I am planning to give the USABO, USNCO and USAPhO by the end of high school. I am a freshman so I am going to complete only a single year of bio by the end of this year, so giving the USABO next year worth it? And in our school you need to do Bio, Chem and Physics for APs in the subjects, so I will be able to do only AP physics in senior year, so does that mean that I should wait till then to give the olympiad? Also, to open a club, would I have to explain and teach biology to children older than me? Do you know of any other olympiads/exams that are easier than these so that I can give them earlier?
Can you double up on sciences? If you don’t then you’re going to have to self-study a LOT.
I don’t know much about the selective-ness of the biology, chemistry, or physics olympiads, but is there a reason you want to do all three?
I do know a little bit about USAMO and USACO though; USAMO is quite selective (around 270 in the US take it), and so is USACO gold.
If you are pursing the olympiads, school courses will not be as relevant.
I have some experience with all of the olympiads so here’s a bit of tip.
Bio: For semis, all you need is Campbell biology. Read it. Read it twice. A teacher ain’t gonna lecture you an entire 1300 page book, so it’s really up to your self studying. As for opening a club, i suggest you to have some more experience than others. In club time you can go over some special or fun biology concepts and do practice exams.
Physics: For semis, all you need is classical mechanics. Get a book: giancoli or Hallidays. I used Halliday & Resnick, and it was quite excellent. Read all the chapters about mechanics (first 16 or so) and start doing past F=MA problems. Just solve and practice until you get the intuition.
Chem: I have the least experience with this. The local exam (or the open round) is considerably easy compared to the aforementioned olympiads. That’s why the cutoff is generally 50+. This really depends on your school. How many can your school send to the semis, and is your district competitive? This can in fact be done with honors or AP Chem only, but you should of course solve the past exams.
CS: Do you program? If yes, with some practice you should be able to get to Silver Division. Gold is another story. If you don’t program, don’t force yourself to learn it for the sake of USACO. But I do suggest you to study it since it’s a very practical skill.
Math: This is way too hard. I have no idea how in the world people do olympiad math.
Sophomore year is the best year to prep for olympiads imo. Out of the 3 sciences, bio takes the most time to prepare so I suggest you to get that out of the way soph year. Even try going for Finals, since you just have so much time. Physics and Chem really depends on your math skills and intuition, so I cannot suggest you anything.
If you have any more specific questions pm me
Lots of practice, knowledge of lots of topics and theorems not normally covered well in high school (e.g. from algebra, number theory, combinatorics, geometry) and some cleverness at attacking the problem helps.
@BasedBioGod Do you know if the USAPhO requires Calculus or not(or other junior-senior level math topics)?
Also, one of my concerns is whether starting a club in sophomore year would be fine because everyone who would join would be more knowledgeable than me so I wouldn’t be able to “teach” new topics to them. How does everyone go about what will actually happen in the club meetings?
@MITer94
Yes i have noticed. I realized that a decent amount of practice and cleverness can put yourself through aime and onto usamo, but olympiad level is a whole different dimension. The amount of practice math olympiads put into, for me, is simply unfathomable.
@bha8102
F=MA, the first round of USAPhO (opens) does not require calc. AKA you can gain the semifinalist title without knowing it. Highest you would need is trig and calc concepts will help you understand physics at a deeper level.
You don’t have to teach. Club ≠ Lecture time. It can be a study group. You don’t necessarily have to lead it either.
I suggest you talk to your teacher about this.