<p>I agree, the class is challenging. </p>
<p>For those of you who have taken AP Biology, do you think reading cliffnotes will be sufficient enough to pass the ap exam?</p>
<p>I'm reading cliff notes and its really helpful. I read over stuff in the Campbell book that I'm a little shaky on.</p>
<p>The secret is to BS.</p>
<p>Really, I didn't know half the things on the last free response. </p>
<p>BS your heart out. Reason. Imagine cellular processes happening, and picture what would happen to certain lineages if you were to change certain variables.</p>
<p>Lol.
Buying the test banks won’t do anything for you. You’ll just end up failing the AP at the end of the year.</p>
<p>Instead, try to think of the chapters on a conceptual level. I know Campbell’s (which everyone here is using, I think) has a lot of superfluous ‘relate to everyday life’ kind of stuff, discussing diseases and applying the information in the section to problems society is facing. My teacher (she uses a mixture of test bank questions and her own questions) is in love with this sort of question. Try to figure out your teacher’s personal preferences.</p>
<p>Also, read the diagrams and the little notes under them carefully. Someone stated this earlier and I can’t emphasis this enough. Campbell’s diagrams are fantastic. </p>
<p>In the same vein, is anyone else attempting to cram for USABO?</p>
<p>ok, heres my secret “master plan” ;]</p>
<p>first, i read the book before class [granted i have time] that way I can remember what my teacher is talking about. it took me some time- but i’ve figured out that i learn best “through my ears” [auditory =P w/e] </p>
<p>anyways, before a big test, i usually make diagrams of everything and post them randomly around my room so whenever i open my closet door, what do you, its the Krebs Cycle staring me in the face. </p>
<p>my teacher tends to go wayyyy overboard with detail [she told us she wanted the exam to seem like a piece of cake, so easy that we’d nap through it. she completed the entire ap bio course in half a semester at her old school… which is what she is trying to do to us =[ </p>
<p>soo… when tests come, its really hard to grasp main ideas.
i use- the university of california open courseware stuff for AP bio. just type that into your browser… its pretty good. they also have some pretty good ap calc stuff
i also make sure that i watch the MIT opencourse ware videos. THEY ARE SO GOOD… way better than the detailed stuff we learn that doesnt even appear on the exam. haha just type that into your browser too.
i watched a couple of the UC berkley open web cast vids but the quality was pretty poor. so i’d stick with mit personally</p>
<p>and lastly [almost there] id revise with my cracker. i just got my 5 steps book i ordered from the US. IM SO EXCITED! i used to use cliffs, which was great, but i like 5 steps because <em>this is going to sound so lame</em> but the dude writes in complete sentences and it sounds more like a story which is so much easier for me to rmr because i am extremely forgetful.</p>
<p>anyways- good luck with BIO! you’ll do great in may =D</p>
<p>Really that hard? I once thought of studying it by myself(I’m an international student, and we don’t have APs at school) I’d say the thread is bit discouraging lol…</p>
<p>There are no secrets. Usually, the tests my teacher gives (the ones from the book, I believe) include really small details. You have to memorize the general processes of things and the details. I remember there was this on the test, there was this very minor example from the book, so yeahhh… you pretty much study everything rather than just the general concepts.</p>
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<p>I’m an international student too and my school doesn’t offer APs either, but we have a really difficult curriculum so actually many students can take AP bio. If you have the time, you can study for it.</p>
<p>I think AP Biology is hard too! That’s also why I dropped bio but strangely I’ve decided to take the test.</p>
<p>My brother’s school (math and science magnet) is crazy! Almost everyone scores 5 for AP bio. He thinks bio is really easy because you only need to memorize all the information compared to physics and chemistry where you have to apply what you’ve learnt.</p>
<p>weird that so many find ap bio hard. at my school it’s considered easy and you can get an A and a 5 without much work.</p>
<p>I am currently selling the 7th edition test bank. Please email me at <a href="mailto:eupy58@gmail.com">eupy58@gmail.com</a> for more details.</p>
<p>Forti’s method is exactly how I do it, except that I pose possible essay questions and answer them. It takes a good 2 to 3 hours per test, but hey I get A’s… Oh, and I use campbell 6th edition. Dont know about any of the other editions. </p>
<p>I also heard most of the questions for campbell comes from the diagrams and pictures, is this true??? Anyone have any idea???</p>
<p>Im taking AP bio as a sophmore and for me it’s very easy, granted, my teacher likes to grade homework less than we students like to do it, so its not strenuous at all, his tests are tests made up of AP questions with an AP curve (33/50 for a 100% and 50/50 for 110%) </p>
<p>If im having trouble understanding something i’ll read the chapter if i still dont’ get it, I’ll outline. Of course outlining an entire chapter takes like 2 hours so it is very time consuming.</p>
<p>I try to view it from a conceptual standpiont and the vocab more or less comes about as a result of that. Out of curiosity, what unit are you guys studying right now? We just started evolution… I don’t think that we will be able to get up to ecology.</p>
<p>It should be hard. I had an excellent teacher who taught far beyond the exam. The class was delightfully fun, but at the same time, extremely challenging.</p>
<p>AP Biology is one of the easiest classes I’ve taken. In my opinion, chemistry honors is more difficult than AP Biology. :p</p>
<p>Here’s my technique: Listen to the lectures; skim the chapter (read the concept summaries at the end of each chapter in Campbell’s), understand the diagrams, and skim both of my AP review books: Cliff’s and the review book that accompanies the 8th edition of the Campell textbook.
I never knew it existed, but thanks to my teacher, you can order the review book from Pearson Education directly, by phone. ISBN: 978-0-13-135749-5, entitled “AP Test Prep Series - AP Biology - To accompany Biology, Campbell Reece, 8th Edition - by Fred and Theresa Holtzclaw.” This review book is basically condensed notes/outlines of the chapters in the textbook, and is great to study for both your in-class tests and the AP exam at the end of the year. </p>
<p>I never read the textbook, I hardly study and I’ve never made lower than a mid-B on a test. I’ve made an A every quarter (at least 95%+) and got an A on my mid-term exam.</p>
<p>What do people not get about school and science in general. You can not memorize everything, you are much better off making sure you understand how everything is related and conected. You seem like the type of person who can only get definition questions that have the exact definition that you MEMORIZED. Understand dont memorize</p>
<p>Agreed. Pure memorization is so middle-school. When it comes to high school, and especially AP courses, memorization just doesn’t do the trick. It doesn’t help with FRQs, and it yields the false perception that you understand the content, when you don’t really, fully understand the underlying concepts and connections.</p>
<p>I consistently do well in AP bio by using my notes alongside the cliffs book. Again, as stated above, brute memorization enough is not going to take you very far in AP classes. I generally only read the Campbell and Reece book when I do not understand a word the teacher is saying. However, it all comes down to the teacher you have. In my school there are two AP bio teachers; One of them (mine) does a phenomenal job teaching while the other does a terrible job teaching (which leaves more than half her students failing every test…). Also, try doing online practice questions prior to a chapter test. I always use the practice questions as my primary method of studying after I know the material.</p>
<p>In terms of the essays, make sure you incorporate only facts that are relevant to the topic. However, the facts do not need to be highly complex. Sometimes even the simplest of items can earn you points (Ex: essay on proteins, you can earn points by discussing protein structure levels and amino acids).</p>
<p>I totally agree!</p>
<p>I’ve been having the same issue… :(</p>
<p>Not sure if this is posted yet but go get yourself a “Barron’s AP Biology” book. Idk if its the exact name, but google it. Its a cheap little book that quickly and effectively captures each key item of the AP class and prepares you < perfectly > for the AP test. There is a book for every AP class and about 60% of the kids in my AP bio class used it and do well on tests.</p>
<p>Sent from my SGH-T839 using CC</p>