<p>Thanks for clarifying.</p>
<p>Npnp; now we all wait for a month, how agonizing.</p>
<p>How similar are Sadava’s Life and Campbell’s?</p>
<p>So…I didn’t know about USABO until last week’s Thursday…and my bio teacher is administering the test two days from now. AHH! xD</p>
<p>My school isn’t big on USABO so I was just going to walk in and take the test with no prep but now I’m freaking out after reading all the posts on CC now. Any good ultra cramming materials?</p>
<p>Take practice tests!
@billlllllllllllllin, can’t say, never seen Campbell’s in my life. I’d imagine they’re similar and overlap in many place though.</p>
<p>Okay. Having taken the 2010 Open and having made it to Nationals with a bunch of practice, I’d have to say that this year’s Open (I took it today) was definitely one of the easiest I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t 2004-easy (I just did the 2004 one and got like four wrong, whereas I had to guess on 9 of these ones), but it was still ridiculously simple by USABO standards.</p>
<p>My cutoff guess is a 30/50, and that’s pretty conservative. Last year’s exam was like a million times harder – I had to guess on 29 – and the cutoff was a 21.</p>
<p>I just took the open today also and I think I did pretty well and I agree it was definitely easier than last year. It helps too of course that I have another year of bio and chem as well. I think we get results on March 3rd, right?</p>
<p>March 3rd sounds about right.</p>
<p>See, the only bio I’ve taken since Nationals last year was biochem (there were like 2 biochem problems on this one, which made me sad), and I already took chem that year too, and I haven’t really studied, so I had like NO practice for this exam and still felt that it was UNGODLY simple. Maybe it was just easier…!?</p>
<p>smitten, did you get EA’d into MIT? :)</p>
<p>After the USABO is the USNCO…since so many of you are knowledgeable about open exam cutoff scores, do any of you have any idea for the cutoff score on the local exam for the USNCO? …it comes up in March. Is it as laid back as the USABO?</p>
<p>Also, how do you get USABO results…do they personally contact you, or just send all scores to your teacher?</p>
<p>taking it tomorrow… so i’ll see how easy everyone says it is. =P</p>
<p>We don’t know much about USNCO here, sorry. I know that the IBO silver medalist last year got to USNCO Semis, so maybe she could tell you more about it, but I do forget her CC username.</p>
<p>Good luck on Open, everyone. :)</p>
<p>I did make some dumb mistakes, but overall it seemed easier. </p>
<p>@Insorak, what was the 2004 cutoff? I took that practice test and got a 31, but if it was that much easier than today’s test, I’m in trouble.</p>
<p>the cutoff for the USNCO is dependent on the area you live in, isn’t it, since they can only take the top two from each school or something silly like that?.. I need to study for that as well - haven’t taken chem since soph year [snr]</p>
<p>Good to hear I’m not insane @ USABO responses.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I don’t remember what the 2004 cutoff was, but I do remember that there were some insanely high scores. I know a bunch of people got like 47s or something.</p>
<p>47s? Insane. I’d be ecstatic if I qualified.</p>
<p>The '04 Cut off was only 24??
[College</a> Confidential Discussion](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?69/50736]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?69/50736)</p>
<p>… WHAT.</p>
<p>Seriously? Maybe that was because it was the first year and only a few people actually did well. I know 2004 was unmeasurably easier than last year.</p>
<p>LOL Insorak… ask me again in another year about EA @ MIT… here’s to hoping :-)</p>
<p>I’m doing USNCO too, but my school has never done it, so I don’t know much about how it works. I think the open (local) is pretty easy in general though.</p>
<p>So… er… predictions?</p>
<p>I’m calling a 28 with no experience whatsoever?</p>
<p>@above: USNCO is a little bit above AP-level chem, not bad at all relative to USABO, in my opinion.</p>
<p>I got scared seeing 47! But since I got a 31 on the 2004 practice, I was well over the 24 cutoff. If the cutoff this year is around 28, then I’m a bit more confident. I agree with the 28, but this is my first year so its just guesswork. I haven’t heard it go over 30 often, so I doubt that will be the case this year.</p>
<p>@iBelieveSo I’ll bank on your estimates of the cutoff then</p>