<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I'm going to take AP Biology exam on May.
I have hard time memorizing facts like all the different kinds of fungi and protista.
Those kinds of things are just overwhelming.
I forget many of them after I memorize them, but I really want to get a 5.
Could you share your experience on how you did it?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>don't need to know them for a 5....unless you get an essay and then you're screwed...but honestly maybe 2 MC questions on classification on the whole exam.</p>
<p>yeah, i am trying to remember a few that i could talk about on an essay, but i basically skimmed the entire unit 5 of campbells and i am just going to read cliffs later, probably over spring break. i make flash cards and that helps me, i also take a lot of tests and go over them, the answer to any question i get wrong is really memorable to me so that helps.</p>
<p>Sorry if this has been answered before, but can people based on their experiences tell me the main things I should focus on for AP Bio? I need to get a 5 on it and I kind of have a teacher that doesn't explain too well. Anything that was hard for you in particular and is memorizing vocabulary a key thing to doing well on the AP exam? Thanks.</p>
<p>just read cliffs and you'll get a 5</p>
<p>the hardest thing for me was remembering the internal structures of random worms and how they crapped... so yeah I'd say vocab (and memorisation in general) is a big part</p>
<p>lostincode: While reading cliffs, I'm taking into account all the separate percentage distributions of each topic on the exam, but still, I feel that there are so many things to memorize. How thoroughly do you need to read cliffs? Should you make notes on your own, or is it unnecessary? (btw, I'm self studying it)</p>
<p>Memorizing different stages of photosynthetic and respiratory reactions like noncyclic photophosphorylation, calvin-benson cycle, and alcoholic fermentation are especially difficult. Plant root and stem structures are just nightmares. :( How much should you care about these? I know that about 10% of the whole exam is devoted to these, but I still can't get an idea of how much I should know about these.</p>
<p>yeah you need to know everything.. it's a pain in the ass but you'll get it eventually</p>
<p>spend a couple days on the cliffs before the exam and you should be fine.. don't even need to take the class, really :P</p>
<p>a couple of days self-studying? without even taking the class?
I've heard that several times. Is that just undermining the actual time it takes, or is that for real?
Is one spring break enough to start self-studying?</p>
<p>Also, what do you do about the labs portion of the exam?</p>
<p>I didn't take the class, read cliffs the day before the exam for the first time (skipping the chapter on labs,) and got a 4.</p>
<p>the lab portion is just common sense...they ask you to interpret graphs and stuff</p>
<p>I heard that on a free response they may ask something like "Design an experiment in which you could observe..." Said something like that in Cliffs intro.</p>
<p>lostincode, how knowledgeable are you in biology? Are you a natural? Did you take an honors class before that was demanding?</p>
<p>I took a regular bio class in freshman year... I'm not knowledgeable at all nor am I interested in the subject. I forgot pretty much everything a couple weeks after the exam haha</p>
<p>bio is one of the easier AP tests.. look at past free response problems on the collegeboard website.. they'll give you an idea about what to expect</p>
<p>Did you read the whole Cliffs book in one day?
I'm trying to memorize everything as I go, so it's taking a long time.</p>
<p>yeah one day</p>
<p>Now that's what I call effective cramming!</p>
<p>1 word wow</p>
<p>lostincode: I definitely can't do that in one day, even though I have two-year biology background. Did you just do past exams on the CB website, or did you get extra ones by purchasing them from the CB store, in addition to those on the back of Cliffs? Also, how many hours per day and week did you study for it?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm trying to memorize everything as I go, so it's taking a long time.
[/quote]
Rane: I'm doing the same as you. It really is taking a long time and a bit stressful, too.</p>