AP Biology
Advanced Placement Biology (also known as AP Biology or 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".[1]
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[2] before commencing AP Biology, although the actual prerequisites vary from school to school and from state to state.
Topic outline[]
Topics covered by this course include:
- Biochemistry
- Botany
- Cell biology
- Developmental biology
- Ecology
- Evolution
- Genetics
- Microbiology
- Molecular biology
- Population biology
- Zoology
In addition to the standard biology topics above, students are required to be familiar with a set of 12 specific biology labs, as well as general lab procedure.
Exam[]
Students are allowed to use a four-function, scientific, or graphing calculator.[3]
General Composition | Multiple Choice (50% of Score) | Free Response (50% of Score) |
---|---|---|
|
|
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Score distribution[]
Score | 2013[4] | 2014[5] | 2015[6] | 2016[7] | 2017[8] | 2018[9] | 2019[10] | 2020[11] | 2021[12] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
5 | 5.5% | 6.6% | 6.4% | 6.6% | 6.4% | 7.1% | 7.2% | 9.5% | 7% |
4 | 21.6% | 22.4% | 22.1% | 21% | 21% | 21.5% | 22.2% | 22.7% | 20% |
3 | 36.2% | 35.2% | 35.9% | 33.6% | 36.7% | 32.9% | 35.3% | 36.9% | 34% |
2 | 29.3% | 27.1% | 27.5% | 28.8% | 27.5% | 28.5% | 26.6% | 24.1% | 30% |
1 | 7.4% | 8.7% | 8.2% | 10.1% | 8.4% | 10% | 8.8% | 6.9% | 10% |
% of scores 3 or higher | 63.3% | 64.2% | 64.4% | 61.3% | 64.1% | 61.5% | 64.7% | 69.1% | 61% |
Mean | 2.88 | 2.91 | 2.91 | 2.85 | 2.90 | 2.87 | 2.93 | 3.04 | 2.87 |
Standard deviation | 1.01 | 1.05 | 1.04 | 1.07 | 1.03 | 1.08 | 1.06 | 1.06 | 1.07 |
Number of students | 203,189 | 213,294 | 223,479 | 238,080 | 254,270 | 259,663 | 260,816 | 233,444 | 212,198 |
Commonly used textbooks[]
- Mader, 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)
See also[]
References[]
- ^ AP Biology Curriculum Framework
- ^ "AP Biology". Retrieved 5 October 2015.
- ^ "AP Biology". Archived from the original on 1 April 2013. Retrieved 27 August 2017.
- ^ Total Registration. "2013 AP Exam Score Distributions". Retrieved 5 October 2015.
- ^ Total Registration. "2014 AP Exam Score Distributions". Retrieved 5 October 2015.
- ^ Total Registration. "2015 AP Exam Score Distributions". Retrieved 1 April 2015.
- ^ Total Registration. "2016 AP Exam Score Distributions". www.totalregistration.net. Retrieved 2016-07-01.
- ^ Total Registration. "2017 AP Exam Score Distributions". www.totalregistration.net. Retrieved 2017-06-22.
- ^ https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2018/Student-Score-Distributions-2018.pdf[bare URL PDF]
- ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved July 9, 2020.
- ^ "STUDENT SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS" (PDF). Retrieved June 9, 2021.
- ^ Total Registration (2021-07-15). "2021 AP Exam Score Distributions". www.totalregistration.net. Archived from the original on 2021-07-08. Retrieved 2021-07-15.
External links[]
- AP Biology at CollegeBoard.com
- AP Biology Teacher Community at CollegeBoard.org
- Advanced Placement
- Biology education