AP Biology 2011 Official Thread

<p>CaliAdVitam, I also wanted to self-study some other APs that our school does not offer (Environmental Science and World History), but my school strongly prohibited it, Our school’s policy is that “No AP Class, No Taking Exam!” You know brightstorm.com and khanacademy.org? There is a Stanford-graduated AP Biology teacher named Mr.Patrick in brightstorm.com that offers free video-lectures of Biology and even offers AP biology OnLine Course at the cost of $99. He really explains the concepts very well. He has a record of passing 80% of his students in AP Biology Exam every year. You do not need to buy the course, but free video-lectures of honor Biology really helps when studying!</p>

<p>^Can’t you still sign up for the AP exams? I don’t think your school can prohibit you from taking an AP exam, can it?</p>

<p>Yea, I can still sign up for them, but I have to call an AP Coordinator so they can give me the number to contact the school next door to me (which I would’ve been attending if Memphis didn’t have weird zoning rules… ugh) so I can take all of my self-studied exams there. That school has to order them and I have to pay them, etc.</p>

<p>Hello again!
I asked my counselor and principal…sadly, they said that the school prohibits taking AP exams without taking the classes (which means I cannot sign up for like AP Environmental Science since our school has no AP ES). I try to persuade them but only answer I heard was that the school prohibits taking AP exam if students do not take AP class in the school. I am kind of annoying because even College Board allows students to take AP exams without taking classes! Only exception my school make is when it comes down to AP Calculus AB & BC and Physics AB & BC. My school offers AP Calculus AB and Physics AB. If student taking either of that classes and make 98~100 as grade, the school offers that student to register for BC…and that exception worked like 5 years ago. Is there any way to secretly order the exam without my school noticing it?</p>

<p>Ah, sorry for many postings but I have one more querstion to ask. I am absolutely sure that AP Biology has many memorization parts, and I want to know how do you memorize?</p>

<p>I’m also self studying AP Bio. To help memorize things, I usually just read over them a few times, and if I am having a lot of trouble or if there is confusing vocabulary, I make some flashcards.</p>

<p>To anyone that has taken the test, how much do you need to know about cellular respiration, and the Krebs cycle in particular? Do you just need to remember general ideas, like what the reactants and products are, or is more detail necessary (i.e. knowing all the reactions that occur)?</p>

<p>@piedpilko </p>

<p>IIRC, there wasn’t really anything specific about cellular respiration or photosynthesis on any of the three released exams I took or the actual exam (last year). The questions were general, and I don’t think there’s more than one to three of them on the exam.</p>

<p>To those who took an exam, how much does “Mendelian Genetics” play in actual exam (especially M.C.)?</p>

<p>I haven’t taken the exam but on the College Board AP Bio outline it says 8% of questions are about heredity, including inheritance patterns.</p>

<p>[AP:</a> Biology](<a href=“AP Biology – AP Students | College Board”>AP Biology – AP Students | College Board)</p>

<p>Also, the 2010 exam had an FRQ about inheritance patterns. I would know a little about the subject.</p>

<p>Yeah, you definitely need to know at least the basics of genetics and heredity. The FRQ from last year was not overly-difficult, but it certainly wasn’t common knowledge – you have to know the material.</p>

<p>Also, there was a question about a Chi square. I had never heard of it, so I wasn’t sure what to do with it… so you might want to look into those as well. I think one of the 12 labs involves something with Chi squares.</p>

<p>How well do the exams in practice books like PR and Cliffs mimic the actual test?</p>

<p>Piedkilo,
general concensus that I rssearched is that TPR’s AP prep tests mimic the actual tests really accurately. Cliff Notes’s AP Bio prep tests are fairly mimic the actual tests well, but TPR is best when it comes down to accuracy of mimicking prep tests to actual ones.</p>

<p>I am bit confused over the concept of isotonic. I know that it is the equal of water-solution rates of both inside and outside of the cell, but is isotonic depends on rates of water and solution of inside and outside the cell? </p>

<p>Is it correct (the below):</p>

<p>35% solution & 65% of water in inside the cell and 35% water and 65% solution in outside the cell…is Isotonic state.</p>

<p>My understanding is that for the situation to be considered isotonic, the percentages/ratio of water to solute has to be the same inside and out of the cell. So your example would not be isotonic, because there are more molecules of water for every molecule of solute inside of the cell than outside of the cell. That is, the ratio of water to solute is greater inside the cell than outside of the cell.
In this state the cell would be considered hypertonic to the outside solution, and the net diffusion of water would be out of the cell.</p>

<p>To be isotonic, you have to have the same percent for water on either side, i.e,
Cell 20% solute and 80% water
Outside Solution 20% solute and 80% water
or
Cell 50%solute and 50% water
Outside Solution 50% solute and 50% water</p>

<p>but NOT
Cell 45% solute and 55% water
Outside Solution 55% solute and 45% water</p>

<p>Hey guys! new to the forum as of today (pretty exciting) have some questions about prep book i.e. cliffnotes, PR, barrons, etc. I’ve got in my amazon shopping cart the AP Biology Cliffnotes review book. it seems to have good reviews and stuff! should I pull the trigger and buy it? what books do you guys recommend?
Thanks,
Chris A</p>

<p>^ I think you’ll be good with just Cliffs.</p>

<p>^
I tried many prep books, but only AP Bio prep book that any student needs is Cliff Notes.
Barron’s is good,but with little "non-sense’ questions and very detailed information. Prince ton Review is good only if it is used with Barron’s of Cliff’s. 5 Steps toa 5 has many errors, and just awful…
Also, buy REA Crash Course!</p>

<p>Is there any good Biology video that covers Genetics and Molecular Biology?</p>

<p>Khan Academy most likely has some. [Khan</a> Academy](<a href=“http://www.khanacademy.org/]Khan”>http://www.khanacademy.org/)</p>

<p>I <3 Khan Academy</p>