<p>I have a question regarding to human eyes. </p>
<p>Suppose that a man is walking down a street. Suddenly, he saw a strong, vivid light directly. If that man saw a sudden, strong light, will his optic nerves in retina will be alerted and activated first to conceive the light than other parts of his eyes?</p>
<p>@starchow: Yes, I am! Haha, no itās nice of you to notice 
Thank you!
But nah, itās not that big of a deal; whenever I look on CC, everyoneās taking Calculus in 1st grade and learning C++ before potty training. I am definitely nothing. Iāll probably fail USABO, because Iām neither smart nor hardworking enough 
But Iāll save my complaints for later. XD
How much do you study in a day? Iām trying to finish Campbell before school starts, but thatās gonna be difficult for meā¦ hmmā¦</p>
<p>Hey guys, who listens to OCW? I love it so much, it helps me understand biology better!
OHOHOHOH andā¦ How far is everyone on USABO studying?</p>
<p>@Mathguy: studying is going well for me, thanks! Iāve finished Campbells and about half of Ravens so far :).
Also, what is OCW?</p>
<p>@NSQ, CooMassieBlue: I have a question about Mycoplasmas. These are bacteria without a cell wall, but they are considered as Gram-positive bacteria. According to Wikipedia, this is because of rRNA analysis. So, does this mean that in the case of bacteria without a cell wall, other tests must be done instead of just calling them Gram-negative? I think that it would be kind of misleading to call them Gram positive because if I didnāt otherwise know more about Mycoplasmas, I would think that they have peptidoglycan.</p>
<p>Also, is glycocalyx pretty much the same thing as the capsule of a bacterium? This is kind of what Ravenās is saying, but I just thought that eukaryotic cells also have a glycocalyx. Are bacterial and eukaryotic glycocalyx completely different things?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>^O.O HOW DID YOU FINISH CAMPBELL??? Iām only on Chapter 25ā¦ T.T
But thatās awesome! You should change your username to āBioGodā
OCW= MITās OpenCourseWare. Itās basically an online video recording of past classes in MIT. I use Intro. to Biology videos.
These days, other colleges are uploading similar videos :D</p>
<p>You guys are all so fast!!! Iām only on chapter 11. 
Do you guys take notes or do something else to help you learn? Iām taking notes the old fashioned way, by hand. xD I considered using my laptop, but it is so old and slow.</p>
<p>^Lol, technically, youāre doing more than me. All Iām doing is reading through Campbell (itās my first time). Since I only have Honors Bio experience (Iāll be taking AP Bio this coming fall in freshman year), I decided to get the book this summer and read through itā¦ just because I like biology, hehe. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? My laptop, I bet, is much much much slower XD It doesnāt even close (somehow I broke it-woops). My dadās computer is 10x faster, but he wonāt let me go on it, and for a good reason I guess.</p>
<p>Iām stuck on History Of Life on Earth-hope itās not TOO important for USABO, Iām bad with memorizing dates and stuff :(</p>
<p>Do you think itās too late to start studying?
I took AP bio and got a 5, but thatās about it LOL. Is it a lot of information to cover, and is it a lot more difficult than the AP biology exam?</p>
<p>^lolol, better than meā¦ I havenāt even taken AP Bio yet. In fact, weāre actually ākindaā starting early. But nice job on getting a 5! :)</p>
<p>Itās A LOT more difficult than the AP Biology exam</p>
<p>But for the Open Exam (1st round), itās about the same level, more or less.</p>
<p>Anyways, the AP Bio and USABO test different things, so itās hard to say. If you PM me, I can send you a previous open exam or two and you can decide for yourself :D</p>
<p>I am on Chapter 38ā¦and just started to read Chp 1 of Raven Plant Bio. Honestly, I cannot
remember some details from biotech and history of Earth sectionsā¦</p>
<p>Does anyone take a note down whenever reading Campbell Bio? I think I am not a good
note-taker because my concentration easily breaks down whenever I tried to take a note
down. </p>
<p>Lastly, I also heard that we need to read Campbell Biology textbook like reading a Harry
Potter if we want to make at least Semisā¦I am not so sure for myself but do you read Campbell like a novel (perhaps reading it while in toilet or eating, etc.)?</p>
<p>^Lucky! Iām on Chapter 26 right now.
Maybe it will help if you read first? Then you should take notes :)</p>
<p>Also, you donāt have to read it like a novel. Just donāt do this competition if your main reason is prestige, getting into Harvard, etc. But most of the US team for IBO actually like biology, Iām guessing.</p>
<p>You guys have inspired me to stop taking notes (not sure if thatās good or bad). I have a copy of the notes so Iām all good. Now to just start reading it like a novelā¦</p>
<p>I wish I could take AP Bio this year, but freshmen arenāt allowed to take APs. Iām not even sure if our school participates in USABO, but I plan on taking the AP exam in May so Iām killing two birds with one stone.</p>
<p>^ (EveningSwan)</p>
<p>Whenever I try to take a note down, my concentration to studying easily breaks down.
If you do not like note-taking(they seriously take freaking long time), just google
some biology lectures and download pdf files and powerpoint notes. I did that to replace my halted note-taking, and now i have hundreds of files in bio (they really help).</p>
<p>I think I asked this question already but it seems that nobody answeredā¦</p>
<p>letās said that a man is walking down on a street during hot summer day. Suddenly, strong flahsing of light occured through his direction and startled him. If this sudden, strong light flahsed directly to his face, then does his photoreceptor cells in retina activated first then light passing through his lens?</p>
<p>Does the AP Bio exam cover all of C & R? If so, anyone with a 5 on the AP exam should be able to do well on USABO. Then a much larger number of students should be semifinalists - than 500 candidates now chosen as semifinalists.</p>
<p>So what is the difference between AP Bio and USABO?</p>
<p>How many pages and chapters are there in the Campbellās textbook?</p>
<p>Also, is it okay to get an older edition (because older ones are like 60 dollars, the recent one is like, 140 and there is no way I can afford that)</p>
<p>Thereās about 1200 pages (give or take) in my Campbellās textbook which is the 7th edition.</p>
<p>@Mansu007 I used to take like 4 pages of notes each day, but now my notes have gotten shorter and shorter and shorter. I tried to get some books off of iTunes U, but my iPod is too old for IOS 5 and for some reason, Apple wonāt let me update my iPad to IOS 5.</p>
<p>Oh thatās not too bad, unless the text is miniscule. If I tried I could probably finish reading through it in about 3 days, and then just thoroughly review until Februaryā¦</p>
<p>And I hate taking notes. Theyāre extremely time consuming. For my APs that I took last year, I didnāt even bother to take notes because I knew it would take more time to write the notes than to memorize the information.</p>
<p>If I can manage to finish studying for half of my APs by next Saturday, Iāll ask my dad to buy me the Campbellās textbook. Iām going to get an older edition (by the way, how much new information is missed in the old books? Is it only like, 2 questions or at least 10% of the exam?) and I canāt afford to get Ravenās either. Iām not sure how possible it is to be a semifinalist with just Campbellās 7th edition.</p>
<p>^ If you can read the entire textbook in just three days your first time through and understand/retain 30% of it, Iāll be surprised. It takes time to learn 1200 pages.</p>
<p>@gomdorri
I agrre with you; I had to spend more time on writing good notes than actually studying them. </p>
<p>I just borrowed GRE Biology Test Practice Book from local libraryā¦is GRE Bio subject test matches USABO level?</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Biology, 8th Edition (9780805368444): Neil A. Campbell, Jane B. Reece, Lisa A. Urry, Michael L. Cain, Steven A. Wasserman, Peter V. Minorsky, Robert B. Jackson: Books](<a href=āhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805368442/sr=8-5/qid=1343527087/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1343527087&sr=8-5&seller=]Amazon.com:ā>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805368442/sr=8-5/qid=1343527087/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1343527087&sr=8-5&seller=)</p>
<p>Is this the book I should buy? Iām not sure if this is the same as MasteringBiology.
Or should I get this?
<a href=āhttp://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0321543254/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used[/url]ā>http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0321543254/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used</a></p>
<p>Iāve taken AP biology before, so I have just a little bit of background in biology. I know itās not much, but Iām hoping that Iāll be able to memorize the information in Campbellās faster since Iām not starting to study without even knowing what biology is. And yeah, Iād be surprised if I retained more than 30% of the information as well. There are still ~6 months until the exam though, so Iāll just have to study hard.</p>
<p>@Mansu: Exactly why I donāt bother to take notes. Sometimes I highlight and write in the margins of my books (if Iām allowed to), but not much more than that.</p>