<p>I heard that reading campbell+Raven gives you a pretty good shot at making top 20 or the team. Is that true? In addition, I heard that reading watkins+organic chem by carey also gives you a good shot at top 20 or the team. Is that also true?</p>
<p>uh…anybody?</p>
<p>Are you talking about the USA Biology Olympiad and the US National Chemistry Olympiad? Reading Campbell then Raven’s plant biology book and understanding all of it thoroughly is good preparation toward becoming a Top 20 finalist in the USABO. </p>
<p>For the USNCO, most people agree that understanding Atkins’ Chemical Principles: The Quest for Insight book is great preparation for becoming a top 20 finalist. Carey’s organic chemistry book will be needed once making camp to prepare to make the international team, but it is already pretty difficult trying to make it to the top 20 of any olympiad.</p>
<p>^What he said, also, I’m pretty sure you’re thinking of Atkins, not Watkins
And, I’ve heard of some people making the camp without working through carey’s organic chem.
Finally, don’t try for USACO or USAMO unless you have copious amounts of time because they’re absurdly competitive.</p>
<p>Thanks, any more comments?</p>
<p>Well, i suggest you only choose one olympiad to study for otherwise you’ll be spending tons of time studying and trying to keep track of all of hte information.</p>
<p>Most of the time you can cram for the physics, bio and chem Olympiads, since they’re semi-memorization. (some guy studied 3 weeks only for phys and got into IPO). A lot of time I spend is on USAMO to qualify MOP</p>
<p>How hard is making USAMO really and how much do you have to study? Is it more prestigious than all the other Olympiads?</p>
<p>USAMO is in a complete different league than the science olympiads. Rather than ~11,000 students taking the open exam like with chem and bio, you are facing ~400,000. But the prestige is proportionally better.</p>
<p>And USAMO is also very difficult to qualify for. If you want to qualify, take a look at the AIME and AMC problems and see how well you can do on those.</p>