<p>Getting into? Not very, until the National Finalists level.</p>
<p>Anyone have any examples for the short answer section? I was looking through the last two semifinals.. 2007 was a LOT easier than 2008, hahaha. But then, I don't know how the written portions were.</p>
<p>I just took the semifinal today :/</p>
<p>Out of how many points was the semifinal again?</p>
<p>It looked like it was out of 170, but then one question wasn't a question and 4 of the questions were repeated. So I'm thinking 166.</p>
<p>hey rishi. your name is so predictable lol.</p>
<p>well I wish all you guys the best of luck on your semifinal exams. I was a finalist last year, and if any of you guys have any questions about the finals feel free to ask.</p>
<p>Hahaha. Thanks, Kaili.</p>
<p>Yeah, about how high do I need to score? I think I got maybe 120+ on that test.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm taking the semi-final or whatnot tomorrow. I don't have the book, I was told Thursday I was taking it Monday/passed, and I only studied from outlines.
How unprepared am I? (not directed towards people who took it already, people who are going to take it I guess. How much preparation did you do?)</p>
<p>roflawl, Kaili.</p>
<p>I dunno how I did, this one makes me a tad apprehensive.</p>
<p>I need some luck to get to next round. I think I'm around the cutoff though. Estimating getting 119.</p>
<p>Gel electrophoresis, man.
I so wish I'd prepped more.</p>
<p>I don't think there is another round after this. After this is the camp, which is only the top 20 performers on the semis (plus ties).</p>
<p>April 15th! I will be shocked if I got in the top 20. Hahaha.</p>
<p>They start calling you in the week before the 15th. And you get an email.</p>
<p>So chances are, you'll know if you got in beofre the 15th. That, or you could be an alternate.</p>
<p>i just took the semifinal today, and the teacher only gave us 1.5 hours.
but wow i thought that was hard! although this is my first year doing bio olympiad so i dont know how it compared to past tests.</p>
<p>Is 119 likely to be around the cutoff?
I thought it would be lower...
Does anyone have any ideas on what the cutoff would be?</p>
<p>the cutoff will definitely be above 119. i wouldn't be surprised if it was 130 or above. there just weren't any truly difficult questions on the test. compared to last yr's semifinal, this yr's section C was a complete joke, and section C is usually the one that determines who makes the cut</p>
<p>having said that, i probably didn't make it. i think there are just too many people who have a decent score (110-130) for the cutoff to be that low. i think its really gonna come down to who interpreted the blots correctly.</p>
<p>We can start discussing questions, right? I really want to know about the blot analysis questions.</p>
<p>Agreed.</p>
<p>I was thinking about it a few days ago, and I realized that I put the wrong answer for two of them. Argh.</p>
<p>And yeah, section C was alot easier this year than last, altho last year I bombed C and still got into camp.</p>
<p>okay, I wanted to know what you all answered for the free response. Weren't the questions very vague? There was the first one:</p>
<p>"This guy is interested in the KA345 plasmid and he wants to transform XGold? bacteria. In the end, his bacteria did not grow as much as the other students' bacteria grew. Why?"</p>
<p>I thought that that was too vague. I put something like: "Because he used a selectable media that killed off non-transformed bacteria, but other students didn't use that technique."</p>
<p>I actually understood FR, but some of it was vague and I felt uneasy about that section. Anyone have other comments?</p>
<p>I think the answer to that bacteria question was the temperature. They weren't incubated at the right temperature, b/c 25 C is too cold. I forgot what the proper temp. was, so I just said it was the wrong one.</p>
<p>It said the colonies weren't as large, which was because you put them in at 25 degrees instead of 37.</p>
<p>The FR this year was surprisingly easy, although I remember one question that didn't actually have an answer (#6, before the plasmids) and that kind of freaked me out.</p>
<p>The blots were annoying.</p>