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On the test, would they have questions not related to the specific topic of food borne illness or is everything going to be related to this subtopic?

EpicFailure wrote:On the test, would they have questions not related to the specific topic of food borne illness or is everything going to be related to this subtopic?

You should expect some questions related to the subtopic, but not all.
That being said, I've only ever taken one test even related to the annual topic, and that was last year's nationals test. It's the same knowledge either way, just variations in how you apply it.

yeah, so my coach gave us a practice test for DD and it was like asking questions about S. Enteriditis phage type 8, so does anyone know what that is? i'm very confuzzled....

prelude_to_death wrote:yeah, so my coach gave us a practice test for DD and it was like asking questions about S. Enteriditis phage type 8, so does anyone know what that is? i'm very confuzzled....

S. Enteritidis is a bacterium that causes salmonella. I dunno about the phage 8 part though, but you can bet that if something like that was on an actual test, there would be a paragraph or two explaining it and the questions would be more oriented around analyzing salmonella outbreaks or something.(AFAIK, salmonella is quite popular with DD).

Does anyone have a good link to different types of study designs?

EpicFailure wrote:Does anyone have a good link to different types of study designs?

ichaelm wrote:

ohafer wrote:Does anyone have a good website for vocab or can give me theirs from their notes?

Look at section three of the Disease Detectives rules. On my copy, it says:

Sample Problems and Resources may be found at http://www.soinc.org

Take a look at that website! They have online resources for all of the events, especially the really old ones like disease detectives. Just check out the event info page on disease detectives. There's even a whole section on glossaries and dictionaries! That's three good websites for vocab, and much more.

For different types of study designs, I'd start with the 2010 handout. And there are many other resources on that page that definitely have the kind of information you're looking for.

Questions:
1. Are calculators allowed for computational matters?
2. What are examples of diseases and mode of transmission that one should know?
3. Does one have to know symptoms of the diseases?

kalithepianist wrote:Questions:
1. Are calculators allowed for computational matters?
2. What are examples of diseases and mode of transmission that one should know?
3. Does one have to know symptoms of the diseases?

Have you even read the rules? It is clearly stated that you are allowed to use a non-programmable calculator if you need it. As far as examples of diseases I really cannot say how much you should know, but most of the time, information about any diseases will be provided with the test. However at regional competitions, be prepared for anything. Regionals is usually poorly organized (for me at least, 2 years ago, my regional DD test was just a couple of passages and then a few reading comprehension questions) so to be safe I would know basic food-borne illnesses. You should, however, know about modes of transmission and infer what that suggests about a disease, as often times this pops up on tests. For symptoms of the disease, I wouldn't worry, most of the time you are given enough information in the test to infer what symptoms of a disease are.

Yes, I did read the rules; I was just asking them for clarification, as this is my first year participating in SciOly. Thank you!
Are calculations a main part of this event?

kalithepianist wrote:Yes, I did read the rules; I was just asking them for clarification, as this is my first year participating in SciOly. Thank you!
Are calculations a main part of this event?

Well, you need to know the formulas and how to apply them. Every test I have ever taken for this event requires at least one calculation, sometimes more. They aren't the whole focus of the test, but they are significant portion.

Main ones to know:
Odds Ratio
Relative Risk
Prevalence/Incidence
Attack Rate
Mortality/Morbidity Rate