Since 2006, the Mindfish team has supported thousands of Colorado students in accomplishing their AP exam goals through year-round test prep and tutoring programs. As the official test prep provider for some of the best private schools in Colorado, Mindfish takes a holistic approach to AP subject tutoring by leveraging your academic strengths to conquer your weaknesses.
A top score on your AP Biology exam can entitle you to college credit, skipping standard introductory courses, and lowering your tuition bill. For AP Biology students living near Denver and Boulder, Mindfish’s team of tutors can help your student develop a strategic study plan to increase their classroom results and earn a 4 or 5 on the AP test. From mastering course content to balancing prep for multiple subjects, the Mindfish Biology AP exam tutors will help your student to stronger results and scores.
As career educators, Mindfish Tutoring understands how to excel on the AP Biology exam. Your Mindfish AP tutor will meet with you online or in-person to help you stay on track, establish concrete goals, and build a strategic action plan for success with your AP Biology exam. Let Mindfish’s expert AP instructors and proven curriculum give your child the competitive edge necessary when test day arrives.
What Topics are on the AP Biology Exam?
Created by the College Board, the AP Biology exam centers on four “Big Ideas,” each covering several different topics. The AP Biology test emphasizes making connections between biological terms, corresponding biological systems, inputs and outputs of these systems, and the overall impact on living organisms and the environment.
- Big Idea 1: Evolution (EVO) – The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life. Topics include natural selection, biodiversity, and the categorization of organisms.
- Big Idea 2: Energetics (ENE) – Biological systems use energy and molecular building blocks to grow, reproduce, and maintain dynamic homeostasis. Topics include molecular biology, biological systems and reactions, photosynthesis, cell structure, and cell membrane properties.
- Big Idea 3: Information Storage & Transmission (IST) – Living systems store, retrieve, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes. Topics include DNA/RNA, viruses, cell cycles, genes and mutations, and the endocrine and nervous systems.
- Bid Idea 4: Systems Interactions (SYI) – Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions exhibit complex properties. Topics include enzymes, plant structures, the digestive system, and ecological principles.
The questions on the AP Biology exam will challenge the student to connect specific terms and concepts to these central topics. The exam will test your ability to interpret data, make predictions and inferences based on evidence, and analyze different experimental scenarios. You student also needs to understand how the Biology topics relate to one another and the four themes.
How is the AP Biology Exam Scored?
Lasting 3 hours, students will have 90 minutes to complete 60 multiple-choice questions, and 90 minutes to complete the 6 free-response questions. Of the 6 free-response questions, 4 are short-answer questions, while the other 2 are long-answer questions. The AP Biology Exam’s multiple-choice section makes up 50% of the student’s score while the free-response section makes up another 50%.
For the multiple-choice section, you’ll receive 1 point for each question answered correctly. There are no point deductions for incorrect or blank answers. For the free-response section, each of the four short-answer questions gets scored out of 4 points, and each long free-response question is scored from 8 to 10 points. The scores from both sections are tallied up to serve up the final AP score, ranging from 1 to 5.
The most common score on AP tests is a 3. Meeting this benchmark demonstrates to college admission officers that the student has a solid grasp of the subject matter. More competitive scores, like 4s or 5s, can lift a student’s admissions application.