Course Preparation

• AP Chemistry
  
• AP Biology
  
• IBET/Honor Biology​
  
• Honor/TJ Summer Chemistry

  Test Preparation

• AP Chemistry
  
• AP Biology​​

Olympiad Preparation

• US Biology Olympiad (USABO)
• US Medicine and Disease Olympiad (USMDO)
  

​​​​​IBET and pre-USABO (Honor biology) for rising 7, 8, 9th graders Start from April 2025 and ends Nov 2025. 430-630 pm EST. Every Sun

If join late, students can review recorded videos. 

​
IBET (TJ freshman biology course):

The special challenges of the IBET.

Limited teaching time: some teachers teach about 27 chapters out of 43 chapters. Many do not have enough time to explain all the details to finish ~27 chapters in 4 quarters because the IBET program has many extra activities like field trips, journal reading, experiments, projects, presentation, etc.

Lack of detailed understanding: Some classes’ average is a 65-75%. This is curved to a “B+”, making  above 80% an A. This means that even if a student receives an "A", he or she often does not understand the subject clearly.

Many students find the IBET course difficult because it goes beyond regular biology courses by teaching special topics. Taking IBET with the knowledge of middle school science IBET is not easy. This preview will help students maintain a high GPA.

This course is for freshmen/rising freshmen/challenging 7th graders. It will also help build foundations for USABO, AP and Univ. of Toronto exams.

Recently, TJ announced its acceptance later, so they do not know whether they passed or not by April. Passing or not, this class helps them understand biology much better.

pre-USABO (Honor Biology + AP biology)

This course covers IBET biology textbook and ~85% of Campbell AP biology book. This helps the smart young students understand biology earlier and prepare for the science Olympiad and USA Biology Olympiad. The teaching covers about 85% of each chapter in AP biology book and is connected to USA Biology Olympiad in high school. Since no honor biology book is good for smart students, I use Campbell AP Biology book and cover the honor biology-level parts. This way, students get used to Campbell book, understand biology systematically and feel easy to study AP Campbell biology book for Biology Olympiad. After this course, students join USABO class that starts Feb 2027. USABO class covers 100% of the USABO book and a lot of extra topics for USABO exam.

​

Biology Olympiads

1) USA Biology Olympiad (USABO): for Feb, 2026 exam
Class Time: Fri 830-1030 pm (EST) from Feb 14 Fri, 2024 to the end of Nov.  
REVIEW Session: Dec to Jan 2025.
This class is for TJ students as well as students in all 50 states.

Regardless of TJ acceptance, students of 8th, 9th, and 10th grade can start from this date.

2014: One freshman and two sophomores the first round USABO exam
2015: Two freshmen and four sophomores passed the first round USABO exam. One passed the second round USABO exam.
2016: One freshman two sophomores and two juniors passed the first round USABO exam. Two passed the second round USABO exam.
2017: three sophomores and five juniors in the first round
2018: 2018 exam results: Taught 4 TJ freshmen, 3 freshmen made it scored as high as 28. (The fourth student joined Nov and had one point below the cut-off, 21.  more sophomores and juniors)
2019 exam results: a total of 9 students passed, 1 freshman, 4 sophomores, 4 junior/senior (can be more, 29 in VA, 25 in TJ, 592 in the nation)
2020 exam results: 2 Freshmen, 2 Sophomores, 5 Juniors. One freshman took Skype session in NJ and one sophomore in TX who got the highest score in the 2020 open exam )
2021 exam results: total 11 passed and 6 students got over 30 score including students in NJ, TX and CA. One student passed the second round and becomes the finalist and another student ranked in the top 50. They took both 1st and 2nd round classes. 

​2022 exam results: Total 8 passed. 4 students got 30 to 40. 40 is the 2nd best in the nation. Two students are selected for the finalists in NJ and VA.

2023 exam results: 9 students who attended 2022-2023 class took the exam and 8 passed. Class had prospective middle school students and unfortunately, some high school students could not take the exam due to registration mistakes at school. 6 previous students reported to pass. This year's exam used shorter sentences in the most of problems and so it looked easy but as hard as the previous one (24 is cutoff). Since students understood basic concepts well, they could solve confidently regardless of problem types.

​2024 exam results: 7 students passed who attended 2023-2024 and 2022-2023 classes. 4 students won with over 30. Cutoff 23. The highest score was 39. Students with18-22 received Honorable Mention Certificate that is new from this year. Hope they can make it next year.

The Open exam requires to study Campbell Biology book that is used for college freshman and AP bio. In addition, it requires extra topics that are not in the book. I teach the book and many extra topics for the open exam.

Live Stream for 2026 USABO exam: from 2019, I have a live stream via Skype, so students in non-TJ school or in other states can take my session. Fri 830-1030 pm EST.
The open exam class will be recorded. Classes are recorded. Late attendee can watch the previous videos and catch up with the current class. Videos, PPT slides, chapter problems, and extra files are provided.

For 2nd round exam: study Plant Biology book, Biochemistry book, Cell Biology book, Genetics, Animal Physiology, Evolution, Systematics, and Ecology book which are all college books. This is not open every year. The recorded material can be provided in the year that I do not have the classes.

Nowadays, ~10,000 students take open exam in Feb (open: open to all high school students). about 10% are selected in the open exam and they are awarded the semifinalist. Out of about one thousand winners, several hundreds are challenging the second round exam. Usually, 20 students were the finalists. in 2024, 27 were selected, which is very unusual.

The statistics of open exam and the semifinal exam are shown below.

​​

​2) US Medicine & Diseases Olympiad (USMDO): 2025-2026 class time for Feb, 2026 exam

This another exam-based competition. My USABO class helps students prepare USMDO exam in Aug. I focused on this from 2024 USABO class. I taught 4 units for USMDO before Aug and 4 units after the exam for USABO. For the first 4 units, I added more medicine/disease content. It helped students get gold/silver/bronze medals. Thus, the USABO class also helped USMDO. One class for the dual exam!! The winners of USABO/USMDO and AP 5 can demonstrate student's passion for biology when they apply college. ​

​​AP Biology (June, July, August)
Since 2014, TJ has used a new textbook that is not Campbell's Biology book. Many topics in the book were never seen in AP exam because this book contained many topics beyond ap bio. It can say that students can learn a lot of new topics. However, my interpretation is that those topics are not shown in AP exam and so if students focus on this book, students will waste their time studying topics that will not be in AP and miss some topics in AP exam. For AP exam, Campbell's biology book is still the best one that was used in TJ before 2014 and many other schools. The topics of classification, plant biology and human physiology were eliminated from 2020 AP exam which are units 5, 6 and 7. Unit 7, human physiology, is important for basic science and medical school. 

Since the content was reduced, I can finish units 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8 during summer time (June-Aug) every year. All lectures are recorded and so students can understand during summer and review while they taking school exams. Practice problem and answer are provided. By studying well, students can better prepare for coursework, AP exam, Biology Olympiads, and Univ. of Toronto exam.

In 2013, I started teaching 8th graders right after TJ admission was announced. Most of them did not have any problem understanding the Campbell's AP Biology book. So, they could start the Biology Olympiad exam early. From 2014, I helped the freshman pass USABO exam. Please, see 7th/8th-grade section for the result.

If there are enough students, the review class for May AP exam will start from mid Feb.
Total ~22 hours.

AP Bio During Summer
If there are enough students, the class will start from mid June to mid Aug.
Total ~50 hours (25 sessions). 2-3 classes a week
​

​​

​2019 Univ. of Toronto Biology Competition

Two of following 5 TJ students are my students who won both USABO and Toronto Bio Exam.

Once finish USABO prep well, this exam won't be hard.

Very proud of that!! 2020/2021 exams were cancelled due to COVID19.