How to Prep for USABO

Biology Olympiad Summer Training

Age range: Any age
Location: Online
When: Courses start year-round
Cost: ~$1000-$2000 depending on course length

Biology Olympiad is one of the most challenging things you can do in the field. If you want to go heavy on biology, you can go for this. If you can get to the international round, you’re looking at nearly guaranteed admission to any school you want. But, if you’re not 1000% into biology, don’t go for this. Any of the Olympiad’s will take up a lot of time, so be prepared for this to become your number one activity. If it looks like you probably won’t progress very far, you should have a family conversation early on. It’s better to cut your losses and spend your time on other things that will get you into college than to sink your time into something that won’t benefit you.

How to get into USABO

  • You’ll start out as early as possible doing local biology competitions and bees. I can help you search for these. Biolympiads has a solid track record of producing winners, and they offer a Junior Bio Olympiad Training Course.

  • You’ll make sure your school is registered for USABO.

  • If you score high enough in the USABO Open Exam (online), you’ll advance to the Semifinal Exam (online).

  • If you score high enough in the Semifinal Exam, you’ll advance to a training program where you’ll learn more biology, write a paper, conduct 6 lab assessments, and complete the National Finals Exam (in person).

  • The top four scorers in the National Finals will go to the International Biology Olympiad (in person).

It’s a lot of testing, a lot of studying. It’s intense. But, if you push yourself on this, you’ll benefit in math classes at school, on the SAT/ACT, and in your ability to work under pressure. I can even help you skip a grade in math (common among students who pursue this path)!

How to Prepare

Grab several of the following books and resources and get to studying! And don’t forget to enroll in a training camp like Biolympiads.

  1. Campbell and Reece's BIOLOGY (8th edition or higher preferred)

  2. Human Physiology by Sherwood

  3. Essential Cell Biology by Alberts

  4. Plant Biology by Raven

  5. BioEd - an educational resource for life science educators

  6. Jablonski Diagram Molecular Expressions: Interactive Java tutorials.

  7. MacMillan Learning: 106 tutorials on topics in biology.

  8. zeroBiology: Biology quizzes, games, worksheets, dissections, and songs for students.

  9. Flashcard Database: Sets of biology-related flashcards to study.

  10. Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology, Fourth Edition by James D. Mauseth.

  11. Your school biology curriculum!

  12. CEE produces this large site filled with tons of resources.

Additionally, you are also encouraged to form a USABO club with other students from your school, guidelines for which can be found here. Forming a USABO club gives you the opportunity to test each other on key topics, learn together, and discuss and answer queries that you may have about any of the topics and/or the Olympiad itself.