<p>I'm reading Campbell now and was wondering how much details you need to know. Like, if the book said Einsteinium had an atomic number of like 243 (probably not right) or if there's a complete chart of different objects for each ph, do we have to know all of those?</p>
<p>We need to go deeper</p>
<p>How much deeper?</p>
<p>I get the joke.</p>
<p>But, seriously, OP I actually don’t know anything about the USABO. It sounds insanely challenging, so good luck to you. I’d just study as much as you can.</p>
<p>I took the equivalent chemistry test last year. All I have to say is that we had a kid who scored a 2400 on the sat’s straight A’s in everything he does including Ap Chem and he didn’t pass it. We expierenced pretty much every thing in chem and some questions which branched into very concise sectors of chem. So yeah you need to go deeper.</p>
<p>To the OP: I am a USABO Semifinalist this year, and the USA Biology Olympiad Open Exam is pretty in-depth. You will not be memorizing stuff like atomic numbers but will need to apply some concepts with plants, genetics, ecology, etc. The Open Exam is pretty “random” though so I can’t tell you how to cover everything comfortably, but if you understand most of Campbell’s Biology book then you will be more than fine.</p>
<p>ok, but I’m still not really sure how in depth you have to go. Is it the type where you have to remember exactly every line or just the general concept?</p>
<p>And if it has to be detailed, if there was a whole paragraph with a bunch of names like who discovered what, numbers (statistics) and dates, and details like “HIV is a virus that came from viruses that infected chimpanzees” or that HIV is is made of RNA, do we need all of those?</p>
<p>Anybody want to comment?</p>
<p>any comments…</p>
<p>To prepare for USABO just read Cambell’s in-depth and comprehend it, that is the best preparation.</p>
<p>The short answer: Very in-depth. Check out the 2012 USABO thread, and you’ll get a feel for the amount of detail you must know to be successful.</p>