The Examination

The exam is three hours long and consists of two sections:

Section I (90 minutes; 60% of student's total grade): 120 multiple-choice questions that examine the student's understanding of representative content and concepts drawn from across the entire course. To be broad enough in scope to give every student who has covered an adequate amount of material an opportunity to perform well, this section must be so comprehensive that no student should be expected to attain a perfect or near-perfect score. Thought-provoking problems and questions based on fundamental ideas from biology are included along with questions based on the recall of basic facts and major concepts. As a correction for haphazard guessing, one-fourth of the number of questions answered incorrectly will be subtracted from the number of questions answered correctly.

Section II (90 minutes; 40% of student's total grade): four mandatory, equally weighted free-response questions that encompass broader topics. One essay question is ususally taken from Area I of the outline (Molecules and Cells) and another question focuses on Area II (Heredity and Evolution). Two questions generally focus on Area III of the outline (Organisms and Populations). Any of these four questions may require the student to analyze and interpret data or information drawn from laboratory experience, as well as from lecture material, and may require students to integrate material from different areas of the course.

Students are asked to organize answers to broad questions, thereby demonstrating reasoning and analytical skills, as well as an ability to synthesize material from several sources into a cogent and coherent essay. To prepare, students should practice writing free-response answers whenever appropriate during the course. Answers to the free-response questions must be in essay form; outlines alone or unlabeled and unexplained diagrams alone are not acceptable.

The AP exams are intended to have average scores of about 50 percent of the maximum possible score for the multiple-choice section and for the free-response section. Thus, students may find them more difficult than most classroom examinations. However, it is possible for students who have studied most but not all of the topics in the outline to obtain satisfactory grades.