AP® Biology Practice Tests | Albert Resources (2024)

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• The Albert Team
• Last Updated On: March 1, 2022

If you’re looking for a comprehensive list of the best AP® Biology practice tests, we’ve put them together here. In this post, we’ll outline background about the course and go over practice tests for AP® Biology that you can start using for your test prep efforts towards earning a 5.

Whether you’re reviewing Unit 1 or Unit 8, there’s a set of AP® Biology practice questions for you.

The exam features 60 multiple choice questions that make up 50% of your score, and 6 free response questions that comprise of the other half of your score.

AP® Biology aims to strengthen students’ abilities to demonstrate inquiry-based learning of essential concepts, and to use these skills to develop reasoning skills for science practices.

In case you’re looking for other free AP® Biology resources, check out our blog section for review articles, score calculators, and more.

The 6 Science Practices AP® Biology Promotes

1. Concept Explanation: Explain biological concepts, processes, and models presented in written format.
2. Visual Representation: Analyze visual representations of biological concepts and processes.
3. Questions and Methods: Determine scientific questions and methods.
4. Representing and Describing Data: Represent and describe data.
5. Statistical Tests and Data Analysis: Perform statistical tests and mathematical calculations to analyze and interpret data.
6. Argumentation: Develop and justify scientific arguments using evidence.

The Big Ideas of AP® Biology

There are four big ideas in the course:

• Big Idea 1: Evolution – The process of evolution drives the diversity and unity of life.
• Big Idea 2: Energetics – Biological systems use energy and molecular building blocks to grow, reproduce, and maintain dynamic homeostasis.
• Big Idea 3: Information Storage and Transmission – Living systems store, retrieve, transmit, and respond to information essential to life processes.
• Big Idea 4: Systems Interactions – Biological systems interact, and these systems and their interactions exhibit complex properties.

AP® Biology Practice Tests

Being intentional in your studying is crucial. Here, we’ve broken down our AP® Biology prep course into their individual units so that you can identify which parts of the test are a greater percentage of the exam, and start targeting your practice.

If you’ve never used Albert, click into Units 2, 4, and 7 to try our free AP® Biology multiple choice practice questions.

Unit 1: Chemistry of Life

• 8-11% of the exam
• 35+ AP® Biology practice questions
• Unit 1 covers topics like the structure of water and hydrogen bonding, elements of life, properties and functions of biological macromolecules and nucleic acids

Unit 2: Cell Structure and Function

• 10-13% of the exam
• 110+ AP® Biology practice questions
• Unit 2 digs more into topics like cell size, plasma membranes, membrane transport, tonicity and osmoregulation, and cell compartmentalization
• Try 15 free AP® Biology practice questions on Topic 2.2 Cell Structure and Function

Unit 3: Cellular Energetics

• 12-16% of the exam
• 50+ AP® Biology practice questions
• Unit 3 digs into topics such as enzyme structures and catalysis, photosynthesis, cellular respiration and fitness.

Unit 4: Cell Communication and Cell Cycle

• 10-15% of the exam
• 80+ AP® Biology practice questions
• Unit 4 investigates how cells communicate with one another via signal transduction, the parts of the cell cycle and regulation of the cell cycle.
• Try 10+ free AP® Biology review questions on Topic 4.4 Changes in Signal Transduction Pathways

Unit 5: Heredity

• 8-11% of the exam
• 80+ AP® Biology practice questions
• Unit 5 explores topics like meiosis and genetic diversity, digging into things like Mendelian genetics and Non-Mendelian genetics.

Unit 6: Gene Expression and Regulation

• 12-16% of the exam
• 110+ AP® Biology practice questions
• Unit 6 digs into the DNA some more, covering transcription and RNA processing, translation, how mutations work, and biotechnology.

Unit 7: Natural Selection

• 13-20% of the exam
• 200+ AP® Biology practice questions
• Unit 7 teaches about natural selection, artificial selection, population genetics, evidence of evolution and common ancestry.
• Try 20 free AP® Biology multiple choice practice questions on Topic 7.5 Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium

Unit 8: Ecology

• 10-15% of the exam
• 140+ AP® Biology practice questions
• Unit 8 wraps up AP® Biology with a look at the big picture: energy flow through ecosystems, population ecology, community ecology and biodiversity are just some of the topics covered.

AP® Biology Investigative Labs

• 150 AP® Biology practice questions
• These practice questions serve as supplemental review after you’ve completed the 13 AP® Biology laboratory investigations in class.
• Investigative Labs provide guided inquiry opportunities for students. Students go through four levels of inquiry:
  • Confirmation: Confirming a principle through an activity where the results are known in advance.
  • Structured Inquiry: Exploring a teacher-presented question through a prescribed procedure.
  • Guided Inquiry: Evaluating a teacher-presented question through a student-designed process.
  • Open Inquiry: Investigating topic-related questions that students formulate and complete with their own designed process.

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See Also

AP Biology Practice Test: Unit 7 — Natural Selection - High School Test Prep

AP® Biology Practice Tests Sorted by Big Ideas & Enduring Understandings

One of the best parts about using Albert for your AP® Biology review is that each practice question is tied directly back to the College Board standard, enduring understanding, or essential knowledge that’s being evaluated.

We’ve gone ahead and filtered down our AP® Bio multiple choice practice questions to help you get a head start:

Big Idea 1: Evolution

• EVO-1:Evolution is characterized by a change in the genetic makeup of a population over time and is supported by multiple lines of evidence
• EVO-2: Organisms are linked by lines of descent from common ancestry.
• EVO-3: Life continues to evolve within a changing environment.

Big Idea 2: Energetics

• ENE-1: The highly complex organization of living systems requires constant input of energy and the exchange of macromolecules.
• ENE-2: Cells have membranes that allow them to establish and maintain internal environments that are different from their external environments.
• ENE-3: Timing and coordination of biological mechanisms involved in growth, reproduction, and homeostasis depend on organisms responding to environmental cues.
• ENE-4: Communities and ecosystems change on the basis of interactions among populations and disruptions to the environment.

Big Idea 3: Information Storage and Transmission

• IST-1: Heritable information provides for continuity of life.
• IST-2: Differences in the expression of genes account for some of the phenotypic differences between organisms.
• IST-3: Cells communicate by generating, transmitting, receiving, and responding to chemical signals.
• IST-4: The processing of genetic information is imperfect and is a source of genetic variation.
• IST-5: Transmission of information results in changes within and between biological systems.

Big Idea 4: Systems Interactions

• SYI-1: Living systems are organized in a hierarchy of structural levels that interact.
• SYI-2: Competition and cooperation are important aspects of biological systems.
• SYI-3: Naturally occurring diversity among and between components within biological systems affects interactions with the environment.

AP® Biology Unit Assessments

We’ve compiled unit assessments for some of the most important topics covered in AP® Bio. Use these after you’ve completed your targeted practice above.

Note: You’ll need an Albert subscription to access these tests.

• AP® Biology Unit 1 Assessment
• AP® Biology Unit 2 Assessment
• AP® Biology Unit 3 Assessment
• AP® Biology Unit 4 Assessment
• AP® Biology Unit 5 Assessment
• AP® Biology Unit 6 Assessment

AP® Biology Full-Length Practice Tests

After you complete your unit specific review, use these full-length AP® Biology exams to simulate the real test. Give yourself 180 minutes to complete these.

Note: You’ll need an Albert subscription to access these tests.

• AP® Biology Practice Test 1
• AP® Biology Practice Test 2
• AP® Biology Practice Test 3
• AP® Biology Practice Test 4

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Previous AP® Biology Free Response Questions & Answers

The College Board provides a comprehensive database of the past years’ AP® Biology free response questions and answers. Here are some of the FRQs from recent years:

• 2019 AP® Biology Free-Response Questions and Answers: This exam evaluated student abilities to work with models and form predictions, predict changes in populations and cells, calculate genetic probabilities, and construct and interpret cladograms.
  • 2019 AP® Biology Free-Response Scoring Guidelines
  • 2019 Chief Reader Report
• 2018 AP® Biology Free-Response Questions and Answers: This exam tested students on predicting effects of natural selection and genetic manipulation, modeling cell signaling pathways, experimental design, predicting results, describing symbiotic relationships, Mendelian genetics, and connecting cell structures and functions.
  • 2018 AP® Biology Free-Response Scoring Guidelines
  • 2018 Chief Reader Report
• 2017 AP® Biology Free-Response Questions and Answers: This AP® Biology test evaluated students on graphing and interpreting data, describing competitive advantage, relating changes in DNA to changes in proteins and phenotypes, predicting impacts on changes within ecosystems, identifying cause and effect, and predicting population growth.
  • 2017 AP® Biology Free-Response Scoring Guidelines
  • 2017 Chief Reader Report

Helpful AP® Biology FRQ Videos

We’ve made two in-depth AP® Bio free response videos to help you get started in your studying:

Need help preparing for your AP® Biology exam?

Albert has hundreds of AP® Biology practice questions, free response, and full-length practice tests to try out.