AP Biology
Encyclopedia
In the United States, Advanced Placement Biology (also known as AP Biology and AP Bio), is a course and examination offered by the College Board
to high school students as an opportunity to earn placement credit for a college
-level biology
course.
These topics that are covered may change due to a new course curriculum that will take place in 2013. The new course description is now on College Board. It will include less of the topics information to be known about some of the topics above and will focus on more important topics and lab procedures.
for this course consists of two sections. Section I, administered over a period of 1 hour 20 minutes (80 minutes), consists of 100 multiple-choice questions. Section II, which lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes, consists of 4 essay prompts to be answered comprehensively by the student. A mandated 10 minute reading period is held prior to beginning to write the four essays. The 10 minutes provided for the reading period are NOT included in the total 1 hour and 30 minutes allowed for writing the essays; during this time, a student may record notes in the exam booklet containing the essay prompt, though the booklet used to record official essay responses must remain sealed until the reading period is completed. Overall, the exam thus lasts 180 minutes, or three hours.
The exam grade is weighted unevenly between Section I and Section II, with 60% of the score dependent on success in Section I and the remaining 40% determined by results from Section II.
Most colleges award credit in an introductory biology course for a score of 3 or higher. Higher tier schools generally only accept a score of 4 or 5.
The grade distributions for 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 were:
College Board
The College Board is a membership association in the United States that was formed in 1900 as the College Entrance Examination Board . It is composed of more than 5,900 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations. It sells standardized tests used by academically oriented...
to high school students as an opportunity to earn placement credit for a college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
-level biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
course.
The Course
This course is offered to highly motivated students who wish to pursue their interests in the life sciences. The College Board recommends a successful completion of high school biology and high school chemistry, before commencing AP Biology, although the actual prerequisites vary from school to school and from state to state. Many schools, for example, require no background in biology to take the course. There are critics of the AP program that believe that the high school science curriculum does not adequately prepare students with a background college-level scientific studies and that students who have studied AP Biology do not perform as well in college science classes as might be expected of someone who successfully completed an AP course in the subject matter.Topics covered
Topics covered by this course include:- AnatomyAnatomyAnatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
& PhysiologyPhysiologyPhysiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or... - BiochemistryBiochemistryBiochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
- BiodiversityBiodiversityBiodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
- BotanyBotanyBotany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
- The CellCell (biology)The cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos....
- Developmental biologyDevelopmental biologyDevelopmental biology is the study of the process by which organisms grow and develop. Modern developmental biology studies the genetic control of cell growth, differentiation and "morphogenesis", which is the process that gives rise to tissues, organs and anatomy.- Related fields of study...
- EcologyEcologyEcology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
- GeneticsGeneticsGenetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
- Molecular BiologyMolecular biologyMolecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
- Origin of life
- Population BiologyPopulation biologyPopulation biology is a study of populations of organisms, especially the regulation of population size, life history traits such as clutch size, and extinction...
- EvolutionEvolutionEvolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
- Molecular GeneticsMolecular geneticsMolecular genetics is the field of biology and genetics that studies the structure and function of genes at a molecular level. The field studies how the genes are transferred from generation to generation. Molecular genetics employs the methods of genetics and molecular biology...
These topics that are covered may change due to a new course curriculum that will take place in 2013. The new course description is now on College Board. It will include less of the topics information to be known about some of the topics above and will focus on more important topics and lab procedures.
The exam
The AP testAdvanced Placement Exams
Advanced Placement examinations are taken each May by students at participating American, Canadian, and international educational institutions. The tests are the culmination of year-long Advanced Placement courses. All but one of the AP exams combine multiple-choice questions with a...
for this course consists of two sections. Section I, administered over a period of 1 hour 20 minutes (80 minutes), consists of 100 multiple-choice questions. Section II, which lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes, consists of 4 essay prompts to be answered comprehensively by the student. A mandated 10 minute reading period is held prior to beginning to write the four essays. The 10 minutes provided for the reading period are NOT included in the total 1 hour and 30 minutes allowed for writing the essays; during this time, a student may record notes in the exam booklet containing the essay prompt, though the booklet used to record official essay responses must remain sealed until the reading period is completed. Overall, the exam thus lasts 180 minutes, or three hours.
The exam grade is weighted unevenly between Section I and Section II, with 60% of the score dependent on success in Section I and the remaining 40% determined by results from Section II.
Most colleges award credit in an introductory biology course for a score of 3 or higher. Higher tier schools generally only accept a score of 4 or 5.
Grade distribution
In the 2007 administration, 144,796 students took the exam from 8,486 schools. In the 2008 administration, the exam grades were recalibrated, resulting in a substantial decrease in the top scores and increase in the bottom scores. In the 2009 and 2010 administrations, 159,580 and 172,512 students took the test, respectively.The grade distributions for 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 were:
| Score | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 18.2% | 18.6% | 19.5% | 18.7% |
| 4 | 20.3% | 15.6% | 15.5% | 15.1% |
| 3 | 21.2% | 16.1% | 15.8% | 15.4% |
| 2 | 23.2% | 15.2% | 15.1% | 14.1% |
| 1 | 15.9% | 34.6% | 34.0% | 36.6% |
| Mean | 3.04 | 2.68 | 2.71 | 2.65 |
Commonly-used textbooks
- Biology (CampbellNeil Campbell (scientist)Neil A. Campbell was an American scientist known best for his textbook Biology. First published in 1987, the text is currently in its 9th edition and co-authored by Jane Reece...
and ReeceJane ReeceJane B. Reece is an American scientist and textbook author. She is the co-author, along with Neil Campbell, of the Campbell/Reece Biology textbooks....
, ISBN 978-0-8053-7146-8) - Life: The Science Of Biology (Sadava, Heller, Orians, Purves, and Hillis, ISBN 978-0-7167-7671-0)
External links
- AP Biology at CollegeBoard.com