USABO 2011 Discussion! - Page 2

Insorak · 11-04-2010, 11:26 PM

READ CAMPBELL. THE END. :P

There is no known, reliable source for semis. I have maybe one or two that I nabbed through hard work and Google stalking. I suggest you do the same. (It's just not as fun if I give them to you outright.

)

I read some of Albert's at boot camp. It seems to be fairly excellent; one of the counselors said that it was great. We never used Marieb, and the anatomy/physio is not as involved as it could be on all three levels of testing. (Sadly. Because I'm a huge physio fan.)

They'll expect you to know about AP Chem-level chemistry. I took AP, and found it bearable. Some people didn't, and struggled with it a bit. If you're taking biochem, you should find the USABO chemistry very manageable.

iBelieveSo · 11-05-2010, 05:06 PM

Hey Insorak,
When you say "reliable", are you referring to material of semifinalist level, or the actual exams?

I can't seem to find anything that is a free/no ad download =(

iloveyellow · 11-06-2010, 08:53 PM

Haha Insorak. How did I know that you're going to start the USABO 2011 thread. I disagree about the AP Chem lvl knowledge though. More biochem knowledge.

Insorak · 11-08-2010, 03:07 PM

There are many USABO Open exams floating around online. I say "reliable" as in "the link will not break after a week", and "free download without really stupid and annoying ads". Keep looking, they exist.

Heya there! USABO was wicked fun. :P Biochem is helpful, yeah. And stats. :P

seancarpenter · 11-08-2010, 05:41 PM

Hey I am planning on taking the USABO this year. I checked out a copy of Campbell's but I haven't taken Bio in 2 years. Hopefully in 4 months I can learn enough to at least make it past the Open Round

iBelieveSo · 11-08-2010, 09:17 PM

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

ialan137 · 11-09-2010, 06:57 PM

I hate how all of these competitions are for teams and not individuals. Does anyone know of any individual competitions like this?

utsamagoots3 · 11-09-2010, 07:41 PM

All the science/math olympiads (USABO, USAMO, USNCO, USACO etc.) are individual competitions.

Insorak · 11-09-2010, 07:50 PM

Yeah, ialan, I'm not sure what you're talking about. All the Olympiads are individual competitions.

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.

iceberg · 11-09-2010, 08:48 PM

So does making it past the open exam mean you are a semifinalist?

Where can I find past open exams?

iloveyellow · 11-11-2010, 12:48 PM

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.

ccer222 · 11-12-2010, 02:32 PM

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.

iceberg · 11-12-2010, 03:00 PM

Do we get to use calculators for the open exam?

Insorak · 11-13-2010, 12:12 AM

ccer: you'd be surprised. :P 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.

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.

phosphorlyescenc · 11-18-2010, 05:52 PM

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

@ 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).

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