The AP Biology Exam

The Multiple Choice Section 100 questions, 1 hour and 20 minutes NO PENALTY for wrong answers Each question is worth the same amount – no matter the difficulty Worth 60% of your exam grade

You Don’t Need to Know Everything! Approx MC % who scored 3% who scored 4% who scored % % % %

Topics by Weight Molecules and Cells 25% Chemistry of Life7% Cells10% Cellular Energetics8% Heredity and Evolution25% Heredity8% Molecular Genetics 9% Evolution8% Organisms and Population50% Diversity of Organisms 8% Plants and Animals32% Ecology10%

MC Advice Don’t stress it! You’re not going to know every answer. Don’t get disheartened! If you’re not sure or the question is stressing you out – put down a guess, circle the question and come back to it Especially on lab-type questions near the end – think! Most of these questions do not require any knowledge of biology, just common sense Know how to read graphs!

Try to Have An Answer Before You Look at the Options Which of the following is MOST responsible for movement of water up the stem of a tall plant?  Root pressure  Osmosis  Translocation  Sunlight  Guttation

Eliminate Wrong Answers and Use Word Roots to Decide Which of the following occurs during the light reactions of photosynthesis?  The Calvin cycle  The Krebs cycle  Decarboxylation  Photophosphorylation  Fermentation

My Personal View on Changing Answers Don’t Unless you are very certain you made a mistake or you realize you misread the problem or didn’t consider something Go with your first instinct

Free Response 4 questions 1 on molecules and cells 1 on evolution and genetics 2 on populations and organisms 10 minute reading period, 90 minutes to write Each question is worth the same amount Worth 40% of the overall grade Must be written in complete sentences – no bullet points. Grammar/spelling doesn’t matter as long as the reader can understand

Free Response Advice During the reading period order the questions from easiest to hardest and work in that order During the reading period – outline what you are going to say – remember no detail is too small! You have minutes per question – but if you need it spend more time on the questions you can answer Even if you feel like you know nothing on a question – try to squeak out a few points.

More FR Advice Answer the questions by section, leaving a few lines after each section so you can add stuff later Usually there is a maximum number of points for each section – so make sure you address each section NO PENALTY for incorrect information as long as you don’t contradict yourself Graphs/diagrams/drawings are great – but label them and reference them! DEFINE YOUR TERMS

BE SPECIFIC Not good: Genetic drift affects biodiversity OK: Genetic drift decreases biodiversity Better: Genetic drift decreases biodiversity because it causes the loss of some alleles from a population, thus decreasing its diversity. Best: Genetic drift, a shift in the gene pool of a small population due to chance, decreases biodiversity because some alleles may be lost by chance, decreasing the population’s diversity. For example…

In Lab/Experiment Questions Always Include A hypothesis Independent/dependent variable A control group (and factors that you will control in all groups) # of trials What you will measure and how/when Procedures How you will collect/analyze data

i.e. an experiment comparing height and running speed The hypothesis to be tested is tall people are faster Ind – height dep. – speed 100 men and 100 women will have their height measured in meters and will be timed running 100 meters using a stopwatch 3 times, the average time will be put in a table BMI, age, previous running experience will be controlled Runners will be placed into groups by every 4 inches (4’8-5’, 5’- 5’4), and statistical analyses will be used to identify any significant differences in 100m running time between the groups