The AP Bio exam is one of the toughest exams to pass.
In this video, we're going to go over five simple steps that you can take to start writing
effective AP Biology FRQs.
If you like this video, make sure you hit the like and subscribe button so that you
can get more AP Biology tips.
In a follow on video will also go over 25 tips that you can take when it comes to tackling
your free responses.
So without further ado, let's get started.
The first step when it comes to writing effective AP Biology free response questions is to understand
and master the rubric.
The easiest way to do this is to visit the College Board's past released exam site.
In this site, they're going to provide breakdowns of all of scoring guidelines in the past few
years, so you'll be able to see how points were allocated in certain problems as you
can see in this example, displayed on the screen.
Now let's move on to step two.
The second step when it comes to writing effective AP Biology FRQs is to underline or circle
any key word or phrase.
The nice thing about the AP Biology exam is that the College Board actually tells you
and signals to you how many points each question is worth through their bolded text.
In other words, if there are two words bolded in the question, it means that this question
is probably worth two points.
Let's take a look at this example.
Here, you can see that there are a few words that we've highlighted, such as identify,
make a claim, provide reasoning and calculate.
So what I can probably gather from this is that this question is worth at least four
points.
So one of our best taking tips that we can tell you is to create a system for yourself,
put a checkmark or star each of these bolded words when you're answering your response.
And the reason why is because this will make sure that you've actually addressed or at
least attempted to address each part of the question.
Now let's move on to step three.
The third step when it comes to writing effective AP Bio FRQs is to understand what the question
is asking you and to identify the common directive words.
What are directive words?
Well, as you can see on the screen here, here are nine of the most common AP Biology directive
words, we call these question stems.
What these do is they cue you in on what specifically you need to address in your response.
Let's take a look at these nine common AP Biology question stems.
The first one is calculate and what that means is that you're going to be asked to solve
a problem.
The second one is to compare.
So this is where you're going to want to go over the similarities of two or more things.
The third one is contrast.
So this is the opposite of comparing, you're going to show the differences between two
or more things.
The next one is to discuss and this means that you're going to outline the pros as well
as the cons to a topic, process, theory or technique.
The next one is describe, so this is the sort of question where you're going to be asked
to characterize something.
And then we have explain, this is where you need to demonstrate your ability to make something
understandable.
Next, we have identify, so if you're asked to identify something, this means to give
a direct answer to the question.
If you're asked to interpret something, this means that you need to analyze something critically
or explain something that isn't clear to someone.
And then finally, we have justified so this is where you have to explain why something
may happen.
Stems like calculate, explain and justify are usually associated with two point problems
on AP Bio.
So something that you want to notice is that these question stems are relatively open ended.
For example, we have described, discuss, explain interpret.
So what this means is that you're going to need to give a more thorough response to the
problem, right?
So for example, if you're asked to explain why a certain result may occur, from an experiment,
you need to be exhaustively talking about the experimental design, right?
You need to talk about these effective ways to measure dependent variables.
Make sure that you're actually being thorough when it comes to these open ended question
stems.
Don't make the mistake of providing single sentence responses when the test maker is
expecting more from you, right.
And so, AP Biology, students often lose five or more points when it comes to the first
and second problems in the AP bio FAQ section, because they really just lacked the specificity
that the grader is looking for.
Now that we've gone over the question stems, let's go into step four.
The first step is to make sure that you're being succinct in your FRQ.
Now this is a very nuanced point, when you think about it in relation to the prior 10
and the reason being is because you want to make sure that your AP Bio FRQ is not an English
essay.
Your reader does not need to know everything under the sun that you learned in your class,
but they need to know is what is your response to the question.
One of the mistakes that students make is, they might be asked to identify four properties
of something.
And instead they list nine.
Guess what?
The graders are only going to look at the first four you put down.
So if you think that you're giving yourself some insurance, when you're listing out more
than what's being asked of you, you're you're incorrect here, and you want to make sure
that you're actually just directly answering the question.
So what are some principles that we can keep in mind when we're trying to be succinct in
our answers?
Well, the first one is to make sure that you're not just restating the question.
This is unnecessary and is not going to score you any points.
The second one is to make sure that you're writing in complete sentences, it is not on
your grader to figure out what you're trying to say.
So you can't just write a half baked sentence and expect somebody to understand you.
The third tip is if you're doing a calculation, make sure you clearly identify your final
answer.
You can do this really simply by boxing your answer and showing your work.
Now, this second point is really important.
Make sure that you're showing your work.
If you're being asked to calculate something, there are two points typically awarded one
point is for actually having the right answer.
And the second one is for showing your work.
The next tip that we have when it comes to some principles is to make sure that you're
just answering the question and then moving on.
A common mistake that AP Bio students make is that they'll make a contradictory statement
after they've already stated the right answer.
So if there is a contradicting statement in your response, you can actually lose points.
So this goes back to that point that I was saying, if they're asking you to list for
or identify for things, don't give them nine.
The fifth tip is to apply that prior tip when it comes to answering the question and then
moving on to graphing as well.
If the question is only asking you to plot something, or to put data points on a graph,
you should just do that.
If the question is asking you to graph, draw a line or curve, don't do more than what is
asked, don't anticipate or infer something that is not being asked to you.
Too often students will do this and then they'll end up losing points on their FAQ section.
And then our sixth tip is that when it comes to graphing, make sure that you follow graphing
conventions, right, this means that you want to make sure your chart is titled, you want
to make sure your axes are labeled, you want to make sure that your scales are appropriate
that you don't have something going from one to five to 10, and so on, right and make sure
that you actually select the right graphite.
So these sorts of fundamentals are really important to demonstrate to your grader.
And the final tip that we have when it comes to being succinct in your AP Biology FRQ is
to make sure that you're being mindful of your handwriting graders are readers too.
And this means that even though they're not going to grade you on how to your handwriting
is if they can't decipher your chicken scratch, then it's going to be a problem.
So be mindful of that.
And be considerate when you're crafting your spots.
A final tip that we're going to throw into the principles before we jump into Step five
is to make sure that you're closing the loop, right, make sure that you're actually being
complete in your answer.
If the questions to ask you, for example, to state the direction that something is changing,
you can't just say that something is changing, you have to say the direction that something
is actually changing.
This is a commonly requested piece of feedback that AP graders give teachers is that students
aren't closing the loop enough.
So one of the easiest ways to do that is to remember the word because or therefore, this
allows you to remember that you need to actually respond to the question.
So now moving on to Step Five.
This last tip is to make sure that you practice, practice and then practice some more.
The thing about mastering AP Bio FRQs is that it comes down to two things.
The first one is knowing the rubric and how points are allocated, and the second one is
actually learning how to craft responses that score you points on these rubrics.
Too often students will do one really well, but not the other.
In other words, they will learn the rubric, but they won't have actually practiced enough.
So they know in their head that they're going to get points based on certain things.
But then they don't actually know how to put the two together to actually earn those points.
So make sure that you are actually looking at the rubric and then pairing it with your
practice, right?
So see how long it took you to answer one of these questions, pace yourself, learn how
effective you are at matching what the rubric is being asked.
After a few times of doing this, you're going to be more and more mindful of what the test
maker is looking for.
And that's going to build your confidence come test day.
So those are our five tips when it comes to writing effective AP Biology, FRQs.
Here are three more resources that you can use as you start preparing for your exam.
The first one is the College Board's past released exams.
Like we said earlier, this is the best way that you can get some practice and exposure
to the rubrics as well as the questions that you'll be asked.
The second thing is our best review guide for AP Biology.
This is a free resource that you can access on our blog and use as a study guide as you're
preparing for the exam.
The last one is Albert's review course.
And what this provides for AP biology is hundreds of practice questions including FRQs with
exemplars of how students could have scored four points for those respective responses.
So that'll be really helpful when you're trying to build your confidence and learn by doing.
Lastly, make sure that you hit that subscribe button or that like button because in our
next video, we're going to go over the 25 tips that you should keep in mind when it
comes to tackling the AP Biology FRQ section that we didn't go over in this video.
Hope you enjoyed this video and we'll see you next time.