How to Approach Each Question Type ❮ 35Answers for the free-response questions must be in essay form. Outline form is not
acceptable. Labeled diagrams may be used to supplement discussion, but in no case will
a diagram alone suffice. It is important that you read each question completely before
you begin to write. Write all of your answers on the pages following the questions in the
booklet.Free-Response Tips
Some important tips to keep in mind as you write your essays:- The free-response questions tend to be multipart questions. You can’t be expected to
know everything about every topic, and the test preparers sometimes throw you a bone
by writing questions that ask you to answer twoof three parts or threeof four parts. This
gives you an opportunity to focus in on the material that you are most comfortable with.
It is very important that you read the question carefully to make sure you understand
exactly what the examiners are asking you to do. - You are given 80 minutes to complete eight free-response questions. The two long free-
response questions should take 20 minutes each, and the six short questions should take
about six minutes each. This may not seem like a lot of time, but if you write a bunch
of practice essays before you take the exam and budget your time wisely during the exam,
you will not have to struggle with your timing. Below are suggestions for budgeting your
time:- Read the question carefully and make sure you know what it is asking you to do.
- Construct an outline that will help you organize your answer. Don’t write the world’s
most elaborate outline. You won’t get points for having the prettiest outline in the
country—so there is no reason to spend an excessive amount of time putting it together.
Just develop enough of an outline so that you have a basic idea of how you will construct
your essay. Your essay is not graded based on how well it is put together, but it certainly
will not hurt your score to write a well-organized and grammatically correct response. - If the long essay is a two-part question, spend 10 minutes on each part. If it is a three-
part question, spend 6–7 minutes on each part. Keep your eye on the clock and make
sure you give yourself enough time to address each part of the question.
- Both of the long free-response questions on the AP Biology exam are worth the same
number of points. But each question is not created equal. Some questions ask you to
answer two sub-questions. Some questions ask you to answer three sub-questions, and
some questions ask you to answer four sub-questions. The free-response questions are
graded in a way that forces you to provide information for eachsection of the question.
There are a maximum number of points that you can get for each subsection. For example,
in a question that asks you to answer threesub-questions, most likely the grader’s guide-
lines will say something along the lines of:
Part A — worth a maximum of 3 points
Part B — worth a maximum of 4 points
Part C — worth a maximum of 3 points
This is a very important thing for you to know heading into the exam. This means that
it is farmore important for you to attempt to answer every partof the question than to
try to stuff every little fact that you know about part A into that portion of the essay at
the expense of part B. Based on the grading guideline above, no matter how well you
write your answer for part A, you can receive at most 3 points for that section. At the
STRATEGY
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