2022 USABO Changes
Exams
All exams will be online at one time and on one day administered by the Art of Problem Solving. Test Administrators will continue to proctor the online exams and are required to complete the Test Administrator Certificate that includes the USABO Honor Code. Students will continue to complete the Student Certificates that includes the USABO Honor Code.Exams will be password protected will be available only at the appointed time and date as indicated on the schedule and will be emailed directly to the students with the student password following.
National Finals
It is anticipated that the 2021 National Finals will be virtual.
What is the USABO? page
This page is the landing site for the USABO https://www.usabo-trc.org.
- Click on the Facebook icon at the bottom of the page and friend the USABO. New on the USABO Facebook page:
- News and interesting facts in biology each day.
- Opportunities for students at the high school, undergraduate, and graduate level in biological research worldwide.
- Celebration of a famous biologist’s birthday with a link to information regarding his/her contributions to biology.
USABO Registration Site
CEE continues to work to provide a more user-friendly registration site tested for usability by USABO teachers. Once your school information has been entered, it will be permanently stored to ease registration in coming years. Teacher information is not stored as many teachers move on to new positions, retire, or for other reasons no longer participate in the USABO. If you registered your school for the USABO in the years 2011 through 2020, you will find your school in the dropdown menu in the Test Administrator section on the USABO homepage. Although you will find your school in the dropdown menu, all teachers and students will still need to register for 2021 and the $95 registration needs to be paid.
USABO Exam Question Format
The USABO Open Exam uses Multiple Choice format with one response per question.
The USABO Semifinal Exam uses the Multiple Choice, Short Answer, and Multiple True/False Choice formats.
IBO Theoretical and USABO National Exam use the Multiple True/False Choice format.
Teacher Resource Center (TRC)
The TRC is dynamic. Once your school has completed the registration process and payment has been received, please check the TRC for the latest resources and links to help you to prepare your students for the USABO. Content is arranged according to the seven IBO focus groups:
- Cell Biology
- Animal Anatomy and Physiology
- Plant Anatomy and Physiology
- Ethology
- Genetics and Evolution
- Ecology
- Biosystematics
- Neurobiology (Coming)
- Bioinformatics (Coming)
All Open Exams and the Semifinal Exams from 2003 to 2018 with keys are available online in the Teacher Resource Center (TRC). Test Administrators may use them as they see fit with their students in hard copy format only. Under no circumstances is the URL to be provided to students or linked to school or external web sites!
Student Corner (SC)
This area is open to ALL students whether they have registered for the USABO or not. It includes the following sections:
- How to Start a USABO Club: Step by step information and guidance from USABO students who have formed USABO Clubs at their schools. Each year, this information is updated with input from USABO participants.
- General Content: As the title implies, this has information on the areas of the IBO Curriculum.
- Content: This area has been expanded to include:
- Suggested sites.
- Suggested texts for in-depth and supplemental study or reading.
- Scientist of interest
- USABO Finalists’ Favorite Links
- Introduction to the seven areas of the IBO curriculum resources where more in-depth resources are found in the Student Resource Center.
Student Resource Center (SRC)
This page has information specifically for students who have registered for the USABO.
- All seven areas of the International Biology Olympiad (IBO) have been updated with useful links, study problems, and other resources to prepare for the USABO. In addition, two new areas will be added in 2021; Neurobiology and Bioinformatics.
- The Biodiversity area has an image of a common organism for each taxonomic representative prescribed by the IBO.
Source: https://www.usabo-trc.org/whats-new-2021-usabo
