AP® Biology Crash Course, Book + Online: Get a Higher Score in Less Time

PART I

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1

Keys for Success on the AP® Biology Exam

Congratulations on your decision to take AP® Biology. Taking an AP® course, especially an AP® science course, is a challenging endeavor. AP® courses represent college-level classes that you take in high school, so they are supposed to be challenging. But with your hard work, the help of your teacher, and this test prep, you will be guided toward success on this exam and in college.

REA’s Crash Course is designed with you, the student, in mind. Based on a careful analysis of the most recent College Board AP® Biology Course and Exam Description, released in 2019, the book covers the key topics and concepts you need to know to score well on the exam.

Using this Crash Course as a supplement to your coursework, and as a final review in the last few weeks before the exam, will ensure that you are well-prepared for test day.

Now let’s look at the exam!

1.Overview

The AP® Biology course is focused on building students’ understanding of biological concepts and developing their reasoning skills in a scientific laboratory setting. It is based on 4 Big Ideas that are designed to help you understand core scientific principles and other biological concepts. The course also includes inquiry-based laboratories that are aligned with the learning objectives of the course.

The AP® Biology course is the equivalent of a two-semester college-level introductory biology course. To succeed on the exam, you need to master the key concepts that make up the 4 Big Ideas and apply these concepts to various situations in a traditional test format.

2.The Structure of the Exam

The AP® Biology exam is made up of two sections: multiple-choice and free-response. Each section includes questions that test students’ understanding of the 4 Big Ideas.

The exam is 3 hours long. It is comprised of 60 multiple-choice questions and 6 free-response questions.

Section I: Multiple-choice = 50% of the exam grade

You will have 90 minutes to answer the 60 multiple-choice questions.

The multiple-choice questions will consist of four answer options (A through D). Your score will be based upon the number of correct responses you give. No scoring penalties are imposed for incorrect or unanswered questions.

The AP® Biology course content is organized into 8 commonly taught units that provide one possible sequence for teaching the course. These units and their exam weighting for the multiple-choice section of the exam are listed in the following table.

Section II: Free-Response Section = 50% of the exam grade

You will have 90 minutes to answer 4 short free-response questions and 2 long free-response questions.

To achieve a high score on the free-response questions, you must provide ample scientific reasoning, relevant examples, and other appropriate evidence to support their answers. The 2 long questions focus on evaluating and interpreting results from experiments. One of the two requires graphing. The 4 short questions involve scientific investigation, conceptual analysis, model or visual analysis, and data analysis. You are permitted to use a four-function calculator (with square root), scientific, or graphing calculator to answer questions on both sections of the exam since both sections contain questions requiring data manipulation. To see which types of calculators are approved for the AP® Biology exam, visit http://www.collegeboard.org/ap.

AP® Biology Exam Format at-a-Glance

As part of your testing packet, you will be given a list of formulas needed to answer quantitative questions that involve mathematical reasoning.

3.Scoring the AP® Biology Exam

Total scores on the multiple-choice section of the exam are based on the number of questions answered correctly. Points are not deducted for incorrect answers or unanswered questions. The multiple-choice questions are scored by machine, and the free-response questions are scored by AP® exam readers.

Free-response question scores are weighted and combined with the results of the machine-scored multiple-choice questions to obtain a raw score. This raw score is then converted into a composite AP® score of 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1. These AP® scores determine how qualified students are to receive college credit or placement, as shown in the following table.

4.Using Materials to Supplement Your Crash Course

This Crash Course has everything you need to succeed on the exam. However, the College Board’s website is also a valuable resource. The site provides information about the test structure, question types, FAQs, and more importantly, additional study materials and sample questions.

5.Some Basic Test-Taking Strategies

One of the best ways to prepare for the AP® Biology exam is to take the online practice exam included with this book. This practice exam will help you become familiar with the format of the test and the types of questions you will be asked. Your instant online score report will provide feedback that will help you to understand which questions give you the most difficulty. Then you can go back to the text of this book, reread the appropriate sections of your textbook, or ask your teacher for help on topics that still give you trouble. The more practice questions you answer in preparation for test day, the better you will do.

You need not study separately for the two sections of the test. As you prepare for the multiple-choice questions, you are also preparing for the free-response questions (FRQs). All of the questions relate back to the topics in the AP® Biology course framework.

On test day, read all the questions carefully, and be alert for qualifying words such as always, never, not, and except. On the multiple-choice section, review all the answer choices before selecting your answer.

Students ask if they should guess the answer to a multiple-choice question. Remember, there is no penalty for incorrect answers. Therefore, guessing is always advised if you have no idea of the correct answer. Before resorting to a blind guess, however, you should use all your knowledge and understanding of biology to eliminate the possible incorrect answers, so that any guess you are forced to make is an educated guess. Of course, you don’t have to guess as there are also no points deducted from your score for unanswered questions.

When practicing for the test, give yourself enough time to answer all of the questions. The time left in a given section will be announced by the proctor, but you must use your time wisely. Our online practice test with timed testing conditions will help you budget your time efficiently.

In the free-response section, make sure you write clearly. This sounds simple, but if those who are scoring your exam cannot read your answer, you will not get credit. You should cross out any errors—using a single line through any mistakes—rather than erase them.

When you’re in the free-response section, pay particular attention to questions that use the words justify, explain, calculate, determine, derive, and evaluate. These terms have precise meanings and are there for a purpose. Pay attention and answer the question as it’s asked to receive maximum credit. Be sure to support your answer with examples and other scientific evidence. Avoid including irrelevant or extraneous material in your answer.

At this stage of your school career, it may not be necessary to remind you of some basic preparations right before test day—but we will anyway because they’re tried-and-true: Get a good night’s sleep the night before the exam, eat a good breakfast, and don’t forget to bring a bunch of those famous No. 2 pencils.

6.What You Need for Exam Day

Here’s a handy chart of what to bring to the exam and what you cannot have in the exam room:

PART II

CONTENT REVIEW

UNIT 1

CHEMISTRY OF LIFE

Chapter 2

Matter

A. Because they are composed of matter, the basic rules of chemistry apply to all living organisms.

B. All organisms require an input of energy from the environment, as well as the means to control the orderly use of that energy.

1.Organisms generally convert the energy they obtain into adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the cell’s energy currency, which they use to power all life processes, including biosynthesis.

2.Biochemical reactions, catalyzed by a large array of enzymes that are specific for each reaction, control biosynthesis—the chemical reactions that produce the macromolecules of which an organism’s cells are composed.

C. Biological molecules include carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids that have a number of important functions.

D. Water is the most abundant molecule in living organisms and possesses a variety of instrumental properties that result from its hydrogen bonding.

E. Enzymes are proteins that act as catalysts to speed up biochemical reactions.

A. Water has many significant characteristics important to living organisms, primarily because of its polarity and hydrogen bonding. Hydrogen bonding means the attraction between the positive side (hydrogen) of one water molecule and the negative side (oxygen) of another water molecule.

B. Water is a very good solvent of ionic compounds; therefore, many biochemical reactions can take place within a cell and in its immediate environment (the space between cells in a multicellular organism). This is why it is important that cells and their environment are water based.

C. The pH of the aqueous environment inside a cell and its organelles