<p>lol i just read the entire biosystematics section of campbell’s, and now I look and it’s only 5 percent of the IBO syllabus x_x</p>
<p>Could a past finalist please detail how to study for semis? Last year I studied Campbell’s 5 times literally and still couldn’t defeat the semifinal test. A bunch of stuff on that test isn’t even mentioned in Campbell’s 6th edition.</p>
<p>Thanks,
Joe</p>
<p>There is no promise made that the test questions will be: Page 147 in Campbell’s seventh edition says what?
You have to admit that’d be a pretty poor test. However, everything asked is at least touched on in the book. With the knowledge in Campbell and (far more important) the ability to analyze that knowledge in relation to the question, you should have no trouble with the test. </p>
<p>In other news, I made USABO, yay! See y’all in June.</p>
<p>How did you know you made it? Did results come out? I’m on spring break, won’t see my teacher for another week, haha…</p>
<p>Semis were fun.</p>
<p>Took semis today… unfortunately I had it at almost the same time as AIME, so I had a long thought about which one was more important to me and blew the AIME off (I did a few questions, slept, turned the test in, ate yogurt while people around me sweated away). All I can say about the semis is that it was… unexpected.</p>
<p>Now there’s nothing left to do but count down to April 14th… D:</p>
<p>Took it yesterday as well. I didn’t do USABO last year, so idk how it compared to previous tests, but the test was fun haha. Good luck to those who haven’t taken it yet!</p>
<p>
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<p>Exactly, this is the part of USABO that makes it a true “olympiad” and not a factbook test.</p>
<p>if you can see through the gunk they spew at you, it is just a “factbook test”.</p>
<p>uhm i just took it today.</p>
<p>and it was mad hard yo</p>
<p>Yea that test was really hard. I studied sooo much this last month, and I don’t think I did too much better than last year, where all I did to study was read my Barron’s AP Biology study guide!</p>
<p>Oh do you guys know how they scored it? Like was part A worth 2 pts/question or something? Because I don’t see how it can be out of 160ish like last year otherwise.</p>
<p>I think everything was the regular one point unless otherwise stated, so I counted about 125? pts. If the cutoff is usually around 70%, then I guess this year should be in the 80s. Then again last year the percent was a little lower than that, and this year may even be lower. Idk…</p>
<p>70%?! thats low! i should’ve tried harder!!</p>
<p>Is there a guessing penalty? From what I heard, they did away with this after 2005.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure there isn’t a guessing penalty. Man I hope the cutoff is lower this year.. I think I got in the low 70’s. Though its hard to know for sure.</p>
<p>■■■■ now i feel horrible..i shouldn’t have skipped like everything thinking "well its not like ill place in the top TWENTY anyways!..if it was in the 80’s i would’ve been closeeeeeee</p>
<p>I worked through a practice sf exam (2004) and found i was able to answer exactly 3/4 of the questions, so hopefully the cutoff stays at 70%</p>
<p>took it and failed. what a waste of brain cells…</p>
<p>Wow, the cutoff is definitely falling this year. 80 out of 125 anyone?</p>
<p>The cutoff was 64% last year. I felt this year’s test was easier than last years, but it also hit really heavily on my weakest points. I’m wondering between whether to study or not between now and April 14th. I feel like after April 14th it might be too late to cram for finals, but if I studied and didn’t get in, it’d be a huge waste of my spring break.</p>
<p>How many points were in part B and C? I thought part B was around 40 pts, but I went insane writing way too much on part C and didn’t have a chance to go back and check. As for part C I have NO idea how many points were there.</p>
<p>I counted 38 points for part C, but I did it quickly because I didn’t want to take too much time away from doing the test. But I estimated there to be 119 points, so I might have counted something wrong. Anyone else count the points for part C?</p>