<p>I can only get the 2004 and 2006 open exams, and I’m assuming those are the only ones floating around online. I’m looking for like say, 2009 open cause 1. I didn’t take it and 2. I heard it had some intense anatomy, I want to see what kinds of anatomy q’s they asked =O</p>
<p>I hate how all of these competitions are for teams and not individuals. Does anyone know of any individual competitions like this?</p>
<p>All the science/math olympiads (USABO, USAMO, USNCO, USACO etc.) are individual competitions.</p>
<p>Yeah, ialan, I’m not sure what you’re talking about. All the Olympiads are individual competitions.</p>
<p>iBelieveSo: they said they won’t ask ridiculous anatomy again. One of the questions was how your radius and ulna move with respect to each other when you perform supination. Those were just downright unfair.</p>
<p>So does making it past the open exam mean you are a semifinalist?</p>
<p>Where can I find past open exams?</p>
<p>The CEE doesn’t give past exams out but there are copies of it online (somewhere). Half the fun is finding them…that’s what a lot of the old finalists did.</p>
<p>how does stats help for the competition? i don’t see how regression, confidence intervals, etc. can really be tested. even at boot camp, it seems as if the questions would involve basic concepts such as standard deviation.</p>
<p>Do we get to use calculators for the open exam?</p>
<p>ccer: you’d be surprised. 
They don’t generally do confidence intervals and stuff – they do about AP Psych-level Stats, maybe a bit more in-depth. t-testing is pretty heavy.</p>
<p>iceberg: I think so. On most questions, they won’t help. There might be one or two biochem questions that they’re useful/necessary for.</p>
<p>Oh the nostalgia (It’s so odd not to be doing USABO again this year). Good luck all! study hard, and you won’t end up like me :P</p>
<p>@ CCer - Stats are important for finals, I wouldn’t worry about them till then (I went to finals for 2 years and still suck hard at stats). Right now you should focus on reading Campbell (know it cover to cover!) and doing practice exams (practice USABOs are limited, look at practice Bio GREs when you run out of practice USABOs… the practice bio GREs have about the same level of detail as the USABO, albeit they are a little easier [in my opinion]). Chem was never a problem, I got in sophomore year without doing any AP science courses (Our school didn’t have AP bio). </p>
<p>Also, Murphy’s law:
If you ever hear/read anything bio related and do not make an effort to commit it to memory, it WILL show up on the USABO XD</p>
<p>Do they take top 10% of scores? If not, how do they determine the cutoff?</p>
<p>I thought like 10000 people took it but only 600 made it to semis?</p>
<p>haha, this brings back memories.
good luck, everyone, it’ll be a blast.
GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO</p>
<p>
It’s been whichever is less of 10% and ~500-600.</p>
<p>How long does one need to study to get into semis and finals?</p>
<p>@samgunno - nice to see you too again</p>
<p>@iJoker - depends on a lot of factors (background, interest, etc)</p>
<p>I study 2-4 four hours everyday. I plan to keep that habit from now to February. Will that atleast guarantee me getting into semis? I’ve already gone through AP Bio and campbell once.</p>
<p>^ assuming that you are actually paying attention to the text and not just skimming, that is more than enough.</p>
<p>okay. how can one prepare for finals though? what books to read (besides campbell obviously), and which sections are most important?</p>
<p>from what I remember, the semifinal exam is much more comprehensive and “traditional” than the open exam, which tests for a lot of obscure details.</p>
<p>for me, I felt better after taking the semis than taking the open, and I pretty much just read campbell over and over again.
perhaps other USABO-ers can shed more light onto this?</p>
<p>What’s a book besides Campbell that would be good for studying Anatomy?</p>