Hi Guys,
I am a rising junior and I am interesting in taking the USABO next year. I am planning on starting an USABO club at my school next year. I took Honors Biology and I am going to take AP Biology next year. How do you guys recommend preparing for the exam?
Hi. I’m also new to USABO so if anyone could share any tips on how to prepare that would be great!
Hi guys! Here is a list of books/resources I copied from the Official 2015 USABO thread.
List of books, in descending order of importance:
Biology by Campbell and Reece: Campbell Biology Plus MasteringBiology with eText – Access Card Package (9th Edition): Jane B. Reece, Lisa A. Urry, Michael L. Cain, Steven A. Wasserman, Peter V. Minorsky, Robert B. Jackson: 9780321558145: Amazon.com: Books . 7th, 8th, 9th editions are all good. The 6th might be fine, I don’t know. (9th is actually now Campbell Biology by Reece since Campbell died)
Biology of Plants by Raven: Raven Biology of Plants: Ray F. Evert, Susan E. Eichhorn: 9781429219617: Amazon.com: Books . 6th-8th editions should be fine.
Molecular Biology of the Cell by Alberts: Amazon.com: Molecular Biology of the Cell (9780815341055): Bruce Alberts, Alexander Johnson, Julian Lewis, Martin Raff, Keith Roberts, Peter Walter: Books . This book is a tad bit too detailed for USABO, but it has the tendency to make Campbell make sense. It’s an expensive book, though, and you want a fairly recent edition - 5th, maybe 4th because molebio’s been changing quite a bit nowadays.
Making semifinalist isn’t too difficult if you study the campbell book!
made semis last year by using campbell’s (8th edition) and studying past exams. This year I want to make Finals camp. Would adding Raven’s Plant and more exam practice be good or are there other resources that are really useful to make camp?
First year of USABO! Hoping to push for camp this upcoming year. How are you guys doing with Campbell’s?
ayye
another year boys
Can’t believe the summer’s about to come to an end soon. Anyways, it seems like no one has started an official USABO thread yet.
Here’s a list of resources, from previous years’ threads. They are in descending order of importance.
Biology by Campbell and Reece: http://www.amazon.com/Campbell-Biology-MasteringBiology-Jane-Reece/dp/0321558146 7th, 8th, 9th editions are all good. The 6th might be fine, I don’t know. (9th is actually now Campbell Biology by Reece since Campbell died)
Biology of Plants by Raven: http://www.amazon.com/Raven-Biology-Plants-Ray-Evert/dp/1429219610/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340319669&sr=1-3&keywords=biology+of+plants+raven 6th-8th editions should be fine.
Molecular Biology of the Cell by Alberts: http://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Biology-Cell-Bruce-Alberts/dp/0815341059/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1340319738&sr=1-1&keywords=alberts+molecular+biology+of+the+cell This book is a tad bit too detailed for USABO, but it has the tendency to make Campbell make sense. It’s an expensive book, though, and you want a fairly recent edition - 5th, maybe 4th because molebio’s been changing quite a bit nowadays.
– What is everyone doing to study? I’m taking AP Bio this year, so I will have to study certain topics extra carefully because I won’t have learned them in class yet by the time the test comes around.
How far have you all gotten in studying?
started chapter 14, trying to do about a chapter every 2 days
How early should you start in order to make semis? Also, when is the open exam?
@anatomymonster open exam is february 2nd to 12th. here’s the 2015-2016 schedule: https://www.usabo-trc.org/usabo-2015-2016-calendar
Does anyone have the Ravens plant biology test bank? I can trade. I have the Campbell and Reece biology test bank.
Has anyone compared Campbell Reece biology 10th edition with the previous editions? I heard 10th has a loot more detail but it might be too much to study then. Idk if I should get 10th or 9th
8th is the official USABO textbook but any edition should be fine. https://www.usabo-trc.org/src-general-information
1.How did you study? Did you make notes, flashcards, watch apbio vids, etc?
2.Should I study the Alberts Molecular Bio book? Which chapters?
3.What other things should I study?
4.How many times should I read the biology book cover to cover?
5.Should I take notes?
6.Is it true that a majority of the exam is vocabulary?
As was already mentioned, making semifinals shouldn’t be too difficult if you thoroughly study Campbell and do several practice exams.
Hi, does anybody know if U.S. citizens who don’t live in the U.S. can participate in USABO? On the website it says “citizen or resident” so I’m not sure.
@LucianoVietto US citizens living abroad are allowed to take part in the USABO; I’m a US citizen living in Taiwan and I participated last year.
Thank you! I was born in Korea and have been there pretty much ever since…will that make a difference? I have a dual-citizenship.
Also, how did you participate? I’m not sure where I can go to take the test.