<p>Hey guys, Ive been thinking of trying out for USABO this year.
What would I need to do in order to secure my chances of becoming a semifinalist, and possibly make it to camp? </p>
<p>Would I need to start studying from right now itself? </p>
<p>Any advice from previous USABO'ers would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.</p>
<p>It probably depends on your prior experiences already. Have you taken AP bio already? If so, if you start studying now you have a good chance of making semifinalist. The kids who make camp… they study very,very seriously, I suspect. Even the ones on here who pretend they don’t.</p>
<p>Yeah, I have taken AP Bio already.</p>
<p>Is there any level between semifinalist and camp or no? </p>
<p>Would I have to study like 3-4 hours a day to make camp ?</p>
<p>did you take the ap bio test…if so what score?
the test overall is okay if you read campbell’s</p>
<p>I got a 5 on both AP bio and AP chem .</p>
<p>you should be ok, but no guarantees. i remember the test two years ago was very obscure and the cut off for semis was 24 out of 50. this past year was more straightforward IMO and the cut off was 25.</p>
<p>for semifinal test, it’s a very different test regarding testing structure and skills used</p>
<p>whatkneww, have you ever made semis or camp before? Did you just read campbells like 6 or 7 times?</p>
<p>made semis this year, i took a few practice tests and didn’t bothering reading the textbook (well i took bio the year before) - missed the cutoff by like 2 points or something for finals</p>
<p>if you’re really serious about it then just read the textbook a **** ton
like honestly no other way, use flash cards i dunno wtv works best</p>
<p>How hard is the USABO compared to AP Bio?</p>
<p>@phosphorylation, wow, did you really miss camp by just a couple of points without even reading the Campbells textbook at all? I heard that people who usually make camp study for years on end very intensively.</p>
<p>@phoenix
i made semi’s but not to camp
ive only taken honors bio and didnt get to truly understand campbells</p>
<p>@whatkneww, wow, thats amazing that you made semifinalist with just taking honors bio!!</p>
<p>Ill try to finish reading campbells at least once before the open test, so hopefully i make semifinalist at least.</p>