Before The Test Day: A Countdown to the Things You Need Done! 1. Make sure you are actually registered We cannot STRESS the importance of this! It would be a disappointment if you had studied all summer just to not take the exam. Your cabinet will notify you when registration for the USABO begins. GET IT DONE! Carnegie will cover the school club registration, telling USABO that CVHS has students wanting to take the exam. However, you are responsible for registering yourself to take the exam. Essentially, registering yourself (individually) will let the USABO know how many exams to send Ms. Masiglat and let Ms. Masiglat know how many scantrons she needs to bring. However, if you do miss the registration deadline ,either b/c of personal reasons or so on, have no fear. You technically have until a week before the exam to let USABO know you are taking the exam. But don't rely on this always being true. USABO does not have to accept your registration if you are late. So make sure you get that done in time!
2. STUDY!!! Taking the USABO requires you to study and prepare for the exam. The USABO not only covers an extensive amount of knowledge, it also requires an in-depth understanding of the topics it covers. You cannot expect to score well if you don't study. To put it into perspective, to qualify for the semi-finals of the USABO (the top 10% score), one must get 23-29 questions correct (out of 50!). Though studying may not guarantee you to score a semi-final qualifying result, it will greatly aid your ability on the test day.
3. Practice, Learn, Perfect The USABO is not only about knowledge, it is also about experience. The more you experience the USABO tests, the easier the questions come to you. Linked under the USABO resources are a list compiled of practice exams from around the world, across the years. Additionally, the CVHS Biology Olympiad Club, Cabinet, and members are all at your disposal to learn from. Ask questions from your members about the exam. But for now, here is some key advice for when you take the exam:
The Day Of... Here's the USABO open exam breakdown. You will have 50 minutes to answer 50 questions covering a variety of Topics. This breaks down to roughly 1 minute for each question. The timing of the USABO exam itself presents the first challenge. You must accept the fact that you will not be able to answer every question to the point where you feel confident you got the question correct. And that's okay! The USABO open exam is designed to be paced uncomfortably and quickly. That means that it is not always necessary that you feel certain of the correct answer. Here are some Tips for the Exam.
1. Accept the fact that you will not get every question correct. Now, this isn't calling you stupid or anything of the like. Not only is the timing of the exam very quick, the questions asked are often crazy specific and in-depth. You will be asked to depict the tertiary structure of polypeptides given only the amino acid sequence, or asked to diagnose what element a plant is lacking based off a photo, or even to identify the affects of a drug (that you've never heard of before) on the stomach lining of a cow. In this case, we are not aiming for perfection: we are aiming for as close to perfection as possible. Notch down your ego and accept the inevitable facts of academic that is called imperfection.
2. Study to Guess I can almost guarantee you that you will not be 100% sure of your answer for most of the questions. More often than not, you will be using elimination to get to the best possible answer choices for you to guess between. Study keywords, big ideas, and concepts so you can understand the question. Understand what is being asked in the questions.
3. Use questions to answer questions While taking the exam, you will notice that most questions give a long paragraph of background information for you to utilize when interpreting the data. Sometimes, the paragraph of information from one questions provides some context for another question, increasing your understanding and therefore your ability to guess better. You may be learning new skills whilst taking the exam. Use questions to answer questions.