I disagree, slurpz. From my experience, AP Chem is more than enough for USNCO and AP Bio is more than enough for USABO. I agree that AP Physics B probably won't be enough for USAPhO, however; you may get past the first exam, but you really do need to look at stuff outside the classroom to do well on the semifinal test. At least in my school, AP Chem and AP Bio seemed to prep me much better for olympiads than AP Physics did. Not sure about USACO, though; nobody in my school seems to really care about it :P
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<p>i would disagree lol</p>
<p>are you talking about making the camps? or just taking the exams.</p>
<p>from my experience ap chem/bio respectively have not been enough to make camp in either subject.</p>
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Where do you get these "side studying" materials? (Examples please)Unlike biology, physics and chem seem more about application than memorization. I'm guessing those advanced Stanford EPGY courses would help for USPhO?</p>
<p>Has anyone here made it pretty far in the national olympiads? Would you please tell us what books/materials you used to help study or what classes you took?
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<p>personally i think that bio has application too but maybe that's just me.</p>
<p>for bio, campbell and raven are good textbooks...same with the cell molecular genetics. i think raven is better than campbell. and for chem just use some college undergrad chem textbooks.</p>
<p>I am hoping to make the Chemistry camp; so far, I have only used AP Chemistry textbooks, as they cover almost all the material on the National exam. However, to make the team, you will be probably have to study some undergrad material.</p>
<p>Making the camps; maybe my AP Chem class was better than average, but I don't remember ever opening our book (Chang). For Bio, I just read the chapters corresponding to whatever we are doing in class (Campbell 5th Edition), and this seems to have been enough.</p>
<p>I do agree though that Bio is a lot more application than people think; everyone always says that Bio is just memorization, but I really don't think memorization was enough for the semifinal test this year (unless you happened to memorize all of Campbell). It's much better (time wise and test performance wise) in my opinion to just understand most of the material very well than it is to try to cover all of the material and hope that you retain it.</p>
<p>true that. actually, i did memorize most of campbell and some of raven...didn't actually help. i did most of the semifinal exam by extrapolation and induction.</p>
<p>nevertheless, not much of the apbio curriculum was represented in the semifinal exam.</p>
<p>Well I guess it depends on what you mean by the "curriculum". If you simply mean something and it's definition, then no that stuff really wasn't on the exam; if you mean concepts, however, I think everything on the test was covered in AP Bio. Take for example the part B question about enzymes involved in aerobic respiration. Not a single one of those enzymes appears in Campbell, so in that sense, it's not in the curriculum, but if you know what happens in the mitochondrion and the general function of the enzyme, you can pretty well figure out the answer to the question. I guess some of the specific details aren't covered in class, but nearly all of the concepts are, and as long as you are comfortable with concepts, knowing the details really isn't THAT important.</p>
Take for example the part B question about enzymes involved in aerobic respiration. Not a single one of those enzymes appears in Campbell, so in that sense, it's not in the curriculum, but if you know what happens in the mitochondrion and the general function of the enzyme, you can pretty well figure out the answer to the question.**</p>
<p>take a look in campbell, 7th ed. generalized information is in it. take a look at raven, 6th ed. the enzymes are listed there. and raven was also a book on the usabo list.</p>
<p>zookeeper: I would say just AP classes are not enough for the olympiads. Maybe you'll make USABO with just AP bio, but that won't be enough to take you to IBO.</p>
<p>cooljoe: For the open and semi exams, pretty much all you'll need to know is in Campbell. You shouldn't wory about anything beyond that until you're quite friendly with that text. </p>
<p>Beyond Campbell, you'll want to study biosystematics and botany for USABO. A lot of the taxonomy/phylogeny stuff won't be as useful if you make it to IBO, but you'll need it to get to that point.</p>
<p>But then again, what do I know.</p>
<p>Scorcher: Sad to see you won't be joining us this year. I guess I'll have to eat a grasshopper in your memory.</p>
<p>cadaeibfed, I meant AP classes are enough to make the camps. To make the traveling teams you certainly need to do extra; without knowing orgo, you really don't stand a chance at making chem, and I assume its probably similar for classification stuff and bio.</p>
<p>For Campbell and Raven, is it best to get the most recent edition of the book? My library only has the 5th or 4th edition, and it's pretty tattered.</p>
<p>But aren't AP science classes supposed to be undergrad-level? You're supposed to be using undergrad-level textbooks in those classes anyway, right? </p>
<p>My goal is to at least make it to USABO and UNSCO. Also, I have a choice between taking AP Bio or AP Chem next year. Which one would you guys recommend?</p>
<p>as for the newest editions...7th ed. is superior to 3rd edition (the version that my school uses). as for raven, i've never seen an older copy so i can't comment :P</p>
<p>@thezookeeper
you made physics too...are you gonna try for physics team? or is it chem all the way for you?</p>
<p>thezookeeper: You made physics AND chemistry olympiads? That's awesome. Would you recommend I take Physics C instead of Physics B, and then try taking those advanced EPGY physics courses?</p>
<p>Here's my plan for prepping for the olympiads:</p>
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<li>Take all the relevant AP science classes.</li>
<li>Read textbooks recommended by the Collegeboard for each subject.</li>
<li>Read upper level, possibly graduate-level, textbooks.</li>
</ol>
<p>I'm hoping I don't have to know all the advanced science that Intel STS and Westinghouse finalists know. Do any olympiad veterans have any other suggestions? Thanks.</p>
<p>I didn't make physics...Anyway, Physics C would probably be much more helpful than Physics B for the olympiad, but if you do mechanics and E/M in a single year, there's no way you'll cover all the E/M you need for the semifinal test by the test date.</p>
<p>Part 3 of your plan seems a little crazy...you don't need to read graduate level books for any of the olympiads; none of them go into THAT much detail.</p>