<p>well, looking around the site, i see a BUNCH of "omg, AP biology" threads, so i thought that we should stick all the ranting, and raving into ONE thread, so we can all save some ATP (haha :P) </p>
<p>let's talk review books and study techniques.</p>
<p>personally, i'm using a cliff's/ barron's combo.</p>
<p>I’m using 5 Steps to a 5, Cliffs and Amsco. 0<strong><em>o I take the practice tests in Amsco because theyre so much harder than the other practice tests. Im just reading the review books and making flash cards of things i think i should memorize. Im NOT wasting time learning every detail of cellular respiration… X</em></strong>_X the problem with bio is that everything makes sense. there is nothing that i can ask for help on. i just need to teach myself whatever i dont understand… =(</p>
<p>I’m self-studying AP Bio (essentially) and I am using Kaplan [general review], Princeton Review [to simplify nonsense], ARCO [really hard tests actually], Cliffs (which I have downloaded unto my computer), and two other tests laying around in my room. I’m also using hippocampus.org to learn other stuff. ugh…that I haven’t been able to soak in.</p>
<p>^ Ugh ARCO’s AP Bio tests are killer…</p>
<p>I hope the test isn’t actually that bad.</p>
<p>^Same here. Those tests absolutely killed me. I managed a four on the last one that I took, but I was drowning through most of it.</p>
<p>im self studying ap bio and im really nervous now. Does anybody know how accurate barrons tests are? Because those questions that they have on there are really odd.
Im also starting to use cliffs and we’ll see how that goes.
Have you guys tried giving practice frqs? i should start doing that.</p>
<p>motivated_101:
we’ve done frq’s in class
most of us having problems with 1) finishing on time 2) remembering key-terms to stack up points with.</p>
<p>& also, barron’s practice tests are more difficult that the real exam is. dont be nervous (:</p>
<p>I’m self-studying too! I have cliffs and cliffs practice exams, plus several past APs. I think it’s a very good idea to do every single frq on cliffs.</p>
<p>Our school administers practice tests and I got exactly a 5 on the bio exam. If I were to get just one more point off, I would’ve gotten a 4. </p>
<p>I have NO IDEA how I managed this. I’m hoping it wasn’t completely luck. Our class has barely gone through half of the book. I guess I do understand a lot of it, and I am taking AP Psychology which helps a lot with the learning questions and the brain anatomy questions. But really… a 5? Now I am thoroughly studying my Barrons study guide in order to solidify this score. I don’t have another study guide to compare it to, but I really like this one so far. I learned ten times more from reading this book than my actual excessively long AP bio textbook.</p>
<p>Oh! If you go on sparknotes.com, they have practice AP tests that will give you an estimated score. It’s really helpful. Also, it’s only 50 questions. Does anyone know of more sites like this one?</p>
<p>^4tests.com</p>
<p>I took one at 4tests.com but it didn’t give me an estimated score.</p>
<p>I learned all the cell stuff in class. The other animal/plants were basically self-studied out of Cliffsnotes. I just got a PR book, but haven’t read it yet. </p>
<p>Personally, I feel some of the stuff in bio is just nonsense… Like lac operon, wth?</p>
<p>i know!
humans dont even OWN lac operons!
& taxonomy seriously murdered me.</p>
<p>I’ve been studying and I find that the BASICS for each section is all you really need to succeed on the multiple choice.</p>
<p>Im studying off kaplan’s, ap biology for dummies and cliffsnotes. After doing the exams on those I’m at 68ish/100 borderline 5.</p>
<p>The FRQ’s are what scare me. They’re pretty specific and I don’t like them.</p>
<p>The FRQ is marked very generous.
Not marks deducted for mistakes. A few valid points would give you a few marks. Write whatever you remember. They dont expect you to know the entire krebs or calvin cycle to get a 10/10.</p>
<p>Im ASSUMING that if you know the end products, where it happens, and maybe a few steps would get you at least a 6/10. Anyone want to give me their thoughts?</p>
<p>I just took the SparkNotes test for Bio. This is what it says:
</p>
<p>Does it mean that 2/3 of the students who took that test got a 5??</p>
<p>Anyone else took the SparkNotes test?</p>
<p>nono I think it means in the mark range you got 2/3 of those people get a 5 with free response calculated too.</p>
<p>Around 18% of the people last year got a 5. Usually 65/100 gets you a 5.</p>
<p>^ Is the curve really that generous?</p>
<p>That’s what my teacher said, and the two study guides I have both have 61-100/100 as 5’s.
I also saw on AP Central what gets a 5 each year and it’s around that range. However I can’t seem to find that on the website for some reason…</p>