AP Biology

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".^[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

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:^[3]

Topic	Percent
Chemistry of Life	8-11%
Cell Structure and Function	10-13%
Cellular Energetics (photosynthesis and cellular respiration)	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.^[4]

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[5]	2014[6]	2015[7]	2016[8]	2017[9]	2018[10]	2019[11]	2020[12]	2021[13]	2022[14]	2023[15]	2024[16]
5	5.5%	6.6%	6.4%	6.6%	6.4%	7.1%	7.2%	9.5%	7.4%	15.0%	14.3%	16.8%
4	21.6%	22.4%	22.1%	21.0%	21.0%	21.5%	22.2%	22.7%	19.4%	23.1%	23.0%	23.1%
3	36.2%	35.2%	35.9%	33.6%	36.7%	32.9%	35.3%	36.9%	32.4%	29.7%	27.2%	28.4%
2	29.3%	27.1%	27.5%	28.8%	27.5%	28.5%	26.6%	24.1%	30.0%	21.6%	23.6%	21.7%
1	7.4%	8.7%	8.2%	10.1%	8.4%	10%	8.8%	6.9%	10.8%	10.5%	12.0%	10.0%
% 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%	68.3%
Mean	2.88	2.91	2.91	2.85	2.90	2.87	2.93	3.04	2.83	3.11	3.04	3.15
Standard deviation	1.01	1.05	1.03	1.07	1.03	1.08	1.06	1.06	1.09	1.21	1.23	1.22
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	260,062

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)

See also

• Glossary of biology
• A.P Bio (TV Show)