Disease Detectives B/C

[ichaelm]

I don't think cheat sheets are allowed in this event. Oh, and, from what I am studying, we have to learn diseases, their specific symptoms, their differences, their severity, and such. I think as a test they give us a situation and we have to solve it.

You are allowed to bring in one 8.5" by 11" sheet of notes.

The main focus is NOT memorizing specific diseases. As stated in the rules: "This event combines a basic understanding of biological and physical agents that cause disease with an ability to analyze, interpret, evaluate and draw conclusions from simple data and communicate results to peers." Although, knowing a few common diseases would be useful for some tests.

[yogoperson]

I don't think cheat sheets are allowed in this event. Oh, and, from what I am studying, we have to learn diseases, their specific symptoms, their differences, their severity, and such. I think as a test they give us a situation and we have to solve it.

You are allowed to bring in one 8.5" by 11" sheet of notes.

The main focus is NOT memorizing specific diseases. As stated in the rules: "This event combines a basic understanding of biological and physical agents that cause disease with an ability to analyze, interpret, evaluate and draw conclusions from simple data and communicate results to peers." Although, knowing a few common diseases would be useful for some tests.

Thanks! I have a heads up on where to study, which is pretty much everything.

[ichaelm]

I don't think cheat sheets are allowed in this event. Oh, and, from what I am studying, we have to learn diseases, their specific symptoms, their differences, their severity, and such. I think as a test they give us a situation and we have to solve it.

You are allowed to bring in one 8.5" by 11" sheet of notes.

The main focus is NOT memorizing specific diseases. As stated in the rules: "This event combines a basic understanding of biological and physical agents that cause disease with an ability to analyze, interpret, evaluate and draw conclusions from simple data and communicate results to peers." Although, knowing a few common diseases would be useful for some tests.

Well, not really. From what I am told, we are supposed to know most diseases so we can identify the in a case and such.
Really, cheat sheets? My coach said that all we really need is a calculator and our brain, and cheat sheets aren't allowed. O.o

Thanks!

I've just uploaded my reformatting of the 2009 National Disease Detectives test, written by the CDC. You can find it on the 2011 test exchange on the wiki, or here. Feel free to use it to figure out what to study for, in addition to specific pathogens. Sorry for the low-quality images. I'm pretty sure that for this test (a pretty rigorous test to prepare for, considering this is the national level), you could have not known a thing about Cryptosporidium or Salmonella Typhimurium and still aced it, if you knew everything you needed to know about epidemiology in general.

[yogoperson]

Thanks!

[ichaelm]

By the way, I just realized that you're from the team that placed 15th at nationals last year! Congratz! You guys were really close to my team last year, BCMS. Good luck!

[Starapollo1]

I don't know about the rest of you guys but I'm really excited about this year being about foodborne illnesses. In the past Disease was always kind of a common sense... logic event. You didn't really have to know anything going into it to do particularly well. Garunteed it was always pretty competitive cause everyone always got near perfects, lol, but it wasn't uber hard. This year though I feel like there's actually some stuff to know! In the past I never even knew what to study for disease so I didn't, but now there's so much to know and so very little time to learn it!

[ichaelm]

I don't know about the rest of you guys but I'm really excited about this year being about foodborne illnesses. In the past Disease was always kind of a common sense... logic event. You didn't really have to know anything going into it to do particularly well. Garunteed it was always pretty competitive cause everyone always got near perfects, lol, but it wasn't uber hard. This year though I feel like there's actually some stuff to know! In the past I never even knew what to study for disease so I didn't, but now there's so much to know and so very little time to learn it!

Maybe in your region or state competition, the Disease Detectives test was easy, but trust me, there's a lot more to it than you think if you can not really know anything and still do well. At nationals last year, my partner and I didn't even finish the test, and we still medaled! Actually, maybe it would be a good idea for you to look at some of the old nationals tests from the test packets they have on soinc. The 2009 one is on the test exchange, as I just mentioned to yogoperson. It's pretty hard!

Just wondering, how well have you done in the past at Indiana states, considering you "never even knew what to study for disease so I didn't"?

[eta150]

I don't know about the rest of you guys but I'm really excited about this year being about foodborne illnesses. In the past Disease was always kind of a common sense... logic event. You didn't really have to know anything going into it to do particularly well. Garunteed it was always pretty competitive cause everyone always got near perfects, lol, but it wasn't uber hard. This year though I feel like there's actually some stuff to know! In the past I never even knew what to study for disease so I didn't, but now there's so much to know and so very little time to learn it!

Maybe in your region or state competition, the Disease Detectives test was easy, but trust me, there's a lot more to it than you think if you can not really know anything and still do well. At nationals last year, my partner and I didn't even finish the test, and we still medaled! Actually, maybe it would be a good idea for you to look at some of the old nationals tests from the test packets they have on soinc. The 2009 one is on the test exchange, as I just mentioned to yogoperson. It's pretty hard!

Just wondering, how well have you done in the past at Indiana states, considering you "never even knew what to study for disease so I didn't"?

Actually, we did finish. But yeah, but yeah, studying was key. It was, in fact, the reason we were able to finish, as we didn't have to constantly refer to the cheat sheet for information.

[Starapollo1]

I don't know about the rest of you guys but I'm really excited about this year being about foodborne illnesses. In the past Disease was always kind of a common sense... logic event. You didn't really have to know anything going into it to do particularly well. Garunteed it was always pretty competitive cause everyone always got near perfects, lol, but it wasn't uber hard. This year though I feel like there's actually some stuff to know! In the past I never even knew what to study for disease so I didn't, but now there's so much to know and so very little time to learn it!

Maybe in your region or state competition, the Disease Detectives test was easy, but trust me, there's a lot more to it than you think if you can not really know anything and still do well. At nationals last year, my partner and I didn't even finish the test, and we still medaled! Actually, maybe it would be a good idea for you to look at some of the old nationals tests from the test packets they have on soinc. The 2009 one is on the test exchange, as I just mentioned to yogoperson. It's pretty hard!

Just wondering, how well have you done in the past at Indiana states, considering you "never even knew what to study for disease so I didn't"?

To be frank I should apologize with my bold statement. I didn't mean it as in it was simply an easy event though looking at my wording that's definately how it came out. Because of conflicts i've never gotten to do it at state though i've heard their really tough. I was refering to some invitationals in the past where all the questions answers could just be found by reading the paragraph they gave you. Already this year i'm really enjoying this event. And thanks for hte suggestion but my partner and I have gone over a lot of the past national tests. Hope this clears my name, and thanks guys for your input

[ichaelm]

Actually, we did finish. But yeah, but yeah, studying was key. It was, in fact, the reason we were able to finish, as we didn't have to constantly refer to the cheat sheet for information.

Haha, you're right! We had like 2 minutes or so left.

I don't know about the rest of you guys but I'm really excited about this year being about foodborne illnesses. In the past Disease was always kind of a common sense... logic event. You didn't really have to know anything going into it to do particularly well. Garunteed it was always pretty competitive cause everyone always got near perfects, lol, but it wasn't uber hard. This year though I feel like there's actually some stuff to know! In the past I never even knew what to study for disease so I didn't, but now there's so much to know and so very little time to learn it!

Maybe in your region or state competition, the Disease Detectives test was easy, but trust me, there's a lot more to it than you think if you can not really know anything and still do well. At nationals last year, my partner and I didn't even finish the test, and we still medaled! Actually, maybe it would be a good idea for you to look at some of the old nationals tests from the test packets they have on soinc. The 2009 one is on the test exchange, as I just mentioned to yogoperson. It's pretty hard!

Just wondering, how well have you done in the past at Indiana states, considering you "never even knew what to study for disease so I didn't"?

To be frank I should apologize with my bold statement. I didn't mean it as in it was simply an easy event though looking at my wording that's definately how it came out. Because of conflicts i've never gotten to do it at state though i've heard their really tough. I was refering to some invitationals in the past where all the questions answers could just be found by reading the paragraph they gave you. Already this year i'm really enjoying this event. And thanks for hte suggestion but my partner and I have gone over a lot of the past national tests. Hope this clears my name, and thanks guys for your input

Don't worry about it. I hope you get to do it at states this year!