AP Biology - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from Advanced Placement Biology) Advanced Placement course and exam

This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject, potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral. Please help improve it by replacing them with more appropriate citations to reliable, independent, third-party sources. (May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Advanced Placement
This article is part of a series on
Exams • Awards
AP Capstone
Seminar (AP Capstone Part 1) Research (AP Capstone Part 2)
Current subjects
African American Studies Studio Art (2-D, 3-D, and Drawing) Art History Biology Calculus (AB and BC) Chemistry Chinese Language and Culture Comparative Government and Politics Computer Science A Computer Science Principles English Language and Composition English Literature and Composition Environmental Science European History French Language and Culture German Language and Culture Human Geography Italian Language and Culture Japanese Language and Culture Latin Macroeconomics Microeconomics Music Theory Physics 1: Algebra-Based Physics 2: Algebra-Based Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism Physics C: Mechanics Precalculus Psychology Spanish Language and Culture Spanish Literature and Culture Statistics U.S. Government and Politics U.S. History World History: Modern
In development
World History: Ancient
Former subjects
Computer Science AB (discontinued 2009) International English Language (discontinued 2002) French Literature (discontinued 2009) German Literature (discontinued 1983) Latin Literature (discontinued 2009) Latin: Vergil (discontinued 2012) Music Listening and Literature Physics B (discontinued 2014) Russian Language and Culture (discontinued 2010)
v t e

Advanced Placement (AP) Biology (also known as AP Bio) is an Advanced Placement biology course and exam offered by the College Board in the United States. For the 2012–2013 school year, the College Board unveiled a new curriculum with a greater focus on "scientific practices".

This course is designed for students who wish to pursue an interest in the life sciences. The College Board recommends 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.

Topic outline

The exam covers the following 8 units. The percentage indicates the portion of the multiple-choice section of the exam focused on each content area:

Topic	Percent
Chemistry of Life	8-11%
Cell Structure and Function	10-13%
Cellular Energetics	12-16%
Cell Communication and Cell Cycle	10-15%
Heredity	8-11%
Gene Expression and Regulation	12-16%
Natural Selection	13-20%
Ecology	10-15%

The course is based on and tests six skills, called scientific practices which include:

Topic	Percent
Concept Explanation	8-11%
Visual Representations	10-13%
Question and Method	12-16%
Representing and Describing Data	10-15%
Statistical Tests and Data Analysis	8-11%
Argumentation	12-16%

In addition to the topics above, students are required to be familiar with general lab procedure. Students should know how to collect data, analyze data to form conclusions, and apply those conclusions.

Exam

Students are allowed to use a four-function, scientific, or graphing calculator.

The exam has two sections: a 90 minute multiple choice section and a 90 minute free response section. There are 60 multiple choice questions and six free responses, two long and four short. Both sections are worth 50% of the score.

Score distribution

Score	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
5	5.5%	6.6%	6.4%	6.6%	6.4%	7.1%	7.2%	9.5%	7.4%	15.0%	14.3%	16%
4	21.6%	22.4%	22.1%	21.0%	21.0%	21.5%	22.2%	22.7%	19.4%	23.1%	23.0%	23%
3	36.2%	35.2%	35.9%	33.6%	36.7%	32.9%	35.3%	36.9%	32.4%	29.7%	27.2%	29%
2	29.3%	27.1%	27.5%	28.8%	27.5%	28.5%	26.6%	24.1%	30.0%	21.6%	23.6%	22%
1	7.4%	8.7%	8.2%	10.1%	8.4%	10%	8.8%	6.9%	10.8%	10.5%	12.0%	10%
% of scores 3 or higher	63.3%	64.2%	64.3%	61.1%	64.1%	61.5%	64.7%	69.1%	59.2%	67.9%	64.4%	68%
Mean	2.88	2.91	2.91	2.85	2.90	2.87	2.93	3.04	2.83	3.11	3.04	3.13
Standard deviation	1.01	1.05	1.03	1.07	1.03	1.08	1.06	1.06	1.09	1.21	1.23	1.21
Number of students	203,189	213,294	223,479	238,080	254,270	259,663	260,816	233,444	230,527	237,338	239,470

Commonly used textbooks

Biology, AP Edition by Sylvia Mader (2012, hardcover ISBN 0076620042)
Life: The Science of Biology (Sadava, Heller, Orians, Purves, and Hillis, ISBN 978-0-7167-7671-0)
Campbell Biology AP Ninth Edition (Reece, Urry, Cain, Wasserman, Minorsky, and Andrew Jackson ISBN 978-0131375048)

References

AP Biology Curriculum Framework
"AP Biology". Retrieved 5 October 2015.
"AP Biology – AP Students | College Board". apstudents.collegeboard.org. Retrieved 2023-09-02.
"AP Biology". Archived from the original on 1 April 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
"STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
"STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
"STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
"STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
Total Registration. "2017 AP Exam Score Distributions". www.totalregistration.net. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
"Student Score Distributions, AP Exams - May 2018" (PDF). The College Board. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
"STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved July 9, 2020.
"STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 9, 2021.
"STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2022. Retrieved Aug 26, 2023.
"STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 August 2023. Retrieved Aug 26, 2023.
"STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved January 10, 2024.
Total Registration (2024-06-27). "AP Exam Score Distributions". Total Registration. Retrieved 2024-06-27.

External links

AP Biology at CollegeBoard.com
AP Biology Teacher Community at CollegeBoard.org

Categories: