<p>Well, my school was kind enough to call me and let me know that they won't be offering AP Bio and that I'll need to pick something else. </p>
<p>How hard is it to self study AP Biology? </p>
<p>I've already bought the textbook and two review books (5 steps to a Five and Kaplan) so I feel like I can do it. I'm pretty upset that my school isn't offering, but I feel that since I won't have to worry about the nonsense projects, assignments, etc ... this might be easier.</p>
<p>Opinions?</p>
<p>Have you taken a biology class before? If so, was it honors or regular? I am self studying AP Bio as well. You should get CliffsAP Bio and the Campbell-Reece Biology textbook (it doesn’t have to be the AP edition). Also, I recommend making flashcards on Quizlet.com. You may not even use the flashcards but it helps to learn them by just making them.</p>
<p>If you live in Florida, you could take the class for free on FLVS. If you live out of state, it would cost some money. I’ll be taking AP Bio, so I don’t know what it’s like to self study it, but I think if you took a Biology class, it would be much easier. I already have Cliffs and most of the stuff in there I learned from my Bio Honors teacher.</p>
<p>Thanks for replying guys.</p>
<p>iwaitz4u - Yep, I’ve taken honors biology already. I actually have that very same book (the 7th edition). I’ll take a look at that Cliff’s book in a bit. </p>
<p>AimHigh2 Yeah, I live in Florida. I’ve considered taking it on FLVS, however, I don’t really like doing that. I haven’t looked at the curriculum, but I figured that it would be easier if I self study. I feel that I would be wasting my time doing projects and stuff like that, when I could just read the text.</p>
<p>That being said, the state of Florida pays for our AP exams. If I want to self study 1) is that even possible?, 2) Do I need to pay? (not an issue), 3) Do I take the exam at my school or at a different location?</p>
<p>Any ideas?
Thanks guys. :)</p>
<p>CliffsAP is by far the best review book, but I’ve heard 5 steps to a 5 is pretty good too.
Since your school offers ap exams, I would assume you would take the AP Bio exam at the same test center as your fellow classmates. My school doesnt offer any aps, and I still took the AP Bio at my school (with my guidance counselor as a proctor haha).
As mentioned by @iwaitz4u, Quizlet is an AMAZING RESOURCE. Quizlet helped me remember everything about plants. i strongly encourage you to make a free account.
[AP</a> Pass - AP Biology Calculator](<a href=“http://appass.com/calculators/biology]AP”>AP Biology Test Score Calculator - AP Pass) Use this to calculate your ap score when practicing, as most review books have not been updated to comply with the ‘new’ calculation procedure (no points off for wrong answers :D). IMO, don’t take prac. tests until you have finished all the material, as prac. tests are few in number and therefore extremely valuable. This also means working at a speedy pace (don’t procrastinate, but don’t go so fast you don’t absorb the material. I spent a month and a half on plants, for example.)
PM me if you have any more questions, I’d be glad to help! 
Credentials: Five on 2011 Exam, self studied :D</p>
<p>^^ Awesome, that gives me some relief! The AP Biology review books I have bought are all the 2012 version so I’m guessing that they have the updated score. </p>
<p>Just to clarify, are you saying that you have self studied and got a score of a 5? If so, awesome! and I have a few questions.</p>
<p>1) I know in school you would probably do labs but are they really that important? If I self study, I can probably guarantee that I will not be doing any labs on my own.</p>
<p>2) Do review books have enough information to teach you how to write an essay? I honestly have no idea where to get started on those.</p>
<p>I’ve taken Biology Honors so I think I have a fairly good idea on how things work and it shouldn’t be too hard.</p>
<p>3) Can I just read through the review books? Or should I actually read the textbook (mentioned above - Reece & cambels?). I personally find the review book quick and easy to understand. It would be more beneficial to me if I read chapters in the review book a few times instead of using that time to read the chapter once.</p>
<p>Thank you!!!</p>
<p>yes, i got a 5 by self studying along with my regular bio course. I made notes of almost all the chapters out of the Campbell Reece textbook (5th edition), and i made the CliffsAP review my new best friend. I also bought the CliffsAP 5 Biology practice exams like a week before the exam and did all the exams 
1.
Although some people say you can answer lab-based questions with just knowledge and no experience, I beg to differ. Read the lab explanations in your RB, and do the virtual labs at “pearson lab bench.” Immensely beneficial!</p>
<ol>
<li>
My answer copied from my reply in another thread: Bio frqs do not, and should not, have introductory or concluding paragraphs. you just kinda dive right in, splitting paragraphs up when you start explaining something new. For example, if you got a question like:
Describe the the functions of three cell organelles
You would pick, mitochondrion, nucleus, and golgi bodies perhaps. You would label each paragraph with a letter, for every new topic:</li>
</ol>
<p>A. The mitochondrion is the powerhouse of the cell. It makes ATP blah blah blah. For the FRQs, write as much as possible, whatever comes to mind. It doesn’t have to be smooth at all to receive points. You could even have wrong info in your answers and still get a 5 (provided you do have SOME right info). Now the size of this paragraph here is no where close to what you should have for a paragraph on a real FRQ, but it’s a start.
B. the nucleus has DNA. it’s like the brain. blah blah blah.
C. Golgi Bodies package take materials made in the endoplasmic reticulum and modifies them. bha bhafdkljakjfdad. </p>
<ol>
<li>
Read the entire review book(s). However, it is not necessary to read every word of the textbook to get a 5 (I certainly didn’t). read/make notes of the seemingly important/confusing sections, such as:[ul]
[<em>] protein structure
[</em>] Dna replication
[<em>] Protein synthesis
[</em>]photosynthesis/cell respiration[/ul]
It’s probably not necessary to make notes of body systems, animal behavior, or ecology. This is pretty basic stuff that you can learn from your RB.</li>
</ol>
<p>I actually, agree with most of what was posted above… especially the recommendation of Cliffs. Unfortunately, the diagrams may not be the easiest to understand, so I’d recommend looking at a textbook for more in-depth pictures for some topics. I DID think that the Cliffs section on classification (specifically Kingdom Animalia) was a bit lacking.</p>
<p>Anyway, as risubu stated, the FRQs are not exactly essays. You use a paragraph to explain your point and move on. FRQ #1 may have 3 parts: a, b, and c. So, as you answer, or at least this is what I did, you label the paragraphs accordingly. And when it comes to the actual test, and on practice tests, I’d recommend dividing the time for each FRQ evenly.</p>
<p>You really should brush-up on the labs, if only for the reason that FRQ #4 is always based on a lab. Honestly, I didn’t answer the second half of it, because I didn’t know anything about it, but I wish I had studied it more. I can’t recall anything else being based off the labs, really. And I’m not positive, but I think that there’s always an FRQ based on a system (digestive, this past year). Just a quick review should be fine.</p>
<p>OH and I can’t speak about 5 Steps to a 5, Kaplan, or Cliffs practice tests. I CAN however, recommend PR for those tests. Some of the questions were VERY similar. I was shocked by how close it was. Maybe you could get it out of your local library (what I did), interlibrary loan it, or just sit in B&N with a coffee and do a test there. Just a recommendation.</p>
<p>And just for the record, I took the test this past year, self-studied (for the most part), and received a 5. I was taking an Honors Bio course concurrently, and my teacher was also the AP Bio teacher and I asked her last-minute questions my last free-block before the test. If you have someone like that, great!. If not, CC is VERY helpful.</p>
<p>
yeah, the cliffs diagrams suck bad, i spent 30 mins trying to decipher one once. Good advice to look at teh text. </p>
<p>
Seriously? It was way too much for me, considering we don’t have to know too many specifics from this area. </p>
<p>
WOO HOO! Me either!</p>
<p>
The last 20 or so questions are based on labs, and I always ****ed those up :p</p>
<p>
CC can only go so far, but having a teacher is very helpful. My reg. bio teacher didn’t teach AP Bio (hell, she even told me I probably knew the most about plants in the building. I still don’t know how i should feel about that…), but i still asked her questions, and she was so helpful! She gave me so many workbooks, prac. tests and such. plus, you always need an encouraging person :)</p>
<p>Boy, the Op is gonna have a lot to read tomorrow morning…</p>
<p>Make sure you’re familiar with the labs:</p>
<p>[bozemanbiology's</a> Channel - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/bozemanbiology#g/c/0B4CED0AB112B993]bozemanbiology’s”>Bozeman Science - YouTube)
[PHSchool</a> - The Biology Place](<a href=“Prentice Hall Retirement – PHSchool – PHSchool.com – Savvas”>Prentice Hall Retirement – PHSchool – PHSchool.com – Savvas)</p>
<p>You can google words like “AP Biology Lab 1” to get more information.</p>
<p>There were a ton of lab questions when I took the AP Biology test this year. It is possible to answer them without doing the labs but if you have done them before (and gone through sample questions they might ask about labs) you’ll go through them a lot faster and waste less time thinking about them.</p>
<p>
lol… I didn’t realize the last 20 questions or so were based on the labs. I don’t remember thinking they were particularly tough, though. Huh. Who knows what I was thinking, but I DO remember that I finished about 7 minutes early and had the time to look over my test. I don’t remember bubbling in randomly either…</p>
<p>
I think that more Kingdom Animalia information would have been helpful on this past year’s digestion FRQ (I totally wrote crap for a good portion of that FRQ). I don’t remember needing a lot of it for the MC section, but as shown above, my memory of the test has some holes in it. </p>
<p>I think, for example, Cliffs should have at least mentioned the various excretory mechanisms (malpighian tubules, and nephridia, for example) in the Kingdom Animalia sections for arthropods and annelids. Instead, these are only explained in the excretory system section. It may not be true for ALL creatures of the phylum, but the concept could be reinforced there. Just my opinion. </p>
<p>For Plants, though? There was WAY more information than I thought necessary.</p>
<p>I found a great set for AP Bio that I’m using this year that is supposedly based off the Campbell-Reece 7th edition. It has like 3,000 flashcards. I plan on using it to review the night before the exam. [All</a> APBIO Ch. 1-55 (Pretty EPIC) flashcards | Quizlet](<a href=“http://quizlet.com/5449127/all-apbio-ch-1-55-pretty-epic-flash-cards/]All”>http://quizlet.com/5449127/all-apbio-ch-1-55-pretty-epic-flash-cards/)</p>
<p>Campbell-Reece is amazing. I basically lived off of this book since our bio teacher was not that great. People kept on wondering how I aced her extrememly hard tests – it was because I sat myself down and absorbed 3 chapters at a time for about 8 hours the day before her tests. XD Not the best method… but I retained most of the knowledge. Made a 5 even though I knew nothing about human anatomy/physiology/ecology/lab stuff.</p>
<p>Thank for all the advice/resources guys!!
Before I buy anything else, I’m going to first ask my guidance consoler if I am allowed to self study. </p>
<p>I think I understand what you mean about the FRQ … they are like Human Geo where you just answer the question, not like World history where you actually write an essay.</p>
<p>I’ve bookmarked the youtube labs and the flashcards (which I’ll probably just print out). </p>
<p>I think that I should definitely be able to do well with all these provided resources. I’m actually a little happy that I won’t be bothered with doing busywork/projects and that I’ll be able to study myself. Now I just need to ask my consoler if I can do this and I should be set!</p>
<p>Once again, thanks for the tremendous amount of help</p>
<p>Erm… just saying, although a teacher recommended self-study at my away school, at my home school (I’m in a half-day program, so I go to two schools) the guidance counselor was against self-study. As long as you can find some place to take the test, you should be fine. I wish you the best in talking to your guidance counselor! There shouldn’t be a reason why you CAN’T self-study, especially if you’re just doing it for the AP credit and not planning on getting credit for it at school (like an independent study).</p>
<p>Anyway, just a quick story: I was telling my APUSH teacher about how I wanted to self-study AP Euro and he told me self-study was impossible. As long as you do not have a teacher (specifically a non-AP accredited teacher) TEACHING you, you should be fine. I think he got in trouble for spending lunches with students teaching them AP US Government information, because he was not qualified to do so. I AM going to study AP Euro this year, regardless of what he says, because I can and am interested in it. Do not take a simple “no” as an answer, especially if there is no basis for it. FIGHT FOR IT if you want to do it!</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>My main concern is that since I live in the state of Florida, the states pays for our exam. I don’t mind paying $87 myself, but I don’t know how it works out. Plus, it’s not being offered in my school … so are they going to just host one whole session for me or something?</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! I’ll deff. try to fight for it.</p>
<p>I think self studying is fine, but I wanted to double check. A lot of times, teachers just point out whats in the book. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but rather that if I spend my time, i shouldn’t be missing out on much.</p>
<p>I took the AP Bio test (I got a 5), so I think I can answer this question. Bio has a TON of things to memorize. It will take a lot of work and dedication. I spent hours studying for the AP test, but I also took the course itself. If u r gonna study last minute, dont bother taking the test… But if u actually dedcate urself and learn ALL OF THE INFO (again, there is a ton of info), then u can do it. It really is just a lot of memorization. The test itself is easy-- if u prepared for it :). Oh, BTW my textbook was above 1000 pages… so yeah lol. We read the whole thing…</p>
<p>im self studying toto :D</p>
<p>[2012</a> AP Exam Dates](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/ap/about/dates/next-year]2012”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/ap/about/dates/next-year)
TEST DATE:
Week 2
Monday May 14 8 a.m.
Same time as Music Theory. Even if you don’t have music theory at your school, all you need to take the test is a secluded room with a chair, table, and clock. Your school should be able to provide you. I was the only one taking bio this year, so one of the guidance counselors proctored. He just came in and out of the room, giving directions and what not.</p>