AP Biology

<p>So...For the AP Biology test on Monday, what do I REALLY REALLY need to know? In our class, we barely got to plants, so I'm self-studying plants, human physiology/structure, ecology, and the required labs. Any advice on what to really focus in on?</p>

<p>Here is the official collegeboard breakdown of the exam:
[AP:</a> Biology](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>AP Biology – AP Students | College Board)</p>

<p>Structures and functions of plants and animals is 32% of the test, so if I were crash-studying, I’d focus on that! Homologous structures and all that fun stuff.</p>

<p>The best thing to study that’s EASY is evolution and genetics. There are tons of questions about those two topics, and every year one of the free responses is ALWAYS about either evolution or genetics.</p>

<p>If you add animal/plant taxonomy to the mix, the whole genre of animals and plants constitute 38 of the test. And make sure you read over the required labs and you know what the purpose is! They always ask around two essay questions on the required labs.</p>

<p>Are there any things on the test that students don’t seem to know? I remember some kids from my school saying that they didn’t know too much about insulin/glucagon and calcitonin/PTH feedback loops, so I studied those sorts of things in more detail.</p>

<p>Also, how much pure vocabulary recall is required for the test (ie differences between allopatric/sympatric speciation and other specific words)? I seem to have a good grasp on concepts, but my pure vocabulary may be lacking. Any suggestions?</p>

<p>Last year’s FRQ on insulin and glucagon killed me. Actually, I knew what those two were…but everything else on that question I left blank, haha!</p>

<p>No one ever seems to know how to do a chi-square analysis, but it’s really impractical to struggle to learn it because I doubt you’ll get a question on it anyway. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium might be helpful to know, I think one of my FRQ was related to that.</p>

<p>I remember there being some specific vocabulary (even in the FRQ). I don’t know if they’ll specifically ask you for the differences between things but you do need to know what everything means. Concepts might not be enough, but if you’ve got them down it should be fairly easy to go back and study the vocabulary related to them.</p>