AP Biology
Test Review 2013
“Do’s and Don’t’s” General Test Taking and Test Preparation Strategies
· Don’t try to learn anything new after Sunday (5/5), only review what you have already learned.
· Don’t stay up late the night before the test “cramming” it won’t do you any good and will confuse you about what you already know.
· The night before the test, don’t go to bed late or get up early, get up as close to the regular time that you usually do.
· Don’t sleep in the day of the test, this will make you feel rushed and add to your stress.
· Don’t have a heavy breakfast, we want the blood in your brain, not in your stomach digesting your meal.
· Do have a light breakfast.
· Do Get to the test room early – try to position yourself where there is good lighting and where you are not being blinded by sunlight coming in.
· Stake out a comfortable seat
· BE CALM AND RELAX
· BE CONFIDENT
· You have learned the information, there is nothing they can ask on the test that you haven’t already learned. They may ask questions in a way that you are not familiar with, but calmly think about the question then do your best to answer it.
· Don’t get so wrapped up and “hyper” that you lose patience. Approach questions in a calm way and answer the best you can. When you panic and rush yourself, your score will drop.
· When you’re taking the test, if you start to feel that knot in your stomach and it crawls up to your throat, lay down your pencil, and take a few deep, calming, breaths. Relax yourself and then the neurons in your brain will start to synapse in the right pathways. If you’re uptight the synapses in your brain become jumbled and it compounds the problem.
The AP Biology Exam consists of two sections: multiple choice and free response. Both sections include questions that assess students’ understanding of the big ideas, enduring understandings, and essential knowledge and the ways in which this understanding can be applied through the science practices. These may include questions on the following:
• the use of modeling to explain biological principles;
• the use of mathematical processes to explain concepts;
• the making of predictions and the justification of phenomena;
• the implementation of experimental design; and the manipulation and interpretation of data.
The exam is 3 hours long and includes both a 90-minute multiple- choice section and a 90-minute free-response section that begins with a mandatory 10-minute reading period. The multiple-choice section accounts for half of the student’s exam grade, and the free-response section accounts for the other half.
• Section I, Part A, consists of 63 multiple-choice questions that represent the knowledge and science practices outlined in the AP Biology Curriculum Framework that students should understand and be able to apply. Part B includes 6 grid-in questions that require the integration of science and mathematical skills. For the grid-in responses, students will need to calculate the correct answer for each question and enter it in a grid.
• Due to the increased emphasis on quantitative skills and application of mathematical methods in the questions on both sections, students will be allowed to use simple four-function calculators (with square root) on the entire exam. Students will also be supplied with a formula list as part of their testing materials.
• Beginning with the May 2013 administration of the AP Biology Exam, multiple-choice questions will contain four answer options, rather than five. This change will save students valuable time without altering the rigor of the exam in any way. A student’s total score on the multiple-choice section is based on the number of questions answered correctly. Points are not deducted for incorrect answers or unanswered questions.
Test Section 1 – Multiple Choice section. 63 Questions/ 90 minutes
· This allows about 1:30 per question, (this may not sound like a long time, but in test conditions this is forever).
· Students have the tendency to think they won’t have enough time. It is better to take your time and not rush and possibly not finish a couple of questions at the end than to rush.
· In taking a multiple-choice test, remember your first response is usually the most correct.
· Once you mark your answer, don’t change it unless you have a “direct revelation” or the answer is in a different question later on in the test.
· On the Multiple – Choice part of the test, make sure you bring three to four sharpened pencils. If you break the pencil lead, use one of the “back-ups”. Having to sharpen a pencil during the test will make you feel more rushed. Be calm, but remember time is important, you don’t want to waste time sharpening pencils.
· For each multiple choice question there are five answer choices. Try to eliminate wrong choices, then make your very best educated guess.
· When answering the questions, don’t always look for the answer that is right, look for answers that are wrong and eliminate them. This narrows your choices and increases your chances of answering correctly.
· Now that there is no guessing penalty, answer all questions the best you can.
· Take a wrist watch with you with a second hand, or position yourself where you can easily see the wall clock (remember you cannot use the clock on your cell phone, cell phones are not allowed in the test area).
· If you have 90 minutes to do 63 questions, you should complete about 32 questions in 45 minutes, 16 questions in 22 min. Check your test from time to time to see if you are rushing or if you need to go a little faster. You don’t want to be staring at the clock all the time, but when you get to question, #16, see where you are time wise and adjust if necessary. Do the same at question #32 etc.
· Answer the Multiple/Choice carefully, try to answer the first time you read the question, then don’t go back or guess yourself out of a right answer.
· Sometimes in the Multiple/ Choice section you will read a question later on that will give you a clue and you know you answered an earlier question incorrectly, if that is the case go ahead and go back and change your answer, but only in this circumstance.
· Take your time when looking at M/C questions, especially diagrams. Don’t be intimidated by diagrams. Take a deep breath and take time to understand the diagram then answer the question(s) that apply. Remember there may be more that one question that goes with the diagram, so you have more time on these.
· Once you are done with the test, LEAVE IT ALONE do not go back and read through and check your work, you are more likely to change correct answers to incorrect answers than wrong to right.
· After the Multiple Choice section you will have a break
· DON’T GIVE UP ON YOURSELF, DON’T GET DISCOURAGED
· YOU KNOW THIS MATERIAL, APPROACH THE TEST WITH CONFIDENCE.
Test Section II
• In Section II, students should use the mandatory reading period to read and review the questions and begin planning their responses. This section contains two types of free-response questions (short and long), and the student will have a total of 80 minutes to complete all of the questions.
· For the free-response questions, students will be expected to provide appropriate scientific evidence and reasoning to support their responses. Students can draw upon the illustrative examples or any other appropriate, relevant examples in order to assist in answering the questions.
· For those more quantitative questions throughout the AP Biology Exam, students will be allowed to use basic four-function calculators (with square root).
· As the emphasis of quantitative questions is on the application of quantitative skills and mathematical reasoning, students will not be required to recall specific formulas. A formula list will be provided within the exam materials.
· When you come back from your break, make sure you have 2-3 pens (black ink preferably, blue ink okay too). If you only take one pen, “Murphy’s Law” it will run out of ink, so make sure you have back up.
· Pencils are not recommended, when the tests are shipped to the grading centers they shuffle around during shipping, and in some cases have smeared and become unreadable. USE A PEN (black or blue ink).
· Write legibly, you want the test reader to be able to read your handwriting. If they can’t read it, they will take the test to the team lead to try to read it, if they can’t read your handwriting, they will give a score of zero on the essay.
· Printing is better than cursive writing.
· In Section II, students should use the mandatory reading period to read and review the questions and begin planning their responses. This section contains two types of free-response questions (short and long), and the student will have a total of 80 minutes to complete all of the questions.
· When you begin the essay part of the test, they will have you break the seal on a, You will have 10 minutes to read the questions and do a “mind dump”. At this point, read each queston. Please…READ EACH QUESTIONS TWICE. (Read all questions in order, then read all questions again)
· The second time you read the questions, pick out the order you want to answer the questions, mark them in the order you want to answer them. You should number them from the one you like the best to least. You will answer questions in the way you numbered them ( answer 1 first and so on).
· After reading the questions twice and choosing your order, write down anything that pops into your head, on that planning sheet, this is the “mind dump”.
· After the 10 minutes they will have you open the actual test booklet. This is where you will answer your long essays and short essays. Whatever you fill out on the “mind dump” is not worth any points, so after the 10 min. don’t write on the it anymore.
· When you open the test booklet, be careful. The questions will be printed in the booklet in order (question #1 at the top of the first page, several pages later is question #2, and so on). Answer each question after the printed question. If you have written the answer to the first question, you may have lots of space that you didn’t use to answer that question. Skip the pages you didn’t need, and answer the each question after that printed question.
· Suggestion: when you start to answer each question leave some space (1/3-1/2 page) then start answering the question. If something pops into your mind as you are writing your essay, you can quickly jot it down in that blank space without losing your train of thought, then come back to the thought that popped into your mind, include it later in the essay. If you wait to finish the sentence you are working on, before jotting down the “popped thought” you may forget the thought.
· REMEMBER : This is not an English or history exam, the graders don’t care about grammar so long as they know what you’re talking about. They don’t care about introductory statements, they don’t care about rewording the question, they don’t care about transitional statements, they don’t care about creativity. ANSWER THE QUESTION AS DIRECTLY AS POSSIBLE.
· READ EACH QUESTION CAREFULLY AND MAKE SURE YOU ARE ANSWERING THE QUESTION THAT IS BEING ASKED. POINTS ARE NOT AWARDED IF THE QUESTION IS NOT ANSWERED.
· After you have answered the question, keep writing. Use the full time. Only take 20 minutes for each of the long essays. This will give you the other 40 minutes to answer each of the short essays ( about 6 .5 minutes for each).
· Be certain you are allowing adequate time to answer each question, don’t spend too much time on one which will leave not enough time for the other questions. PACE YOURSELF.
· Remember time is points, if you give up and stop writing, your aren’t going to get any points. Take the time and keep thinking, then write what you are thinking. It may help to visualize. Think about the times we were learning about the concept in class, what it was associated with, you will be surprised what you will remember. Be calm! GIVE YOURSELF THE CHANCE TO EARN POINTS! DON’T GIVE UP.
· Be direct (don’t reword the question, or have “cutesy” answers). Start with the most obvious stuff first, then intermediate importance, then the details. Utilize the full time.
· If it tells you to design an experiment, refer back to the AP labs. You are not expected to design an original experiment just apply techniques from the labs we did this year.
· Normally at least one essay refers to the labs we did. Study the objectives of the labs and review the lab procedures and you will ace that essay. It is one less thing to worry about!!
· Graders are trained to only look for correct information, so DO NOT cross out what you write down (except little “false starts” etc. ). Graders are only grading content.
· There are only two times when you want to cross things out:
o cross out something if it is a contradictory statement. Cross out what you want the graders to ignore. In contradictory statements graders can’t award points since one of the statements invalidates the other.
o Sometimes there is a choice of parts to answer (i.e., answer 2 of 3) If you answer parts 1 and 2 and then decide to do 3 instead or one of the others. If you don’t cross out the one you don’t want graded, the graders will grade the first two responses. The first two you write on will be the ones that will be graded, regardless of length, time spent etc..