What's up guys?
In this video we're going to go over 25 AP Biology free response tips to help you score
a four or five.
If you haven't already watched our prior video on the five steps to writing effective FRQs
in AP Biology, make sure you do that first and if you find this video helpful at any
point in time, please hit that like and subscribe button so that you can get more AP tips directly
to your inbox.
Without further ado, let's get started.
The first tip is to remember that when you're interpreting data, you need to make sure that
you provide reasoning to support your claim.
In recent years, students have really struggled here in terms of understanding the two-part
nature of the directive words like explaining or justifying something.
You get two points: one for the actual identification and the second for explaining specifically
why.
So make sure that you have both parts of that.
The next tip we have is to make sure that you understand that interpreting and constructing
models are two different skills.
It's not enough, for example, to just create a phylogenetic tree.
The student needs to actually understand what that model that they've made actually says
about the problem.
So make sure that you're not just doing rote exercises and not understanding the underlying
mechanics of the concept that you're being tested on.
Tip number three is to make sure that you are practicing applying fundamental knowledge
of basic biology to giving an explanation for why you chose to present data in a certain
way.
Number four: be specific but with a purpose.
Sometimes students include unnecessary information that doesn't actually answer what the question
is asking for.
Provide your reasoning.
Don't just repeat something that was given to you in the prompt and you know go about
your day.
Make sure that you're actually being specific with a purpose.
And that leads us to tip number five, which is to make sure that you use claim evidence
reasoning.
This is where you break down an argument into these parts to make your point more clear.
State of claim, cite the evidence and provide your reasoning.
So those are our first five tips.
Let's go into our next 20 tips.
The next set of tips is aimed at improving the way that you're responding in your AP
Biology graphing and modeling questions.
So tip number six is to make sure that when you are asked to make a comparison, you are
answering both the before as well as the after state of comparison.
Tip number seven is to make sure that when you're reviewing commonly tested topics such
as the modeling of a self-signaling pathway, you have to actually describe each step of
the pathway and anticipate what might happen if a particular step is activated or inhibited.
Tip number eight: practice reading multiple types of data and creating tables from different
sources of data.
A lot of times students have struggled or missed points because they've made mistakes
like forgetting to have units in their axes or missing labels such as titles in their
charts.
Tip number nine: make sure that you're practicing creating graphs from different sources of
information.
For example, you may have to draw a diagram from a narrative description, so you have
to be comfortable with creating different types of graphs like bars, dual Y axes line,
semi log, etcetera.
And that leads us to tip number 10, we're 40% of the way there, which is to practice
incorporating evidence from your own knowledge of biology.
This can help you when it comes to thoroughly answering the questions that ask you to justify
or interpret something in the response.
Remember what we said about those two part questions, so that's the first 10 tips.
Let's go ahead and jump into tips 11 through 15.
The 11th tip that we have is to always be thinking about how to apply prior things you've
learned to a new situation.
The College Board is notorious for asking AP Bio questions that cover something you've
never actually directly learned in class, but what they will require you to do is to
demonstrate that you know or understand one or two concepts that you've previously had
exposure to and can apply it to a new situation.
This was a very common mistake made by students in the 2019 AP Biology exam on question one
specifically when students often missed points for not applying changes in molecular processes
to ecological relationships.
Tip number 12: remember that natural selection involves two parts.
The first is survival and the second is reproduction.
Most of the time, students only write about survival and forget to write about what they
know about reproduction, so this is a commonly missed point over the years that you want
to make sure you remember.
Tip number 13: for experimental design questions be very explicit when stating the change that
will occur.
Make direct comparisons to the control group.
When you fail to explain the different parts of an experiment and how it's designed, it
makes it really difficult for your reader to believe that you truly understand how to
build a meaningful experiment.
So make sure you state that change that may occur explicitly.
Tip number 14: questions that test you on experimental design should always have these
parts: a control, a variable that's being tested in a few ways, a hypothesis, expected
results and clear graphs.
Remember what we said earlier about making sure that you are comfortable with data and
creating tables from data as well as visuals.
Tip 15: know the difference between a dependent variable and an independent variable.
There can be several independent variables, but there can only be one dependent variable
in a well constructed experiment.
All right, we're 60% of the way there.
Let's keep going with the next 10 tips.
If you need a little break, why don't you leave a comment right now on which tip of
the first 15 you found most helpful?
Tip 16: remember that hypotheses are intended to compare the experimental group to a control
group.
It is not enough to just say something will change.
It is better to say something will change by being more Y, right?
Notice how in the latter response we are actually being intentional and specific about the directionality
of a change.
Oftentimes students would just say a generic statement like X will change and they'll stop
there.
Make sure that you state X will change by being more Y, right?
So this is where it goes back to our earlier tip on using words like because or therefore,
just to remind you to close the loop when it comes to questions.
Tip number 17: if you don't remember the exact name of a concept or how to spell it, just
try describing it and give your best effort here.
Sometimes graders are more lenient and can give you a point or two for just defining
relevant terms.
Tip number 18: answer the AP Biology free response questions any way you'd like.
All you need to do is make sure that you're being really clear in terms of how you're
answering.
So taking this approach is a common strategy for managing your time effectively.
If you want to answer question number three first before question number one cause you
feel more confident there, do that.
Just do whatever you need to do in order to get all the questions answered in the allotted
time.
Tip number 19: keep your personal opinion out of your free response question.
Your AP Bio free response should be backed by things that you learned in class and actual
science.
This is not the time to talk about something that's tangentially related that you did not
actually learn in class.
Remember to rely on facts in science.
The next tip we have is to make sure that you wear a watch.
When you're practicing your AP Bio exam.
Get really comfortable and familiar with checking your watch, seeing how much time you have
left and pacing yourself.
You need to be familiar with how to pace yourself because this will give you a general sense
of if you're ahead or behind the curve and help you manage your test anxiety or stress
or whatever that manifests in for yourself.
So longer questions deserve more time than shorter questions.
Make sure you're not spending 80% of your time to answer the short question and leaving
only 20% to answer the questions that are actually worth way more on your exam?
Alright, we've gone over 20 tips.
We've got five more to go.
Let's get through them.
Tip number 21 is to make sure that if you're given a parameter that you follow it.
Just stop once you answer the question.
This goes back to our prior video on the five steps writing effective AP Bio FRQs.
When questions ask you to state something in a sentence or two, you should not write
four sentences, follow the directions, show that you can read and that you can actually
craft the response that they are looking for in the allotted space.
Tip 22: make sure you explain terms when you use them.
You should never assume that your grader knows anything about AP Biology.
What the AP Bio test is intended for is for you to demonstrate that you've mastered concepts
and the best way to show that you've mastered something is to explain it to somebody, so
make sure you do that.
The next tip we have is to make sure you use a black or blue ink pen.
The reason why is because it makes it a lot easier for your graders to read your responses
when it's in one of these two columns.
All right, second to last tip.
Number 24: try every question.
One of the most commonly cited pieces of advice that AP Bio teachers give their students is
to make an attempt on everything.
You don't lose any points for doing so.
And students sometimes will just leave entire responses empty.
You're losing valuable points here or at least attempts at making valuable points.
And our final tip, tip number 25 is to know your commonly tested concepts and diagrams
cold.
Concepts that often have diagrams related to them, like self signaling pathways or Punnett
squares are topics that you want to make sure you understand when given in different forms
of information.
So a good example here is if you have a Punnett square, are you comfortable in situations
in which you can describe the outcomes in a variety of ways?
For example, if the percentages and ratios describing the phenotypes, the genotypes or
being comfortable creating Punnett squares when you're only given information about the
parent generation or the F one generation.
These sorts of variations are the sorts of variations that the College Board loves to
throw at students to demonstrate and test their understanding and mastery of key concepts.
Alright, so three additional resources to check out.
The first one is AP Central where you're going to find all the previously released AP Biology.
You're going to find things like the scoring guidelines, the Chief Reader reports and exemplar
student responses.
These are super helpful for starting to feel more confident and build up your familiarity
with how the rubrics are graded.
The second resource is Albert's free AP Biology review guide.
This is on our blog and you can use it with either us or any other review resource.
What it does is it gives you key questions to ask yourself to make sure that you've mastered
all the concepts that are covered on the exam and the last thing is AP Biology at Albert,
which features hundreds of full-length practice exams as well as practice questions with detailed
explanations so that you can help reinforce your understanding of key concepts as well
as learn by doing.
Do me a favor.
If you found this video helpful, comment below, which tip number did you find most helpful?
Feel free to navigate throughout the video, just to refresh yourself on all of these tips
since we went through them quite quickly.
And then I'd love to know and hear how you're going to be using that tip in your studies.
And then lastly, if you found this video helpful, please hit that like button and subscribe
so that you can see more videos that are helpful for your AP test prep.
Thanks so much guys, and have a great day.