Section I consists of 60 multiple-choice questions that deal with an experiment, set of data, or with general knowledge of biology. For a breakdown of the average percentage of each unit/topic, please refer back to this page. These questions will also each test a specific Science Practice topic, the list of which can be found on this page. On the following pages, we’ll provide an example of how that topic might be tested in multiple-choice form. These are just model questions, so don’t worry about the answers—we just want you to see how these might look in context, and with figures, diagrams, and/or charts.
As of the release of this book, this new format had not yet been administered on a full-length exam; May 2020 was to mark its first appearance, but this was delayed due to the impact of the coronavirus on testing. Please refer to your free online student tools to see if there have been any breaking updates regarding the wording of these questions, or their representation within the test.
Concept Explanation
1.Electrophoresis is used to separate DNA fragments by their size and charge. DNA fragments are pipetted into an agarose gel well and covered with a buffer. An electrical current is applied to the gel and buffered solution. Which of the following best explains why DNA fragments migrate towards the positive pole through the agarose gel?
(A) The nitrogenous bases found in DNA have a positive charge.
(B) The phosphate groups found in DNA have a negative charge.
(C) The histone proteins which are intertwined with the DNA have a negative charge.
(D) The polar bonds on the deoxyribose molecules found in DNA have a slightly negative charge.
Concept Explanation questions require you to explain biological concepts, processes, and written models. These are your standard content knowledge questions, where you may be asked to apply prior knowledge to a specific context or situation. These questions typically provide a specific example, then ask you to identify or explain something more general about the example.
The most obvious feature of these questions is that they start with a few sentences of information, usually containing a specific example or phenomenon. Many of the questions start with “which of the following best describes/explains…” and ask you to identify something’s function or explain the general science behind a situation.
Visual Representation
2.Marfan syndrome is a genetic disorder that affects tissues in the body. People with Marfan syndrome are typically tall and thin and have scoliosis and high levels of flexibility in their joints. The pattern of incidence of Marfan syndrome in a specific family is represented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Family pedigree of Marfan syndrome
Which of the following best describes the inheritance pattern for the disorder represented in Figure 1?
(A) X-linked recessive
(B) Autosomal recessive
(C) Autosomal dominance
(D) Incomplete dominance
Visual Representations questions require you to analyze pictorial depictions of biological concepts and processes. These questions are similar to Concept Explanation questions in that you may be asked to apply prior knowledge to a specific context or situation, except they will include a model, diagram, flow chart, or other representation instead of, or in addition to, a written description. These questions may also ask you to explain relationships between different topics or between specific concepts and larger biological principles and theories.
The most obvious feature of these questions is that they come with a graphic. Many of the questions start with “which of the following best describes/explains…” and reference a figure. You may be asked to identify the trend represented on a figure or for an explanation behind something in the figure.
Argumentation
3.A mosquito species that is a carrier for dengue fever lives in a rainforest in which two species of anteaters cohabit. Species A is immune to dengue fever but species B is not. The mosquito species is the primary food source for a specific species of bat that also lives in the rainforest. Which of the following statements best predicts the observable consequence if roost destruction suddenly eliminates all of the bats?
(A) Anteater species A will experience a higher death rate.
(B) Anteater species B will experience a higher death rate.
(C) Anteater species B will develop resistant strains of dengue fever.
(D) Anteater species A will develop sensitive strains of dengue fever.
Argumentation questions require you to make and support claims using evidence, biological principles and theories, and/or evidence. You may be asked to provide reasoning to justify a claim, explain the relationship between experimental results and larger concepts, and predict the effects of a disruption in a biological system or model. Evidence could be provided as a general biological concept or process, a visual representation, and/or data. These questions typically provide a specific example, then ask you to make a claim or predict something about the example.
The most obvious feature of Argumentation questions is that they reference a source of data or a piece of information. While Concept Explanation questions also reference information, they are more focused on memorized biological facts instead of justification and evidence. Many of the questions start with “which of the following best predicts the consequence…” or “which of the following best supports the claim that…”
Questions 4–6 refer to the following material.
Table 1. Effect of temperature on glucose production.
Figure 1. Effect of heat on the structure of lactase
Lactase is an enzyme found in many mammals that breaks down lactose, a sugar found in milk, into glucose through a hydrolysis reaction. Scientists hypothesized that lactase’s efficiency is affected by temperature. To test this hypothesis, the scientists dissolved lactase tablets in 200 mL of water and mixed 1 mL of the resulting enzyme solution with 2 mL of milk at different temperatures. After 20 minutes, the scientists tested for the presence of glucose using test strips. The glucose test strips are yellow in the absence of glucose and turn increasingly darker shades of green when glucose is present. The results are shown in Figure 1.
Questions & Methods
4.Which of the following would have provided the best control group for the investigation?
(A) A sample of milk containing no enzyme solution
(B) A sample of milk at a pH of 8
(C) A sample containing orange juice instead of milk
(D) A sample of milk at 100°C
Questions & Methods questions ask you to determine the methods best suited for an experiment. You may be asked to develop a testable question to prove or disprove an idea and/or develop hypotheses for an experiment. You may also be asked to identify experimental design components for experiments, such as independent and dependent variables and controls. You may be asked to propose the next steps for an experiment based on the methods used or the data collected.
The most obvious feature of Questions & Methods questions is the use of experimental design vocabulary, such as question, independent variable, dependent variable, and control. Many of the questions start with “which of the following questions will best guide the scientists towards…” or “which of the following best describes the independent variable/dependent variable/control of the experiment…”
Representing & Describing Data
5.Which of the following claims is best supported by the data?
(A) Lactase breaks down lactose most efficiently at low temperatures.
(B) Lactase breaks down lactose most efficiently at high temperatures.
(C) Lactase breaks down lactose most efficiently at moderate temperatures.
(D) Lactase efficiency is not affected by temperature.
Representing & Describing Data questions ask you to describe data from a table or graph, including identifying data points, describing trends and patterns, and describing relationships between variables. You may be asked to analyze a variety of representations, such as line graphs, bar graphs, logarithmic data, dual axes, histograms, box-and-whisker plots, and pie charts.
The most obvious feature of Representing & Describing Data questions is that they include an accompanying graph or data table. Many of the questions start with “which of the following claims is best supported by…” or “which of the following best describes the relationship between…”
Statistical Tests & Data Analysis
6.The average rate of glucose production from 20°C to 60°C is closest to which of the following?
(A) 0 (mg/dL)/min
(B) 20 (mg/dL)/min
(C) 60 (mg/dL)/min
(D) 100 (mg/dL)/min
Statistical Tests & Data Analysis questions ask you to perform calculations, such as finding averages, rates, ratios, and percentages, to draw conclusions from data. You may be asked to determine whether information is statistically significant or different based on confidence intervals or error bars, and you may be asked to perform chi-square statistics. While Argumentation questions also ask you to support claims with evidence, Statistical Tests & Data Analysis questions will focus more on the data than the scientific principles and theories behind the data.
The most obvious feature of Statistical Tests & Data Analysis questions is the associated numerical data and numbers in the answer choices. Many of the questions start with “The average/ratio/percent…is closest to which of the following…”
PACE YOURSELF
When you take a test in school, how many questions do you answer? Naturally, you try to answer all of them. You do this for two reasons: (1) your teacher told you to, and (2) if you left a question blank, your teacher would mark it wrong. However, that’s not the case when it comes to the AP Biology Exam. In fact, finishing the test is the worst thing you can do. Before we explain why, let’s talk about timing.
In case you were curious, the answers to the questions modeled on these pages are: 1 (B), 2 (C), 3 (B), 4 (A), 5 (C), 6 (C).
One of the main reasons that taking the AP Biology Exam can be so stressful is the time constraint we discussed earlier—90 seconds per multiple-choice question, 25 minutes per long essay, and 10 minutes per short essay. If you had all day, you would probably ace the test. We can’t give you all day, but we can do the next best thing: we can give you more time for each question. How? By having you slow down and answer fewer questions.
Slowing down and doing well on the questions you do answer is the best way to improve your score on the AP Biology Exam. Rushing through questions in order to finish, on the other hand, will always hurt your score. When you rush, you’re far more likely to make careless errors, misread, and fall into traps. Keep in mind that blank answers are not counted against you.
THE THREE-PASS SYSTEM
The AP Biology Exam covers a broad range of topics. There’s no way, even with our extensive review, that you will know everything about every topic in biology. So what should you do?
3 is the Magic Number
Using the Three-Pass System will help you earn more points by doing the questions you know first and saving the ones you don’t know for last.
Do the Easiest Questions First
The best way to rack up points is to focus on the questions you find the easiest. If you know the answer, nail it and move on. Other questions, however, will be a little more complicated. As you read each question, decide if you think it’s easy, medium, or hard. During a first pass, do all of your easy questions. If you come across a problem that seems time-consuming or completely incomprehensible, skip it. Remember:
Questions that you find easy are worth just as many points as the ones that stump you, so your time is better spent focusing on the ones in the former group.
Save the medium questions for the second pass. These questions are either time-consuming or require you to analyze all the answer choices (i.e., the correct answer doesn’t pop off the page). If you come across a question that makes no sense from the outset, save it for the last pass. You’re far less likely to fall into a trap or settle on a silly answer.
Watch Out for Those Bubbles!
Since you’re skipping problems, you need to keep careful track of the bubbles on your answer sheet. One way to accomplish this is by answering all the questions on a page and then transferring your choices to the answer sheet. If you prefer to enter them one by one, make sure you double-check the number beside the ovals before filling them in. We’d hate to see you lose points because you forgot to skip a bubble!
So then, what about the questions you don’t skip?
PROCESS OF ELIMINATION (POE)
On most tests, you need to know your material backward and forward to get the right answer. In other words, if you don’t know the answer beforehand, you probably won’t answer the question correctly. This is particularly true of fill-in-the-blank and essay questions. We’re taught to think that the only way to get a question right is by knowing the answer. However, that’s not the case on Section I of the AP Biology Exam. You can get a perfect score on this portion of the test without knowing a single right answer, provided you know all the wrong answers!
Outsmart the Tricky Questions
EXCEPT and NOT questions are considered more difficult than other question types. Here’s where POE comes in handy!
What are we talking about? This is perhaps the single most important technique in terms of the multiple-choice section of the exam. Let’s take a look at the example below.
7. Trees and shrubs have hard, woody stems and grow buds that persist above ground throughout the colder months. Which of the following best explains how gas is exchanged in a woody stem?
(A) Oxygen is taken in by lungs and carbon dioxide is released into the air.
(B) Oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor pass through small pores called lenticels.
(C) Hormones and neurotransmitters are transferred between adjacent ganglia.
(D) Lentil beans provide small openings for gases to pass into the woody stem.
Now if this were a fill-in-the-blank-style question, you might be in a heap of trouble. But let’s take a look at what we’ve got. You see “woody stems” and “buds” in the question, which leads you to conclude that the question is about plants. Right away, you know the answer is not (A) or (C) because plants don’t have lungs or ganglia. Now you’ve narrowed it down to (B) and (D). Notice that (B) and (D) look very similar. Obviously, one of them is a trap. At this point, if you don’t know what “lentil beans” are, you have to guess. However, even if you don’t know precisely what they are, it’s safe to say that you probably know that lentil beans have nothing to do with gas exchange in plants. Therefore, the correct answer is (B).
Process of Elimination (POE) is the best way to approach the multiple-choice questions.
Even if you don’t know the answer right off the bat, you’ll surely know that two or three of the answer choices are not correct. What then?
AGGRESSIVE GUESSING
The testing board, the service that develops and administers the exam, tells you that random guessing will not affect your score. This is true. There is no guessing penalty on the AP Biology Exam. For each correct answer you’ll receive one point and you will not lose any points for each incorrect answer.
Although you won’t lose any points for wrong answers, you should guess aggressively by getting rid of the incorrect answer choices. The moment you’ve eliminated a couple of answer choices, your odds of getting the question right, even if you guess, are far greater. If you can eliminate as many as two answer choices, your odds improve enough that it’s in your best interest to guess.
WORD ASSOCIATIONS
Another way to rack up the points on the AP Biology Exam is by using word associations in tandem with your POE skills. Make sure that you memorize the words in the Key Terms lists throughout this book. Know them backward and forward. As you learn them, make sure you group them by association, since the testing board is bound to ask about them on the AP Biology Exam. What do we mean by “word associations”? Let’s take the example of mitosis and meiosis.
You’ll soon see from our review that there are several terms associated with mitosis and meiosis. Synapsis, crossing-over, and tetrads, for example, are words associated with meiosis but not mitosis. We’ll explain what these words mean later in this book. For now, just take a look.
8. In mitosis, plant cytokinesis differs from animal cytokinesis. Scientists studying the process have hypothesized that the Golgi apparatus sends cellulose in vesicles to form a cell plate between plant daughter cells. Which of the following questions will help guide the scientists toward a direct test of their hypothesis?
(A) In what types of cells do homologous chromosomes exchange DNA through crossing-over?
(B) Are tetrads formed in the center of the cell as a result of plant cytokinesis?
(C) When homologous chromosomes pair up through the process of synapsis, does a cell plate form?
(D) Does cytokinesis still occur in plant cells when Golgi vesicles are inhibited from travelling to the center of the cell?
This might seem like a difficult problem. But let’s think about the associations we just discussed. The question asks us about mitosis. However, (A), (B), and (C) all mention events that we’ve associated with meiosis. Therefore, they are out. Without even racking your brain, you’ve managed to find the correct answer: (D). Not bad!
Once again, don’t worry about the science for now. We’ll review it later. What is important to recognize is that by combining the associations we’ll offer throughout this book and your aggressive POE techniques, you’ll be able to rack up points on problems that might have seemed difficult at first.
MNEMONICS—OR THE BIOLOGY NAME GAME
One of the big keys to simplifying biology is the organization of terms into a handful of easily remembered packages. The best way to accomplish this is by using mnemonics. Biology is all about names: the names of chemical structures, processes, theories, and so on. How are you going to keep them all straight? A mnemonic, as you may already know, is a convenient device for remembering something.
For example, one important issue in biology is taxonomy—that is, the classification of life-forms, or organisms. Organisms are classified in a descending system of similarity, leading from domains (the broadest level) to species (the most specific level). The complete order runs as follows: domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. Don’t freak out yet. Use a mnemonic to help you:
King Philip of Germany decided to walk to America. What do you think happened?
Dumb → Domain
King → Kingdom
Philip → Phylum
Came → Class
Over → Order
From → Family
Germany → Genus
Soaked → Species
Learn the mnemonic and you’ll never forget the science!
Mnemonics can be as goofy as you like, as long as they help you remember. Throughout this book, we’ll give you mnemonics for many of the complicated terms we’ll be seeing. Use ours, if you like them, or feel free to invent your own. Be creative! Remember: the important thing is that you remember the information, not how you remember it.
IDENTIFYING EXCEPT QUESTIONS
You might encounter some EXCEPT/NOT/LEAST questions. With this type of question, you must remember that you’re looking for the wrong (or the least correct) answer. The best way to go about these is by using POE.
Practice Makes Perfect
This question type may not appear on the newly designed AP Biology exam. However, because the POE skills they teach remain valuable for solving all other problems, our sample tests will, for the time being, continue to feature these questions for your benefit.
More often than not, the correct answer is a true statement, but is wrong in the context of the question. However, the other three tend to be pretty straightforward. Cross off the three that apply, and you’re left with the one that does not. Here’s a sample question.
All of the following are true statements about gametes EXCEPT
(A) they are haploid cells
(B) they are produced only in the reproductive structures
(C) they bring about genetic variation among offspring
(D) they develop from polar bodies
Outsmart the Tricky Questions
EXCEPT and NOT questions are considered more difficult than other question types. Here’s where POE comes in handy!
If you don’t remember anything about gametes and gametogenesis, or the production of gametes, this might be a particularly difficult problem. We’ll see these again later on, but for now, remember that gametes are the sex cells of sexually reproducing organisms. As such, we know that they are haploid and are produced in the sexual organs. We also know that they come together to create offspring.
From this very basic review, we know immediately that (A) and (B) are not our answers. Both of these are accurate statements, so we eliminate them. That leaves us with (C) and (D). If you have no idea what (D) means, focus on (C). In sexual reproduction, each parent contributes one gamete, or half the genetic complement of the offspring. This definitely helps vary the genetic makeup of the offspring. Choice (C) is a true statement, so it can be eliminated. The correct answer is (D).
Don’t sweat it if you don’t recall the biology. We’ll be reviewing it in detail soon enough. For now, remember that the best way to answer these types of questions is to spot all the right statements and cross them off. You’ll wind up with the wrong statement, which happens to be the correct answer.
Remember Your Resources!
The AP Biology Equations and Formulas sheet is included at the end of this book and in your online Student Tools. Print it and remember to use it when you take the Practice Tests.
