The framework of the course just recently changed. Does anyone know what books we should use for reviewing for next year?
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I personally think Barron’s was the best for biology but tbh the 2015 exam had very little actually content that needed to be memorized that Barron’s may be too in-dept for it. Skimming over it may be ideal though. I also heard cliff notes was good
Hey so my friend who just took ap bio gave me her Kaplan review book. I’ve been hearing that Cliffnotes is the best review book, so should I also get the Cliffnotes book?
Hello! I’m a new user, and I am about to become a sophomore at a high school. Anybody have tips on what textbook/study books to use? Also, how is the new AP biology test different from before? I appreciate any help!
Yeah I was wondering about the cliffnotes book. It was published in 2013 which is when the exam changed I believe. Was the book accurate and up to date to the 2013 test? I read an excerpt online and they were comparing the scores in the past from 2011 etc showing how 20% made a 5 which isn’t true anymore (but at the time they probably were expecting it to be like that). But it makes me worried.
Does anyone here know the changes that have been applied to the coursework and the content that will be on the exam? I’m prepping over the summer because I’ve heard the teacher at our school does a less-than-decent job of actually teaching AP Biology, so it would be good to get a brief head start for the time being…
My schedule is jam-packed so I am trying to self-study for AP Bio. I bought the Campbell Biology 8th Edition from Amazon, along with Barron’s and Cliffnotes for the practice tests. Any people who self-studied out there and can give me a few tips? AP Biology will be my first AP Exam ever along with AP Calc AB.
I got a 5 on the 2015 test, and lemme tell you Barron’s saved my life. We had a first time AP bio teacher teaching, barely used the textbook, and we didn’t even make it through the entire curriculum (though we did cover evolution and the bigger topics pretty thoroughly), but I basically speed read through the entire Barron’s book the week or so before the test and the test ended up being surprisingly easier than expected.
If it’s any reassurance, I think AP Bio is a much easier than AP chem or Ap physics B(when that course was still around). The majority of concepts are not difficult at all, and it’s quite easy to recognize where to apply what knowledge.
Oops wrong thread. I meant to post here. Congrats on your 5! So Barrons helps a lot?
I am nervous because I am not sure if my teacher is teaching it to the new exam or not (even though she should be), but instead giving older multiple choice. I am not sure if that what is going to happen, but I am nervous and I really need a way to make a 5.
Hi everyone! Congratulations on your initiative to take AP Bio! I took it last year, and wow, it was definitely a roller coaster.
For me it was a tricky test, especially with the timing. So one thing I would suggest is to get your hands on as many practice questions as you can. This will ensure that you know what to expect for the exam in terms of difficulty.
Also, in terms of the class itself, it really depends on your teacher. For me, my teacher is very chill (we don’t really do anything in class lol). But at the same time, she was excellent at answering our questions and relatively lenient in her grading. Our quizzes and tests can be specific though. So if I were you, I would do some research about the teacher if you know who it is,
Lastly, in terms of review books, there aren’t really any “perfect” ones out there. The best in my opinion are Barron’s and Cliffnotes. I never used Cliffnotes, but I heard great things about it. I bought Barron’s AP book, which to me serves as a secondary textbook. It has excellent content review, but mediocre practice tests.
Overall, AP Bio is a toughie. But if you take the time to review your stuff, read your textbook, and do a lot of prep, I’m sure you’ll do well.
Good luck everyone! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!
@samuraiman26 Yes, I definitely think Barron’s is a worthy investment of time and money, but like the above poster said, the practice tests were not so great.
As a note though, my speedreading of barron’s should not be the model example of studying haha, and I did already know the material I learned pretty well before starting the barron’s book; I mostly concentrated on the topics that weren’t taught in class and skimmed the stuff that I did know. If you find yourself with only a cram option, take into account whether you are a fast reader and what material you don’t know well.
For test prep USE THE RELEASED EXAMS!! They are there for a reason. I worked through all the available FRQs on the CB website, and my teacher provided MC practice from the last two years. Those went a long way in helping me figure out the type of questions they ask, as well as the common material they test. I would also recommend checking out the student answers to released FRQs, as well as the FRQ answer keys provided by CB to get an idea of what kind and how much information are needed to get the points. I definitely thought that helped me a lot with time management: no point in wasting time writing down details that the graders don’t need!
Got a 5 on the 2015 exam! My teacher was useless and probably sucked away a majority of my study time, so I “self-studied” most of it. I basically memorised Cliffsnotes (4th edition) and got very familiar with CB’s Big Ideas. Keep them in mind when you write your FRQ’s. So for multiple choice, I did very well. It is almost like a reading comprehension exam. Skim the longer prompts/passages for important details, but don’t spend too much time reading them. Practise with a past exam after you finish around half the material to get an idea of what it is like. I finished the first section 15 min early. I learned the maths needed on grid-ins from BozemanScience videos. However, most of the grid-ins were just common sense.
My main problem with FRQ’s was time. I was very skeptical about some of the more vague questions, but if I had written some relevant BS, I probably would have been given points. I instead skipped them to answer later, but ran out of time. I wrote very detailed answers for graph questions. Otherwise, I wrote the main ideas, and added details later. Immune, nervous, and endocrine systems are CB’s favourite topics. Make sure you know them inside out. I think I had questions on all three systems on the FRQ. The FRQ’s also tend to mix up topics from different chapters. I often knew the answers, but couldn’t relate them to random questions because of how they were phrased.
Look at previous exam questions (especially FRQ), try to answer them in your head, and study the scoring guidelines. I cannot stress this enough. I really am lazy when it comes to past papers, but looking at them helped me a lot.
Might be too much info, but this background helps with maths-oriented FRQ’s. I was taking AP Stats at the same time, so I knew my Chi-Square stuff forewords and backwards. I didn’t get many maths questions on the FRQ, but you never know what’ll come in next year’s exam.
Got a 4 on the 2015 exam and I’m really happy about that. I didn’t have a good teacher for this course, so what I knew going into the test was whatever units I’d studied for. I took 6 APs this year, and I had a lot going on during the weeks of AP testing, so I’d planned to study the weekend before, but that didn’t happen. In other words, I didn’t study for this test except for reviewing flash cards in my car the 10 minutes before I went in to the testing center. Barron’s got me through the year in this class, though and I bought the flash cards for AP exam test prep and used them maybe 4 times, but they’re super helpful.
Theoughout the year, though, pay attention to every detail of every unit. There’s a ridiculous amount of stuff you need to know for this test, so you need to be studying all year.
The exam changed two years ago when CollegeBoard decided to move away from less memorization and more lab-based and analytic questions. I’m not sure if this is what you were referring to, but one thing for sure is that the new multiple-choice questions are vastly different from what you might expect on a biology exam. Personally, I found the multiple-choice to be very wordy and lengthy, which makes it difficult when you’re working against the clock.
You also need about 77%+ on this new exam to get a 5, whereas on the old exam, you only needed about 63%+ for the same score.
I appreciate it!