<p>I was on the IBO team this year, and I’m willing to offer some private tutoring on certain topics difficult topics not touched as well in Campbell’s such as plants or systematics, hard molecular biology question, human physiology, biochemistry(metabolism) or harder genetics questions. If you’re interested PM me. </p>
<p>@asdfs15 Which textbooks besides Campbell did you study? Also, congrats on IBO! </p>
<p>asdfs15 and I will be offering a tutoring service for USABO. We were both team members on the 2014 USA IBO team. We will offer tutoring ranging from a basic level (we go through Campbell reese and explain the concepts and what you need to know) to advanced level (some of the topics that asdfs15 mentioned). It will be via skype for $15 dollars an hour. As he said, PM us if you’re interested. </p>
<p>@boomvoom4000 I personally went through Ravens Plants, and the first few chapters of Alberts as well as BRS physiology, and Essential genetics. I found all these books quite helpful. I also used handouts we got at camp.</p>
<p>So I’ve been reading through Campbell and immersing myself in the material for about 3/4 of this summer and spending about 2 - 4 hours per day. I want to read campbells about 4 times before open and going through the parts I need help on before semis. I plan on reading Ravens as well before the open exam.
Is it even humanly possible for me to possibly make camp? This is my first year really studying as the last two years w/o studying I’ve barely missed semis. I’m not just looking for recognition and I really do love biology. I just want to know if people have made it their first year studying a lot or if it generally takes at least 2 years of intense studying to make camp.</p>
<p>Charlie Gleason - first heard about USABO his senior year, and that same year, he won IBO</p>
<p>It’s always humanely possible</p>
<p>So excited but so worried at the same time. Are the books listed so far enough? What about Principles of Biochemistry, Plant Biology, and Genetics? Also, how in depth do they get about anatomy and microbiology?</p>
<p>Most microbiology books are sort of like biology books but shown from the perspective of microbes and the diseases they caused, so if you know Campbell, they are easy to get through (probably a week or so).</p>
<p>To make Semis, Campbell’s is more than enough. To make camp, Campbell’s is enough if you’re good at reasoning (I made it with just campbell’s), though Raven’s would help. If you make camp, Raven’s helps a lot. The only actual books I used to make the team were Campbell’s and Raven’s + handouts and lecture notes from camp. Other books help (like I might read some of the BRS ones this year), but are by no means necessary. Biology Olympiad is as much about critical thinking as it is about memorization. </p>
<p>@idkschool Its definitely possible! You sound very very motivated. Like wanahakalugi mentioned, Charlie did it his senior year. I think that as long as your interested in biology you’ll definitely make camp! I was in a similar situation as you, in that I was interested in biology but that I never really had done any previous studying until probably December last year when I heard about USABO. Between that period and the semis I had time to read 4 chapters of Ravens and parts of Campbell’s a few time and the whole book once and I made camp. I think that as long as you have had a biology background and if you are interested in what you are reading you definately make it and I think in the end, even if you don’t make it, you still have a much stronger foundation in biology that definitely will help you in the future.</p>
<p>@I2Hope The only book you really need even at the finals level is probably Campbell’s and then the handouts from camp/lectures and the diagrams from ravens. The rest the information you just learn pretty randomly from past semifinals/experience. There are certain subjects that do show up more often on the semis then they probably should that are in other books, but doing semis will help you figure those topics. The other books I read definitely helped me get a better understanding of biology but I don’t think I really found many questions directly referencing them(maybe 5%, but even those could be guessed with knowledge from Campbells…with the exception of a few biochemistry ones). Other than that, some of the questions on the semis are just super random, and nobody really gets them. </p>
<p>Remember, you don’t need to ace any round test, so don’t worry about forgetting to study something, just study relevant biology information that you find interesting! Also, we made a typo in the original post regarding tutoring, it will be $20 an hour. </p>
<p>Interesting. Thanks. Definitely makes me feel better. </p>
<p>Oh, and side note: Only 282 more days to go until testing time:)</p>
<p>Also, one more tip that helped me all all levels of the competition: don’t stress out. This gets increasingly relevant as you move up. There will always be tons of genius kids, but if you keep calm and perform your best, you can probably beat a whole lot of them</p>
<p>@wanahakalugi when you say raven’s biology do you mean raven’s biology of plants or just regular raven’s biology?
I hear that both of those books can help. Thanks!</p>
<p>Raven’s biology of plants. I’ve heard Raven’s biology can help, though it doesn’t have too much outside campbell’s, so I’m not sure if it’d be the most time effective resource to use. Raven’s biology of plants, however, is not just about things specific to plants, but about almost everything that could include them. Certain sections of it are more important than others, but it’s a book that I’d definitely recommend going completely through</p>
<p>@wanahakalugi Oi, would you recommend reading Campbell’s more than once or all of Campbell and a bit of (“a bit” will be determined by my free time, lol) Raven’s plant?</p>
<p>Is it necessary to read the Inquiry boxes in Campbell?</p>
<p>@Newdle Personally, I would recommend reading Campbell’s at least 2-3 times before Raven’s. As I said, I got to FInals with just Campbell’s, but I had read it 6-8 times (they all blur together…). </p>
<p>@boomvoom4000 I don’t think those are super necessary. The biggest thing is make sure you REALLY understand all the diagrams and could reproduce them decently. Still do read the test though as it often talks about concepts in helpful ways. </p>
<p>How do you score a semifinal exam? @wanahakalugi </p>
<p>Fun fact, 3 out of the 4 people of Team USA this year got exactly 174 on semis (fun coincidence? I think not!). However, within the top 20, semi score is not the best predictor of performance in higher rounds. The top finals score at camp (and our top score at IBO) got 165 this year on semis. </p>
<p>What were their scores on the Open exam? @wanahakalugi </p>