From my year in AP Bio, here are some tips for kids taking the class next year.
2. Keep in mind the AP test was changed in 2013. It's now more about applying the concepts then memorizing facts.
5. If you can't finish your labs, make sure you understand the concepts behinds them, what you would've done in the lab, and what your results would have looked like. (see bozeman bio labs playlist)
7. If you don't understand a concept the way the book teaches it, find another way to learn. Ask your teacher to explain it, ask your teacher to listen to you explain it, watch a Bozeman Bio video explain it, listen to your other AP Bio students explain it.
8. Read the summaries in your textbook.
9. Read your textbook (see a pattern here?)
10. Watch Bio videos to review (see 'reference' link home page)
11. Remember water potential is movement from an area of higher to lower concentration. If for example, a solution has more salt than the cell, salt will not move into the cell because there's less salt in the cell. The cell will shrink because there was a lower water potential outside the cell.
12. Essentially high water potential does not equal more molecules or stuff in the solution or cell.
13. In the Hardy Weinberg equation p + q =1 is the frequency of alleles, p² + 2pq + q² = 1 is the frequency of the genotype.
14. p is dominant, q is recessive ( remember cuz p=powerful because it's dominant over the recessive, q=quiet because it can't be seen if there's a dominant allele)
15. If for example the 5% of a population is homozygous recessive then q²=0.05. And you HAVE TO REMEMBER TO TAKE THE SQUARE ROOT to find what q equals to solve for the dominant allele.
16. You need to be able to design an experiment. Know how to formulate a testable question and hypothesis, identify independent/dep variables, and
18. omg like every question on the AP exam requires data analysis
19. When answering Chi-square test questions, know that the equations and tables WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU on the equation sheet. You just need to know how to identify all the variables in a word problem.
20. In fact if you didn't know you get a sheet of equations on the test, I recommend you look at that (google or see my 'reference' page). You basically don't need to remember a single equation in AP BIo because they'll give them to you.
21.Don't stress about knowing how to explain every stage of mitosis or meiosis.
22. Don't stress about knowing how to explain every bit of photosynthesis or cellular respiration.
23. DO know the products of each process and why their important (but seriously on the 2014 bio test there were, like, ZERO questions about photosynthesis and respiration and just a whole bunch of ecology questions).
24.. Biochem. It should be review but sometimes it's not. Sometimes your teacher might assure it's review from Chemistry, but if you don't know it, let your teacher know and make an effort to brush up on properties of water, enzymes, ionic bonds, your proteins, carbs, lipids, nucleic acids, and chemical reactions (ender/exergonic, hydrolysis, etc).
25. Know your primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary protein structure.
26. If you listen well and participate in the two month long DNA Barcoding Life's Matrix lab, you should be really really good with DNA barcoding techniques. During the lab though you tend to spend all your time in class on the lab. Make sure you don't fall behind on reading even if it may not be assigned by the teacher.
The lab took our class really long and even if it was super helpful, by the end of the year it felt like we rushed through some topics.
That's about it for now, but by no means is this list exhaustive. I'll update as I remember more tips for AP BIo. And if you have any to add, please send me an ask so I can add it.
