<p>Sorry, no practice semis handy, there are a few on the interwebz.</p>
<p>^do you have any specific links to share?</p>
<p>Just interrupting this thread to say - HUGE congrats to Lawlz for making USABO semis!! :D</p>
<p>Although I doubt anyone really cares, here’s the official “point deduction” info from their website.
</p>
<p>And congrats to everyone who made Semis! Special congrats to phosphorlyescenc for her 31 =o. Looks like we had a great turn-out. :)</p>
<p>Hi guys. This is my first post on CC ever.</p>
<p>I GOT A 34 ON THE BIO OLYMPIAD!!!</p>
<p>Congrats. Now go pick up your clean slate and proceed to semis.</p>
<p>"For multiple choice questions having multiple correct answers, incorrect answers will be subtracted from correct ones, although a score less than zero is not possible. "</p>
<p>Does that mean if a question has 3 correct answers, and you bubble in all 5 choices, you will still get 3-2 = 1 point from that question?</p>
<p>Yeah. It’s a form of guessing. You could just as easily filled in two correct and two incorrect. It would probably be a bad idea to bubble in all five on every one of those questions.</p>
<p>Broke with a 25 - decent for a frosh, I guess.</p>
<p>@phosphorylescence: Do you have any advice (study habits, resources) you think one should adopt that might differ from Open Exam preparation?</p>
<p>25 is great for a frosh. Wow - are you taking AP? Or have you just been studying bio since forever?</p>
<p>Originally Posted by CEE</p>
<p>Q:Is there any penalty for guessing on the USABO exams?</p>
<p>A. For multiple choice questions having a single answer guessing is not penalized. The question will be graded as correct or not correct. For multiple choice questions having multiple correct answers, incorrect answers will be subtracted from correct ones, although a score less than zero is not possible. In short answer or brief essay questions partial scoring will be used and correct information can be negated by incorrect information."</p>
<p>^Quick question about this post: So, if you picked only one of several right answers, do you get partial credit? </p>
<p>Also, by “incorrect answers”, they just mean the ones you bubbled right? You don’t get points taken away for not picking any answers?</p>
<p>I’m on spring break so I haven’t gotten my score yet :(</p>
<p>Hey has anyone found out the correct answer to the problem about with the membrane potential, sodium potential, and stuff?</p>
<p>and does the open round score carry over to semis like AMC?</p>
<p>oldguy433
that’s awesome…
I’m a junior and got a 25.</p>
<p>Are the semifinals as arduous as they seem? (80 minute open part?)</p>
<p>Semifinals are two hours (not 80 minutes). There’s a multiple choice section, an analysis section, and an essay section. It really is that arduous.</p>
<p>Anyways, I think Open scores do carry over in semifinal calculations, and it might actually matter quite a bit. Ah well - I’ll just have to do as well as I can with my mediocre (27) open score.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, I’m pretty sure you’d get partial credit. And I’m not completely sure about this, but I’d assume you do get points off for not picking anything. Otherwise you could technically bubble all five answers in?</p>
<p>And @mjin, I’m pretty sure they don’t? It’s solely based on your semifinal scores I think.</p>
<p>^You sound like a Runescaper. Seriously?</p>
<p>Yeah, I know about the time breakdown, but the 40 minute MC isn’t nearly as intimidating as the 80 minute open-ended part for me.</p>
<p>How does the system for semi-final scores carrying on work?</p>
<p>I prefer essays over MC. In essays, I get to explain myself or substitute fancy vocabulary that I forgot with descriptive phrases of ten words or more. Worst comes to worst, I can BS. You just can’t do that on MC. (790 on SAT II Bio-M for the win. Fetal/embryonic liver does, in fact, make red blood cells. >.<)</p>
<p>No idea. I just know that your Open score gets factored in somehow.</p>
<p>^meadow36</p>
<p>I suppose if you bubbled in all the answers, they would take away for the wrong answers… but let’s say you bubbled only one correct answer (nothing else), and there were actually a couple of correct answers. Would they take away for that?</p>