The USA Biology Olympiad, sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Education, will be conducting the initial round of tests, administered in your high school, in February. The Web site (link) says, “The USA Biology Olympiad focuses on stimulating young scholars’ intellectual curiosity and developing their critical thinking skills in biological reasoning.”
It is not necessary to be enrolled in a biology course or to have taken AP biology to sign up for the initial round. Your teacher has to nominate you to take the exam, but it is multiple-choice and open to any interested high school student in the US. The top 10 percent of students who take the first round test will be given a two-hour exam, also at their high schools, consisting of multiple-choice and short-answer questions.
Then, the top 20 semifinalists will advance to the third round. The International Biology Olympiad will be conducted July 12-19, 2009, in Tsukuba, Japan, and only four team members from the US will be there to participate.
