Anatomy & Physiology

Anatomy and Physiology varies from year to year based on what systems are tested. In 2011, the three systems were digestive, respiratory, and excretory. Ideally, you and your partner should both know all three systems really well but if you run out of time, you can split up the systems

States:

-Check the massachusetts science olypmiad website for the event schedule/event coordinators. If Mr. Dempsey is the event coordinator for anatomy and physiology, (he ran it in 2011 but not in 2012) then the only thing you have to study is the ap bio textbook and you will get top 3 easily

-know diseases based on pictures

-The states test was 50% stations and 50% test with multiple choice questions

-know diagrams really well

-the states test only included human anatomy, but you should probably study cow, frog, and bird anatomy as well just to be safe

-know the basics of other human systems as well. For example, even though the 3 systems this year were respiratory, digestive, and excretory, there were still several questions relating to circulatory on the states test (since circulatory is related to respiratory)

-Time isn't usually a problem so check over your partner's work when you're done

Nationals:

-It is hard to do well at nationals since anatomy and physiologyis covered in every single biology class, so in order to do well, you have to start studying early

-the 2012 Nationals test had no lab portion and was just a written test with some matching and lots of fill in's

-know diseases and their treatments, at least 30-40% of the test was diseases and how to treat them

-the 2011 nationals test only included human anatomy, but the 2010 national test had bird, frog and cow anatomy

-Time usually isn't an issue

Study Resources/Tips:

-scioly.org wiki

-soinc.org has a lot of good stuff

-ap bio textbook

-gray's anatomy

-for all diseases on the event description, just look them up on the internet and put down causes, symptoms, treatment, etc. on your cheat sheet

-if you have extra time, go to the library and look at random anatomy books

-Highlight your cheat sheet so it doesn't just look like a huge blob of words