"Official" 2014 USABO thread

<p>Do they have negative marking for the multiple choice questions in the semifinal exam? Also how much is each question worth?</p>

<p>can i join in the study group?
What is the group called on google+
can you pm me how to join?</p>

<p>NSQ, approximately how much did you study?</p>

<p>Dear DiscipulusBonus,</p>

<p>I am VERY interested in joining the study group. I would PM you, however I do not have enough posts (which seems odd to me) to send private messages. </p>

<p>I recently took the 2013 AP Bio Exam and scored a 5 on it. The score distribution this year panned out to be 5.4% of students receiving a score of 5. After doing well in the course and on the exam I decided that the USABO would be a good choice for me. </p>

<p>I have a great passion for Biology and have a good mind for it; I think I would make a useful addition to the study group as I am dedicated and take the USABO very seriously. Please PM me at your convenience about the study group and any more information you can give me. Thanks so much! </p>

<p>-Leningrad</p>

<p>ok lets make a list, put your usernames and times you can be on. The next person should add their name and times.
wcao9311-7:00-9:00 est, (4:00-600 pst.)</p>

<p>I agree that Campbell is best for the first round. Use the questions in the study guide for a great self guided course. A study partner is great for motivation to finish the whole book.</p>

<p>Am I far behind if I’m only on Chapter 17 right now?</p>

<p>That all depends on how much and how often you’re studying, along with how long it takes on average to finish one chapter. If it takes you two hours to understand and read through a single chapter, you’re going to have to put more time into studying. If you’re only studying once a week for a single hour, again, you might have to put more time in to finish before the test. I’m around the same place right now (give or take a few chapters), but I’m studying 2 hours a day, so I’ll have plenty of time to finish the book.</p>

<p>So I have a question on how to register. My school isn’t registered to take the test and I want to try to take it. I’ve been studying for a while now and I just talked to my Bio teacher about how I can’t take it. Something about budget or something like that. Is there any other way I can sign up?</p>

<p>anyone excited for the new edition of campbells? haha. I’ll be picking it up off amazon when it drops Nov 10th… I only have campbells concepts and connections, so ill be needing the real deal book anyway.</p>

<p>are there any differences between the AP edition and regular campbells? i’d assume we want the non AP one to make sure it covers everything</p>

<p>Hey Remembrance,</p>

<p>I noticed you are posting in both Chem and Bio Olympiad pages. Are you planning to take both? Will it be too much to do both?</p>

<p>I will plan on taking both, yes. However, I’ll be focusing on chem. I took AP chem last year and have been doing a lot of work in that category with my teacher and some friends. I’m just starting AP bio now, so I don’t have a large background in that. I do feel that I’m able to comprehend the information rather quickly, so i’ll give it a shot. Bio will probably be more of a focus next year.</p>

<p>If I could somehow prepare for all the olympiads (math, bio, chem, physics, informatics etc…) I would! But i’ve narrowed it down the the two i like the most.</p>

<p>Im considering dropping AP physics to have that time during the day to specifically do olympiad work. Is it worth it to drop an AP (I’m in 6 now, so that would end up with 5) but put more time into the olympiads?</p>

<p>Lol I plan to do bio and chem, as well. I might forgo doing bio this year, though. Although I initially planned to, I don’t think it’s really feasible as of now. </p>

<p>I plan to study all of Campbell and Zumdahl before the 2015 ones, though.</p>

<p>@Remembrance:</p>

<p>I am in the same boat as you. I did AP Bio last year but I had to drop AP Hist this year to focus fully on the sciences. It is tough to do both the Olympiads and 6 APs (IMO). Frankly if you actually make it national in the Olympiads, that is a lot more prestigious than doing APs. Anyone can do an AP class. Ultimately only you can make that decision depending on how confident you are about your performances in both Olympiads.</p>

<p>Also I think its crazy to try for all three Olympiads though I might do Physics in senior year. Will the semifinal results come out before RD admissions?</p>

<p>In the semifinal exam is each multiple choice question worth 1 pt or 2 pts? How is part c graded? What is the maximum possible points in this exam?</p>

<p>This is my first time testing for the USABO.
What kinds of concepts show up in the open and semifinal exams?
Thanks!</p>

<p>discussion is so slow this year…lol</p>

<p>Is it worth dropping an AP in favor of a olympiad? Is it worth giving up your job to when you buy a lottery ticket?</p>

<p>No. Never. Olympiads are high risk; for bio, it’s 20 out of, what, 14k or something like that, who get Nationals.</p>

<p>You can find my chance thread somewhere on these forums. I was USABO silver + taking six college-level courses per semester + couple of AP exams + 4.0 GPA + Siemens Finalist = rejected from every Ivy I applied to, except for Columbia.</p>

<p>Also rejected from Stanford.</p>

<p>So an olympiad silver isn’t enough to get you into any school you want; and it’s so unlikely for any one specific person to get that I’d advise you to take the safe route of having a number of AP exams.</p>

<p>As for your school not offering the test: the test for a school is like $75. If you can get five people, it’s $15 per person. Try to see if you can gather enough people and offer to pay it? Public schools are rather underfunded, so I can see why they can’t pay it, but it’s pretty cheap.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>The ones in Campbell. Mostly.</p>

<p>Is it worth dropping an AP in favor of an olympiad? I would say yes, with a serious asterisk. As NSQ says, simply grinding away at olympiads isn’t going to blow anyone away - but grinding away at APs is lower expected value IMO.</p>

<p>Look up the “failed simulation effect”. Everyone knows what it takes to gut out a schedule full of APs (caffeine, mostly), and frankly it takes something similar to make semis of an olympiad or two. If you’re going to drop an AP, you’d be better served to spend the time doing something awesome. (Drop something outside your focus area if you can.)</p>

<p>I managed to get in everywhere using contests as my main selling point, but I was very lucky. I got rejected from RSI, and everything else, my junior year. Had I not won a couple key titles later that year (got silver at the IBO and won National Science Bowl for the second time), I would have been in deep doo-doo.</p>