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Re: Cell Biology C

Posted: March 28th, 2016, 10:02 am
by Physiofreak
What are some of the hardest questions you guys have been asked? It seems to me that the practice tests on here are more difficult than any test I've ever actually taken...

Re: Cell Biology C

Posted: March 28th, 2016, 1:20 pm
by watermydoing14
Physiofreak wrote:What are some of the hardest questions you guys have been asked? It seems to me that the practice tests on here are more difficult than any test I've ever actually taken...
I don't think I've ever really been asked any questions that are much harder than something I would get asked in my AP or IB Biology courses, unless you count questions about specific intermediates/enzymes in cellular respiration. Beware of questions about National topics that might show up on State-level exams because test-writers sometimes don't pay much attention to the rules. At least know what the national topics are so you can point it out to the supervisor and maybe they won't count that question. If you have time, study the basics of each topic so you have the upper hand on other teams who don't expect to see those topics.

I also notice that for most questions, thinking about it more doesn't help much. You either know the answer or you don't. Of course, making an educated guess based on other information that you know can be helpful occasionally, but since of lot of this event is just memorization, you need to be able to learn a broad range of specific pieces of information.

For me, lab stations are the most difficult because it's often something I've never done, or there's very little time to adjust the microscope and look at the specimen, etc, but the actual questions are usually pretty straightforward/simple.

Re: Cell Biology C

Posted: March 28th, 2016, 3:26 pm
by Uber
Physiofreak wrote:What are some of the hardest questions you guys have been asked? It seems to me that the practice tests on here are more difficult than any test I've ever actually taken...
Heh, maples16 was last year's champion, so don't get too caught up in that. I have to agree with watermydoing, usually nothing obscure pops up, or if it does (like COPI and COPII), the test writers explain what it is. On one or two tests, I've gotten literally all experiment questions, so test styles and difficulty are usually all over the place.