***AP Biology 2015 Thread***

has it always been that high as a cutoff for 5?

wait from this website it seems like it’s out of 120. it also sounds more reasonable than 78/100
http://www.totalregistration.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=494&Itemid=118

the score cut off for the 2014 exam was as follows:
92/120 for a 5
72/120 for a 4
52/120 for a 3

are we allowed scientific calculators? i heard different responses and some people were allowed while others were not.

@jhgong Since the remodification of the AP exam, less students have been receiving 1/5 and more students are receiving 2/3/4. I believe it was 20% or so for the 5s before 2012, but now it’s 6.5% or so students receiving 5s.

For the grid ins, what are the rounding rules? Do we use sig figs, try to include as many digits as possible, or round to the thousandths (like on the ap calculus exam)? Also, do we include “0” in the beginning of a decimal, like 0.5, rather than .5?

I would do 0.5 but what if I happen to see a problem that requires me to put .555 and I don’t have enough room for the 0 in the front, but I have enough room w/o it?

I stand corrected; it was actually 78/99 for a 5!!
http://local.brookings.k12.sd.us/krscience/open/housekeeping/AP%20Biology%202013%20Scores.docx

Does anyone know if there are 4 or 5 answer choices? (A, B, C, D, E) I took a recent official Collegeboard practice exam that only had 4 answer choices.

@ZealousStudent The remodified version only consists of A,B,C,D, so 4 answer choices.

@trfox7 Last year, 2 FRQs were body system (nervous and immune). I’d study the basics of all of them and focus on endocrine. I doubt they’d do nervous/immune again for FRQ’s, but they might.

EDIT: Extensive review? No. Do know negative/positive feedback and some examples. They probably won’t ask you to explain something obscure/specific in detail, but have a solid understanding of how different organs interact with each other.

I’m self studying this test (only did regular bio 3 years ago), and it seems abnormally easy, this is probably why the curve is so damn high–it’s all common sense.

Does anyone know approximately how many wrong I can get on the multiple choice and how many points off on the free response to still get a five? Assuming that I will do about the same on both

Hey guys. So I did some multiple choice problems that my teacher said were released from College Board or something. They didn’t really require a lot of background info (basically most of the info came from reading the passages provided) and I wasn’t sure if this was accurate or not…

Could anyone tell me (maybe people from previous years who took it) confirm that the multiple choice is really just common sense or is this just false hope?

Thanks

@kevinfang456 I’m currently in ap bio, but I’ve taken the 2012,2013, and 2014 exams. From those exams and from what my teacher says, the MCQ portion is largely just scientific reasoning like the ACT science. However, it is important to know the big, overarching idea for each chapter and you might as well learn some of the specifics for the FRQ portion.

Does anyone know if the passages will be shorter this year since we have to answer 69 questions in 90 mins rather than 59?

Ok thanks! And yes. I heard FRQ usually requires more memory/recall.

@iplayball: No scientific or graphing calculators are allowed. They only allow a four function calculator with square root (basically the crappy office ones.)

Hi~ did anyone find past/sample multiple choice questions online…? Ik that everyone says MCs are way easier than the FRQs, but I still want to do a set to see time management/ difficulty of the questions

Are sig-figs included in the grid-in questions? To what degree of accuracy/ digits should they all be answered?

usually they take a range for grid ins dont they?

3 days for the test … What big ideas should I focus on? Also, what are some good review tips?