*The data above is from the College Board website and based on the May 2019 test administration.
The AP Biology Exam is three hours long and is divided into two sections: Section I (multiple-choice questions) and Section II (free-response questions).
Section I consists of 60 questions. You will have 90 minutes to complete this section.
Section II involves free-response questions. You’ll be presented with two long-form free-response questions and four short-form free-response questions touching upon key issues in biology. You’ll be given 90 minutes to answer all six questions.
If you’re thinking that this sounds like a heap of work to try to finish in three hours, you’re absolutely right. How can you possibly tackle so much science in so little time? Fortunately, there’s absolutely no need to. As you’ll soon see, we’re going to ask you to leave a small chunk of the test blank. Which part? The parts you don’t like. This selective approach to the test, which we call “pacing,” is probably the most important part of our overall strategy. But before we talk strategy, let’s look at the topics that are covered by the AP Biology Exam.
AP scores are calculated from your scores on the multiple-choice and free-response sections. The final score is reported on a scale from 1 to 5. The following table explains what that final score means:
*The data above is from the College Board website and based on the May 2019 test administration.
Remember that colleges’ rules may vary when it comes to granting credit for AP courses. You should contact the individual admissions departments to find out what score you need on the exam to ensure you’ll be given credit.
For the AP Biology Exam, your scores on the multiple-choice section and free-response section are each worth 50 percent of your final score. On the multiple-choice section, your total score is based on the number of questions answered correctly, and you do not lose any points for incorrect answers. Unanswered questions do not receive points. The free-response section is graded on a separate point system. Your scores are tallied to determine your total free-response score. The free-response score is then combined with your multiple-choice score and weighted to figure out where your score falls within the standard AP scoring scale (1 to 5).
The AP Biology Exam covers these four Big Ideas.
These are the official Big Ideas:
Big Idea 1: Evolution—The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.
Big Idea 2: Energetics—Biological systems use energy and molecular building blocks to grow, to reproduce, and to maintain dynamic homeostasis.
Big Idea 3: Information Storage and Transmission—Living systems store, retrieve, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes.
Big Idea 4: Systems Interactions—Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions exhibit complex properties.
As you read this book, think about how these themes fit with various areas of biology:
Building blocks/hierarchy
Responses to stimuli
Organization
Structure/function
Communication
Relationships
Disruptions and consequences
Critical thinking
To fully understand the four big ideas, a solid grasp of eight content units is required. The following is a list of units/topics and the weight of each unit on the exam.
Chemistry of Life (8–11%)
Important properties of water
pH
Carbohydrates
Proteins
Lipids
Nucleic acids
Origins of life
Cell Structure and Function (10–13%)
Prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells
Organelles
Membranes and transport
Cell junctions
Cell communication
Cellular Energetics (12–16%)
Change in free energy
Enzymes
Coupled reactions and ATP
Photosynthesis
Cellular respiration (glycolysis, Krebs, oxidative phosphorylation)
Fermentation
Cell Communication and Cell Cycle (10–15%)
Cell cycle
Mitosis
Meiosis
Heredity (8–11%)
Mendelian genetics
Inheritance patterns
Gene Expression and Regulation (12–16%)
DNA and genome structure
Transcription
Translation
Gene regulation
Mutation
Biotechnology
Natural Selection (13–20%)
Natural selection
Evidence of evolution
Phylogenetic trees
Impact of genetic variation
Speciation
Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
Ecology (10–15%)
Behavior and communication
Food webs and energy pyramids
Succession
Communities and ecosystems
Global issues
This might seem like an awful lot of information, but for each topic, there are just a few key facts you’ll need to know. Your biology textbooks may go into far greater detail about some of these topics than we do. That’s because they’re trying to teach you “correct science,” whereas we’re aiming to improve your scores. Our science is perfectly sound; it’s just cut down to size. We’ve focused on crucial details and given you only what’s important. Moreover, as you’ll soon see, our treatment of these topics is far easier to handle.
The AP Biology Exam not only tests your content knowledge, but it also tests how you apply that knowledge during scientific inquiry. Simply put, the test’s authors are testing whether you can design and/or think critically about experiments and the hypotheses, evidence, math, data, conclusions, and theories therein. There are six broad science practices that are tested. The weight that each practice holds within the multiple-choice section is given.
Science Practice 1: Concept Explanation: Explain biological concepts, processes, and models presented in written format. (25–33%)
Science Practice 2: Visual Representations: Analyze visual representations of biological concepts and processes. (16–24%)
Science Practice 3: Questions and Methods: Determine scientific questions and methods. (8–14%)
Scientific Practice 4: Representing and Describing Data: Represent and describe data. (8–14%)
Scientific Practice 5: Statistical Tests and Data Analysis: Perform statistical tests and mathematical calculations to analyze and interpret data. (8–14%)
Science Practice 6: Argumentation: Develop and justify scientific arguments using evidence. (20–26%)
Each of the six free-response questions will follow a slightly different outline.
Questions 1 and 2 are long questions worth 8–10 points each.
Question 1: Interpreting and Evaluating Experimental Results
Students will be provided with a scenario and an accompanying graph and/or table.
Part A (1–2 points): Describe and explain biological concepts, processes, or models.
Part B (3–4 points): Identify experimental design procedures.
Part C (1–3 points): Analyze data.
Part D (2–4 points): Make and justify predictions.
Question 2: Interpreting and Evaluating Experimental Results with Graphing
This question is similar to question 1, except the student will be required to construct a data representation.
Part A (1–2 points): Describe and explain biological concepts, processes, or models.
Part B (4 points): Construct a graph, plot, or chart and use confidence intervals or error bars.
Part C (1–3 points): Analyze data.
Part D (1–3 points): Make and justify predictions.
Questions 3–6 are short questions that are each worth 4 points.
Question 3: Scientific Investigation
Students will be provided with a lab investigation scenario.
Part A (1 point): Describe biological concepts or processes.
Part B (1 point): Identify experimental procedures.
Part C (1 point): Predict results.
Part D (1 point): Justify predictions.
Question 4: Conceptual Analysis
Students are provided a scenario describing a biological phenomenon with a disruption.
Part A (1 point): Describe biological concepts or processes.
Part B (1 point): Explain biological concepts or processes.
Part C (1 point): Predict the causes or effects of a change in a biological system.
Part D (1 point): Justify predictions.
Question 5: Analyze Model or Visual Representation
Students are provided a scenario accompanied by a visual model or representation.
Part A (1 point): Describe characteristics of a biological concept, process, or model represented visually.
Part B (1 point): Explain relationships between different characteristics of a biological concept or process represented visually.
Part C (1 point): Represent results within a biological model.
Part D (1 point) Explain how a biological concept or process represented visually relates to a larger biological principle, concept, process, or theory.
Question 6: Analyze Data
Students are provided data in a graph, table, or other visual representation.
Part A (1 point): Describe data.
Part B (1 point): Describe data.
Part C (1 point): Use data to evaluate a hypothesis or prediction.
Part D (1 point): Explain how experimental results relate to biological principles, concepts, processes, or theories.
Different colleges use AP Exams in different ways, so it is important that you go to a particular college’s website to determine how it uses AP Exams. The three items below represent the main ways in which AP Exam scores can be used:
College Credit. Some colleges will give you college credit if you score well on an AP Exam. These credits count toward your graduation requirements, meaning that you can take fewer courses while in college. Given the cost of college, this could be quite a benefit, indeed.
Satisfy Requirements. Some colleges will allow you to “place out” of certain requirements if you do well on an AP Exam, even if they do not give you actual college credits. For example, you might not need to take an introductory-level course, or perhaps you might not need to take a class in a certain discipline at all.
Admissions Plus. Even if your AP Exam will not result in college credit or allow you to place out of certain courses, most colleges will respect your decision to push yourself by taking an AP Course or an AP Exam outside of a course. A high score on an AP Exam shows mastery of more difficult content than is taught in many high school courses, and colleges may take that into account during the admissions process.
There are many resources available to help you improve your score on the AP Biology Exam, not the least of which are your teachers. If you are taking an AP class, you may be able to get extra attention from your teacher, such as obtaining feedback on your essays. If you are not in an AP course, reach out to a teacher who teaches AP Biology and ask if the teacher will review your essays or otherwise help you with content.
The AP Students home page address for this course is apstudents.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-biology. Here you’ll find the following:
a course description, which includes details on what content is covered and sample questions
sample questions from the AP Biology Exam
free-response question prompts and multiple-choice questions from previous years
Finally, The Princeton Review offers tutoring and small group instruction. Our expert instructors can help you refine your strategic approach and add to your content knowledge. For more information, call 1-800-2REVIEW.
In Part I, you identified some areas of potential improvement. Let’s now delve further into your performance on Practice Test 1 with the goal of developing a study plan appropriate to your needs and time commitment.
Read the answers and explanations associated with the multiple-choice questions (starting at this page). After you have done so, respond to the following questions:
Review the bulleted list of topics on this page. Next to each topic, indicate your rank of the topic as follows: 1 means “I need a lot of work on this,” 2 means “I need to beef up my knowledge,” and 3 means “I know this topic well.”
How many days/weeks/months away is your exam?
What time of day is your best, most focused study time?
How much time per day/week/month will you devote to preparing for your exam?
When will you do this preparation? (Be as specific as possible: Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:00 to 4:00 P.M., for example.)
Based on the answers above, will you focus on strategy (Part IV), content (Part V), or both?
What are your overall goals in using this book?
Use those answers to create a study plan. Start with the topics that need the most work and map out when you will study and what you will study.
Remember, your schedule may evolve along the way. If a certain time/location is not working for you, then try mixing it up. If you are struggling with a topic, perhaps try tackling it with a teacher, a tutor, or a classmate.