<p>Hello. I'm taking my SAT II bio in January. I've basically had a half year of AP Bio and know most of the genetics, cellular and molecular biology and a little bit of ecology. Anyway, i'm looking to get in the 780-800 range but haven't really studied the rest of the material needed for SAT II bio. can anyone tell me what I need to focus on to achieve my goals? Thanks! :)</p>
<p>Well for that score, you basically have to know almost every topic, however, taking AP bio will increase your “feel” for biology, which is also tested on the Sat 2(so basically questions not about knowledge). Just use the barrons book, you’ll get a high score then</p>
<p>Just as long as you self-study the rest of the material, you’ll be fine 
I got a 790 on the Bio M test without having taken AP/IB bio at all. I think I used Princeton Review’s book? I’m not sure, but I bet there’s not much difference between the different brands. Some of the stuff I knew from regular biology, so I basically skimmed through all the chapters first, marking out stuff I already knew, and then I went back and learned what I didn’t know. If this question is you considering not getting a review book at all, that’s probably not a good idea when you’re aiming for 780-800.
Good luck!</p>
<p>@Canary</p>
<p>You only used PR? Also, did u spend time memorizing all the detailed stuff (hormones, phyla, what each vitamin does, etc.)?</p>
<p>Yup. I took regular biology and “honors biology II” (which is like a course on human bio, organ systems and stuff), but there was a LOT of stuff I hadn’t learned, it was basically just PR.
The only things I really had to drill and memorize were the Linnaean taxonomy stuff (like kingdom/phylum/class/whatnot) and the cell respiration and photosynthesis stuff.
The functions of each of the vitamins didn’t really come up on my particular test, but that might’ve been a fluke?
As for whether you should go for big concepts or details just in general, the questions on the bio test do tend to be sort of nitpicky. You definitely need to know the vocab. Beyond that, I personally think it’s better to understand the big picture concepts first - that way, even if there’s a question that you didn’t study, you can deductive-reasoning it out by thinking about the overall purpose of the process or whatever it is. There are only a few things that you can’t apply logic to (like Linnaen taxonomy. Man I hate that stuff).</p>
<p>hmm thanks for all the info. is there a lot of stuff that needs to be know about plants? do you think memorizing all the horomones and all of the small parts of the human body is necessary? Thanks!</p>
<p>Yeah, it would be a good idea to know the hormones. At least on the test I took, and if you’re taking Bio M. What do you mean by the small parts of the human body? </p>
<p>There’s not too much to learn about plants, is there? You definitely have to learn about photosynthesis (there was like 1-2 pages on it in PR, if I remember correctly) and you should know the parts of a plant (including the microscopic ones)… but I think that’s it, as far as plants go.</p>
<p>And happy to help :)</p>
<p>thanks for your help! i was talking about learning most of the organ systems! there are so many… haha, i was wondering if i should memorize all of them? did you take any practice tests in PR? they seeem weird because i think they messed up the last part of the M section becasue they put Ecology questions in their.</p>
<p>Really? I don’t remember ecology questions in the M section of the book. There are some ecology questions in the shared section, maybe that’s what’s going on? I did see a couple typos in the book though; I don’t think it’s too much of a problem, their tests were still pretty accurate.
Hahaha well it’s not so much memorization as knowing the basics. Like you don’t have to be able to draw a nephron, but you do have to know what a nephron does and what each part of the nephron does. Like I said before, it’s important to know the vocab; beyond that, you can figure it out as you go :)</p>
<p>I took SAT II Bio M after my AP class. I thought I was a slacker all year (ughh) but managed a 740. It was way easier than the AP test, imho. D: Just learn everything and you should be fine.</p>
<p>As long as you memorize all the info you haven’t covered, you’ll be fine. Especially if you’ve taken regular Bio before, it will be easy for you to self-study. However, make sure you have enough time to do so.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that AP Bio overprepares you, so you should be fine if you can recall all the relevant info from what you have learned in your AP class. Get the Barron’s or Kaplan prep book to focus on the level of the SAT II as opposed to the detailed info of the AP. Make sure you know the “basics” at the level of the SAT II before you take the test so you’re familiar with the content.</p>
<p>Im thinking about just taking Biology PAP and then self studying…would this work or should i go ahead and take AP Biology too…im looking to get 780-800</p>