Biology Olympiad

2

Is anyone doing the biology olympiad? Are you doing anything to prepare for it? I don't know if I should do anything, all the topics are just so vague, being on the whole of biology outside of the A-level syllabus..

Reply 1

boygenious

Asphyxiating

Is anyone doing the biology olympiad? Are you doing anything to prepare for it? I don't know if I should do anything, all the topics are just so vague, being on the whole of biology outside of the A-level syllabus..

i think i might do it. it'll probably be similar to the physics olympiad, which was just using concepts in physics (usually of GCSE level) but in slightly more complex situations. Also some wordy questions, which are a bit annoying

Reply 2

undiscovered

13

Asphyxiating

Is anyone doing the biology olympiad? Are you doing anything to prepare for it? I don't know if I should do anything, all the topics are just so vague, being on the whole of biology outside of the A-level syllabus..

What is it?

Reply 3

Lucy

boygenious

i think i might do it. it'll probably be similar to the physics olympiad, which was just using concepts in physics (usually of GCSE level) but in slightly more complex situations. Also some wordy questions, which are a bit annoying

I'm doing it - I saw the content 'syllabus' of the exam, if you guys don't know it's: 25% Cell Biology, 15% Plant Anatomy & Physiology with emphasis on seed plants, 15% Animal Anatomy & Physiology with emphasis on vertebrates, 5% Ethology, 15% Genetics & Evolution, 15% Ecology, 10% Biosystematics.

Quite a bit should have already been covered by our AS/A2 biology so I'm just hoping my memory will fare me well in the exam. Otherwise I'm going to try to skim read over fungi (Cell Biology), digestion and nutrition of proteins and fats (we only learnt carbs for AS), excretion of birds, fish and reptiles (have already read a bit on why bird poo is semi-solid lol), immunity and I don't know anything about ethology.

boygenious - it pretty much looks like it's BMAT style (eurgh, yuk :frown:

) but on a higher level.

Reply 4

Lucy

SiAnY

What is it?

I nabbed this off their website:

The British Biology Olympiad is a competition for post 16 Biology students studying 'advanced' or vocational awards.

Its aims are:

-to enable students with an outstanding knowledge and enjoyment of the subject of biology to have this recognised and celebrated by their peers, and their families, teachers and schools;
-to promote biology as a subject;
-to provide a national competition from which to select a team for the International Biology Olympiad.

Reply 5

boygenious

Lucy

I'm doing it - I saw the content 'syllabus' of the exam, if you guys don't know it's: 25% Cell Biology, 15% Plant Anatomy & Physiology with emphasis on seed plants, 15% Animal Anatomy & Physiology with emphasis on vertebrates, 5% Ethology, 15% Genetics & Evolution, 15% Ecology, 10% Biosystematics.

Quite a bit should have already been covered by our AS/A2 biology so I'm just hoping my memory will fare me well in the exam. Otherwise I'm going to try to skim read over fungi (Cell Biology), digestion and nutrition of proteins and fats (we only learnt carbs for AS), excretion of birds, fish and reptiles (have already read a bit on why bird poo is semi-solid lol), immunity and I don't know anything about ethology.

boygenious - it pretty much looks like it's BMAT style (eurgh, yuk :frown:

) but on a higher level.

great, as if one BMAT wasn't enough. what's ethology? hardly any of those have been covered in the edexcel syllabus. oh by the way are you doing biology AEA?

Reply 6

Lucy

boygenious

great, as if one BMAT wasn't enough. what's ethology? hardly any of those have been covered in the edexcel syllabus. oh by the way are you doing biology AEA?

Ethology is all about animal behaviour e.g. instinct... sounds quite interesting :smile:

We use the edexcel syllabus too - what I mentioned before (e.g. cell biology of fungi, excretion of reptiles etc.) are pretty much the 'main' topics which our syllabus doesn't cover. Oh well! Hmm, I'm not too sure about biology AEA, my bio teachers have recommended it but my form tutor reckons it is a waste of time (especially as I'm going to be super busy with my 4 A-levels already) - not too keen on it tbh but I guess I'll wait and see. Are you planning on taking it?

Reply 7

madmazda86

8

Ethology is stuff like imprinting (y'know, where ducks follow the first moving objhect they see at birth etc.) It helps if you do Psychology for that section. You can get sample papers off the BBO website as well as a list of the various topic sections. A lot of it is stuff that used to be on the A-Level syllabus but isn't anymore, e.g. moss reproduction. My friend and I really wanted to do it but our teacher didn't want us to because of all our exams and coursework etc. We begged her and she relented a little bit - might find out if she entered us or not, though I don't think she did :frown:

Have the entry dates closed?

Reply 8

SVSV

I'm doing but I'm unsure of the date, when is it?

Reply 9

Asphyxiating

OP

2

I don't know what the physics olympiad is like or AEA, we don't get to do AEAs but this is supposed to be pretty hard especially all that classification at the end, I have no idea what those latin names stand for..lol Anyway I don't really want to do it because I have so much work to do, and I've only just finished my exams, so poo the olympiad :smile:

Reply 10

CHAD

Lucy

I nabbed this off their website:

The British Biology Olympiad is a competition for post 16 Biology students studying 'advanced' or vocational awards.

Its aims are:

-to enable students with an outstanding knowledge and enjoyment of the subject of biology to have this recognised and celebrated by their peers, and their families, teachers and schools;
-to promote biology as a subject;
-to provide a national competition from which to select a team for the International Biology Olympiad.