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Home > AP Courses and Exams > Course Home Pages > Biology Course Requirements

Biology Course Requirements

AP Course Audit

The AP Program unequivocally supports the principle that each individual school must develop its own curriculum for courses labeled "AP." Rather than mandating any one curriculum for AP courses, the AP Course Audit instead provides each AP teacher with a set of expectations that college and secondary school faculty nationwide have established for college-level courses. AP teachers are encouraged to develop or maintain their own curriculum that either includes or exceeds each of these expectations; such courses will be authorized to use the "AP" designation. Credit for the success of AP courses belongs to the individual schools and teachers that create powerful, locally designed AP curricula.

The AP Biology course should be designed by your school to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of a two-semester college biology course taken by biology majors during their first year. Your AP Biology course needs to provide students with the conceptual framework, factual knowledge, and analytical skills necessary to deal critically with the rapidly changing science of biology.

Schools' AP Biology courses are typically designed to be taken by students after the completion of a first course in high school biology and one in high school chemistry. Students are encouraged to keep copies of their laboratory work for use in determining college credit or placement.

All students who are willing to accept the challenge of a rigorous academic curriculum should be considered for admission to AP courses. The College Board encourages the elimination of barriers that restrict access to AP courses for students from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the AP Program. Schools should make every effort to ensure that their AP classes reflect the diversity of their student population.

High schools offering this exam must provide the exam administration resources described in the AP Coordinator's Manual.


AP Biology Curriculum Alignment
The AP Program has embarked on an ambitious effort, funded by the National Science Foundation, to align the AP Biology course and exam with introductory college courses that research identifies as best facilitating deep learning. The AP Program is concerned that the amount of content included on the AP Biology Exam is putting inappropriate pressure on teachers to sacrifice depth of study to breadth of coverage, and is not sufficiently fostering inquiry-based science learning. We anticipate that changes will be announced in 2007 but not implemented until, at earliest, the May 2010 AP Biology Exam, providing several years for raising awareness and building an understanding of these changes before they are implemented.

In the meantime, teachers are encouraged to review the scoring formula for the most recent AP Biology Released Exam, which shows the relative weight assigned to the different types of questions and the actual number of questions that need to be answered correctly to earn an AP Exam grade of 3, 4, or 5. Increased awareness of the relatively insignificant weight assigned to any one question may relieve some of the pressure teachers feel to cover every topic that could be assessed on the exam, and may help teachers see the amount of flexibility the current exam provides them to reduce content coverage. The current AP Exam is deliberately designed to be more broad than any one college (or AP) biology course so that it can measure a variety of different schools' selection of biology content. Accordingly, the exam assigns minimal weight to each individual question, so that students whose teachers choose to provide them with a deeper exploration of some topics over others will not be disadvantaged on the AP Exam. So long as the "Curricular Requirements" listed below are fulfilled, teachers should use their own discretion when determining the amount of content to include in an AP course, and can be selective without jeopardizing a student's likelihood of earning a high AP Exam grade.
  2002 AP Biology Released Exam Scoring Formula (.pdf/47KB)


Requirements
To request authorization to label a course "AP," complete the following two steps:

  1. Complete and submit an AP Course Audit form, on which the teacher and principal attest that their course includes or exceeds the following curricular requirements delineated by college and university faculty.
  2. Submit an electronic copy of the course syllabus that demonstrates inclusion or improvement on the curricular requirements (see Syllabus Preparation Guidelines). If your course does not include one or more of the curricular requirements but merits designation as a college-level course, see Instructions for Submitting Materials for the process for describing alternate approaches to the course.
      Syllabus Preparation Guidelines
      Instructions for Teachers
Instructions on how to submit AP Course Audit materials via the Web will be posted on AP Central and mailed to principals in January 2007.

Curricular Requirements
  • The teacher has read the most recent AP Biology Course Description, available as a free download on the AP Biology Course Home Page.
      AP Biology Course Home Page
  • The course emphasizes the biological concepts as specified in the three overarching topics listed in the Topic Outline in the Course Description:
    • Molecules and Cells
    • Heredity and Evolution
    • Organisms and Populations
  • The course provides students with an opportunity to develop a conceptual framework for modern biology emphasizing:
    • an understanding of science as a process rather than an accumulation of facts;
    • recognition of evolution as the foundation of modern biological models and thought;
    • the integration of the general topics of biology through the eight major themes as specified in the Course Description;
    • and applications of biological knowledge and critical thinking to environmental and social concerns.
  • The course includes a laboratory component that fulfills all of the objectives of the recommended AP Biology labs as listed in the Course Description. Students must spend a minimum of 25% of instructional time engaged in hands-on laboratory work. Note: Online course providers utilizing virtual labs (simulations rather than hands-on) should submit their laboratory materials for the audit. If these lab materials are determined to develop the skills and learning objectives of hands-on labs, then courses which use these labs may receive authorization to use the "AP" designation.*
Resource Requirements
  • The school ensures that each student has a college-level biology textbook (supplemented when necessary to meet the curricular requirements) for individual use inside and outside of the classroom.
  • The school ensures that the teacher has a copy of the most recent edition of a college-level biology textbook or other appropriate materials for his or her consultation.
  • The school ensures that each student has access to the AP Biology Lab Manual for Students or other lab activities that meet the objectives of those listed in the AP Biology Lab Manual for Students.
  • The school ensures that students have access to scientific equipment/materials, all necessary resources, and adequate time to conduct hands-on, college-level biology laboratory investigations that meet the objectives as outlined in the AP Biology Lab Manual for Students and/or other lab activities that are listed in teacher's course syllabus.
* This requirement was revised on July 13, 2006.  
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