Thx @awesomepolyglot Sorry haven’t been on this thread in a while.
Anyone know how Team USA did? I know they all got gold medals, but I’d like to know where each individual placed specifically.
Alexander Tsao: 2nd
Edward Lee: 10th
Thomas Xiong: 13th
Catherine Wang: 23rd
Replay available here: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1MYGNXvAoqnxw
Yeah I saw yesterday. USA did pretty well this year.
For those that have a USABO club at their school, how often do you meet and what do you do at those meetings? I started one last year but it wasn’t very active but I would like to make it so
@dana_k we have meetings once a week where the officers just go over random biology concepts on a whiteboard.
@MuscleMan001 in my school we go over past papers together and discuss some more advanced topics like enzyme kinetics, dilutions, Beer Lambert Law, etc.
@suisagrement I think 2014 open exam was the breakpoint, it was quite different and this is because in the IBO 2013 the theory part became digital, i.e. students started writing exams on tablets so the easiest type of questions they could use was True/False or Select all that apply.
@littlescientist thanks for advice! practicing Indian biology olympiad and German Biology olympiad was super useful. If you check German or Swiss olympiads, the majority of questions are from the IBO so it is quite nice to see what questions came up in previous years in the IBO.
@FearlessLlama5 I don’t know if you saw, but biolympiads.com to me is one of the best websites. They have worked solutions for USABO 2004-2016 Open exams and Semis 2004-2014. Also there is a forum there.
@Darwin9 Thanks for the information. I was planning on making a club, but a lot of my friends don’t want a club and would rather study alone. Who knows, maybe they’ll change their mind.
Anyone else reading Campbell’s for the first time? How far are you guys? I’m still on Chapter 25.
Hi guys, I recently got to the animal development section in campbell and it seems really confusing so I was wondering whether it was really that important to know gastrulation of sea urchins, frogs chickens and humans.
@UBS2178 I would know general ideas and the differences of each one, but don’t worry about specifics except with humans
Hey guys I want to go to the national finals for USABO… I’m a junior aspiring to be a doctor.
I haven’t read Campbell yet but I’ve bought the 11th edition. I’m planning on reading like 10 pages per day on the weekdays and reading like 20 on the weekend. This would mean I’m done with the book in like 14 weeks. that would give me 7 weeks to look over it and maybe read Raven’s plant biology. Does this sound like a good idea?
What else would I need to get Finalist? Is it doable? How many times would I need to read campbell? And finally how would you recommend I take notes on it?
@Bahubalo if I were you, I wouldn’t be worried about being so rigid in your schedule. Certain chapters and units will require much more time and energy than others, and sometimes life just gets in the way. Besides that I think it would also be a great idea to utilize practice tests, because these really give you a better idea of how the test will work and what sort of questions you’ll encounter.
@littlescientist
Hey thanks for the reply! I appreciate what you’re saying but I believe it’s important to have a schedule to follow or else it’s easy to get lost and lose motivation. I am planning on doing the practice tests during Winter break and during January to prepare for the Feb open exam. If I do this do you believe I can pass the open and maybe even make it to finals?
@Bahubalo definitely having a schedule helps, I agree. If you practice past open exams and are successful, then you will definitely be at least a semifinalist, if not a finalist
Hi guys, I just created a study group in google: https://groups.google.com/a/biolympiads.com/d/forum/usabo-study-group
Feel free to join and share your experience!
Hi! First year doing USABO. Trying out this year, so not expecting much >_>
Do ya’ll think that it would be okay to study from Campbell 9th Edition for the test ??? Already have that edition and would prefer not to buy another one cause they’re expensive ._.
@SlayMeLove yea anything after 7th is good. The test is based on the 8th edition.
How many pages do you guys read per hour?
@KiaAfzali about 10 pages an hr (pretty slow I know :P) wbu?
@Anonymousia same, about 8-12 pages per hr depending on the topic