergy to that sort of thing, you should see the material, but there’s not much that needs to be memorized.</p>
<p>The next units are the hardest, though your experience will vary based on what you’ve seen before. Camp tends to hit plants the hardest; it’s usually 20% of the exam (15% of theory plus a practical room), and it usually gets much less time than that in high school biology. Animals are more familiar, but there’s still a lot of convoluted pathways to remember. Taxonomy is less complicated, but there’s a bunch of semi-arbitrary names and characters to remember.</p>
<p>Starting from the behavior chapter on, the rest is a breeze in comparison.</p>
<p>And on prep:</p>
<p>Like oldguy, I didn’t think of this as work. I was the weird kid who thought living things were really cool, and somewhere in elementary school I decided I was going to be a genetic engineer when I grew up. (Which happened, to a first approximation.) So I read everything I could get my hands on. In eighth grade, I tried to convince my middle school to let me take the AP Bio exam (they wouldn’t). I was also the biology specialist on a very good Science Bowl team (won nationals three out of four years I was on it) so that was extra motivation. I got myself a Campbell in 9th grade, and by the time I was in 11th grade and heading into USABO camp prep, I’d probably gone through it 30-40 times.</p>
<p>Actual camp prep, for me, was two weeks of cramming. There was science bowl, then half a dozen APs, then a moment of relief that all I had to worry about now was camp, then oh fluffernutter, CAMP IS IN TWO WEEKS AHH! Whereupon I spent two weeks eating, pooping, barely quarter-a**ing my schoolwork, sleeping just enough to live, and spending every available nanosecond with my nose buried in Campbell. (Come to think of it, that’s pretty much how I spent camp, except I actually paid attention to some of the lectures.)</p>
<p>For the following year, I paid more attention to practical prep. I had scraped out of the IBO with a silver, but the split was kind of embarrassing…I got 4th on theory, and something like 78th on practical. I got my school to give me what amounted to a period of lab study hall…technically it was an “independent project” in chemistry, but whatever. I monkeyed around with test tubes, practicing quick serial dilutions and whatnot. (I could have done more with this; when I got busy, it turned into a regular study hall. Still, it helped.) I was also past the point of diminishing returns on Campbell, so I hit the library for various other things to read, and hit the internet for slide sections and such to look at. I read these throughout the year as I had time, maybe 5 hr/week on average. Then I pulled the two-week cram as before, then went to camp. This time, I didn’t pay attention to the lectures, but I was definitely paying attention in the lab. I went back to the IBO, my theory didn’t move much, but my practical did. Ended up with a gold.</p>
<p>(Yes, this is more than enough to figure out who I am. I don’t mind.)</p>
<p>i just want to make semifinals. what score out of what would i need to get on the open exam?</p>
<p>Does anyone know if Raven’s Plant 7th edition is any good? The top reviewer on Amazon expresses concerns, saying that it leaves out 100 pages that need to be printed off the Internet (any info on this?). Apparently, these 100 pages are the ecology chapters. Do I need these chapters?</p>
<p>The cutoff varies with the difficulty of the test. My freshman year, it was 21/50, and this year, it was 28/50 (someone please correct me if I’m wrong on either of those)</p>
<p>I’m Kay. I was on the US IBO team in 2003 and 04. I was also a counselor in 05 and 06, a guest lecturer in 09, and a lecturer / test-writer in 10 and 11. (So in USABO years, I’m older than dirt.) I’ve done a whole lot of writing for nationals, though most of what I know about recent opens and semis comes from listening to the campers complain about them.</p>
<p>@StudiousMaximus: I’ve never read the Ecology chapters in my edition of Raven. I think that Campbell’s ecology is enough to get you to camp and Campbell’s ecology + blueroses’s lectures is enough to get you beyond. </p>
<p>Of course, having not read Raven’s ecology parts, I wouldn’t know if they were actually useful or not.</p>
<p>@blueroses67 When you said “a shot at camp” would that be a high one or an average one?</p>
<p>@kwkingdom: Well…to really answer that question, I’d have to meet the people who just missed the cutoff. I can tell you that a person at that level would be solidly in the lower half of camp. They wouldn’t be the worst, and they might sneak into the medals if they’re good at practical.</p>
<p>Actually, younger people who fit this description in their first camp often return as serious contenders for team.</p>
<p>What is the best way to prep for the practical exam? I have full access to a chemistry lab and some bio equipment, specifically: </p>
<p>Horizontal and Vertical Electrophoresis Apparatus
ESCO Class 2 Type A2 Biosafety Cabinet
Olympus Fluorescent Microscope
Eppendorf Automatic Micropipettes
TotalLab Imaging Software
NB Scientific Shaker Incubator
NB Scientific CO2 Incubators
Bio-Rad Thermal Cycler
Greenhouse
Digital Gel Imaging System
Computer Aided Physiological Monitoring (CAPMON)</p>
<p>I actually don’t know what any of those do by the way except for the electrophoresis but does this ring a bell to any of you?</p>
<p>^You’re very fortunate to have such great resources at your disposal. I wish I had a fully-equipped lab to practice in.</p>
<p>Eh…hem…I hit the semifinal cutoff precisely this year, and I have a sinking suspicion I was an alternate last year, but I managed to medal decently both years (gold this year, silver last). I don’t know why. Maybe the semi and I just don’t get along.</p>
<p>So…about my (brief) history with USABO. Don’t follow this path - it probably won’t work for you. (In fact, it’s probably tl;dr, but whatever)</p>
<p>I just graduated from high school this year; I was a junior last year, which was the first year I ever picked up Campbell. To make a long story short: my first semester bio teacher absolutely despised his students and tried to fail us with ridiculously hard, fill-in-the-blank exams. I had no clue that USABO existed back then, but I think that the massive amounts of studying I did for Dr. Evil’s class certainly helped.</p>
<p>At my school, it’s policy that every junior takes the Open. But they basically only tell us to show up and take the exam. I thought it was some sort of exam to measure school performance, but I kind of liked my school, so I made an attempt at it.</p>
<p>Bloody exam. Came out feeling like a total idiot, knowing for sure that I missed at least half of the questions. So I kind of just put it out of my mind for a while.</p>
<p>Then the school counselors put a message in my box that basically said, “Oh, btw, you qualified for USABO Semifinals. Test Friday.” I was pretty much like…wait, what? What’s this USABO…oh wait, that test thing we took earlier was a competition. Yay! Wait…test Friday? @#%@# CRAM CRAM CRAM.</p>
<p>So after only four days to cram, I took the Semis. Which I also thought I failed miserably. At that point, I thought that I had no chance (again), so I went back to doing other stuff. I was out of Dr. Evil’s class and was in Dr. Really Easy, so I kind of stopped reading Campbell (where is why my notes taper off). That and the fact that I ended up with Mr. Difficult Biolab TA. </p>
<p>And then…really late in the semester, I got a phone call: “Congrats, you’re a Finalist”. Commence much jumping up and down (outside), shouting, running around, and other forms of obnoxiously loud celebration.</p>
<p>And then I realized I probably should study.</p>
<p>I didn’t know what to read or anything. Just had Campbell. My school lets out mid-May, so it was study, study, oh hai, AP exams, study study study CAMP.</p>
<p>Had even less clue what I was doing at camp, so I kind of just bumbled around. Don’t remember all that much (blame sleep deprivation), but I do remember massively messing up microbio prac and feeling murdered by the theory. Was hoping for bronze at the end…somehow got a silver.</p>
<p>Next year: I spent most of my time learning physics, grabbing random moments to do bio. Borrowed a copy of Raven from the library, read that. Convinced my parents to buy my Raven’s Plants for Christmas, read that. Did decent on Open, scraped by in Semis. Study study study.</p>
<p>Grandparents insisted that I visit them, and they’re in China, so I spent half of May and the first few days of June in China, reading Raven’s Plants on the layovers. Got back to the States the day before camp at six AM. After only 28 hours at home, left for camp.</p>
<p>Camp: got more sleep this time around, did less studying, was hoping I at least got a silver, and managed gold.</p>
<p>The big things that helped me were the fact that I’ve done many, many dissections as part of my biolab class, the fact that I had several very difficult bio teachers, the fact that my school gets out earlier than most, the fact that I would rather read bio textbooks than socialize, and the fact that I was an AcDecie back when the AcDec SuperQuiz was Evolution. My lack of studying strategy? Probably not helpful. :)</p>
<p>@JadenSmith I envy your lab set-up too. That’s some pretty awesome stuff. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to answer your question though…you’re going to have to wait till blueroses shows up again.</p>
<p>@NSQ: Are you the girl who placed 1st this year (Rebecca Shi)? If so, I commend you. That’s a truly phenomenal accomplishment.</p>
<p>@Studious: I hope you’re not implying that she doesn’t deserve commendation if she isn’t Rebecca Shi… xD</p>
<p>@Jaden: Woah, did your school provide that for you or did you make private arrangements somehow? Either way, you have some imba stuff going on there.</p>
<p>^Absolutely not! I was simply delivering additional praise for the #1 in the world accomplishment. Of course, all of the members of the IBO team are deserving of enormous praise.</p>
<p>I am going to be a junior and will be taking AP biology. I already have my school’s AP Bio textbook which is Campbell’s Biology- Concepts and Connections 3rd edition (really old). How would this book compare in similarity to the USABO standard Campbell?</p>
<p>Also, how important would it be to take notes? I find reading “outlines” of every chapter easier for studying but my note-taking is horrendous as I generally just re-type everything in the book (My notes for one chapter in my AP Bio book was 9 pages). I’ve generally been able to live off memorizing stuff and mooching off my friends’ notes and just spamming practice tests to succeed in school. (@Nightqueen, you said your notes are not the best but would you say they are sufficient for providing an “overview” of everything?)</p>
<p>Also @people who qualified before, how would you compare your level of intelligence/memory to that of other students? How much of a role did your natural ability assist you in succeeding? Was it mostly just drive/dedication, which allowed you succeed, or was it that combined with incredible natural talent?</p>
<p>I am willing to commit myself, but unlike the people who love Campbell’s, I guiltily would study not just because of a desire to learn , but more so because of a drive to succeed/win (I do love to learn, but I think it is the using of what I learn to do something cool/succeed that I truly enjoy). I am not very confident in my intelligence though and don’t want to “use up” all my time studying while I could be enjoying the rest of my high school years.</p>
<p>@S8on95: Smart helps…compulsive helps more. That’s my stock answer, but it may not be all that useful to you. I can put it more concretely: like many of my fellow academic competitors, I used to take AP exams for fun. If you could choose a random AP exam off the list and spend an afternoon or two studying, would you be able to take the test and get a 5? If you can, you’ve probably got enough focus and information-gathering speed to compete at a national level, provided you’re also willing to work for it. If you can’t, you should know you’re up against people who can.</p>
<p>I don’t have a photographic memory or anything. I’m smarter than most people, and I know it, but I also worked my butt off. (That 1200-page textbook didn’t memorize itself…)</p>
<p>Also, I’ve never seen a Campbell’s third. I imagine the taxonomy is useless, though the rest might not be too bad. If you’re serious, I’d do my best to get my hands on a more recent version (local libraries?).</p>
<p>@JadenSmith: That’s a nice setup you’ve got. I would point out, though, that the practical is short and done on a benchtop; that is, the hood, incubators, and so on will be more useful in preparing things to practice on than they will be as practice in their own right.</p>
<p>There’s a list of practical topics in the IBO syllabus. Some things show up year after year. As NSQ mentioned, you’re going to get a dead animal of some sort. You’re going to have plant sections (stem / roots / flowers / fruit / etc). There will be stats. There will be a dichotomous key to follow, and / or a collection of traits to infer a tree from. There will be biochemical assays, likely involving a spectrophotometer and / or chromatography. There will be gels to run and (Northern / Southern / Western) blots to interpret. There will be microscope work, though probably not fluorescent.</p>
<p>Your job is to get comfortable enough with the techniques that you can do them quickly and efficiently without thinking about it. You won’t have time to futz around trying to remember how to do stuff. You should be comfortable with common equipment: pipettes and micropipettes, centrifuges, specs, gels (setup and loading), microscopes, etc. Benchtop sterile technique is good to practice too, along with dissection and sectioning.</p>
<p>@NSQ: Remember, you’ve crossed over to the dark side now. You have a perfectly valid opinion on how to make the young’ins suffer…uh, I mean demonstrate their knowledge.</p>
<p>And re: practical. Obviously, the hands-on skills aren’t going to come into play before camp. I’ll defer to people who have seen a semi more recently, but I think data analysis is fair game; you might get a picture of a slide, or of a gel, or a table full of biochemical assay results, and you’d have to do something useful with it. You also might get questions on why certain common procedures are done, or why you would use particular reagents.</p>