AP Biology FRQ: 6 questions, 34 points, 90 minutes.

The format at a glance

The AP Biology exam runs 3 hours. Section I is 60 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes, asked individually or in sets of typically 4 to 5 around a shared stimulus. Section II is the free response, also 90 minutes. The 2 sections are weighted equally, so the 6 questions below decide half your score.

The 6 AP Biology free response questions

College Board names all 6 and prints what each is worth. Both long questions are experimental-results questions; the difference between them is that the second asks you to build the graph yourself. The 4 short-answer questions each focus on a different big idea and a different unit of instruction.

AP Bio FRQ scoring, part by part

Each part is worth a fixed number of points, and each point is earned independently: you can miss every point in one part and still earn all of them in the next. Questions 1 and 2 share a title and split their 9 points differently, which is the detail most guides round off into a single range.

• Question 1, 9 points. Part A, 1 point, describe biological concepts, processes or models. Part B, 3 points, identify experimental methods or describe data. Part C, 3 points, identify methods, analyze data, or perform calculations. Part D, 2 points, make and justify predictions.
• Question 2, 9 points. Part A, 1 point, describe biological concepts, processes or models. Part B, 4 points, construct the appropriate graph from the data provided. Part C, 2 points, analyze data, perform calculations, state a null hypothesis, or predict the results of an experiment. Part D, 2 points, make and justify predictions.
• Questions 3 to 6, 4 points each. 4 parts, 1 point each, with no exceptions. That is why a short question is unforgiving: there is no partial credit inside a part to fall back on.

Two things follow that are worth planning around. On Question 2 the graph alone is worth 4 of 9, more than the data analysis, the calculation, the null hypothesis and the prediction put together, so preparing for it as the statistics question means preparing for its smaller half. And the two long questions are not interchangeable: 1-3-3-2 on the first, 1-4-2-2 on the second.

What the free response covers

The exam assesses 4 big ideas: evolution, energetics, information storage and transmission, and systems interactions. College Board is specific about how those are spread across Section II. Each of the 4 short-answer questions focuses on a different big idea and a different unit of instruction, so no unit can supply 2 of them.

The 8 units are Chemistry of Life, Cells, Cellular Energetics, Cell Communication and Cell Cycle, Heredity, Gene Expression and Regulation, Natural Selection, and Ecology. The unit weightings College Board publishes apply to the multiple-choice section, not to the free response, so a heavier unit does not mean more free-response points.

All 6 science practices are assessed in Section II, and College Board says which questions carry which. Questions 1 and 2 are the two that ask you to perform a mathematical calculation. Questions 1 and 3 focus on scientific questions and methods, Question 5 on visual representations, and Questions 2 and 6 on representing and describing data. Five of the 6 include a point for concept explanation, and Question 6 is where you use data to evaluate a hypothesis.

What you are given on exam day

AP Biology is a hybrid digital exam. You answer the multiple-choice questions and read the free-response prompts in the Bluebook app, then handwrite your answers in a paper exam booklet that is collected and scored. College Board publishes a sample free-response booklet so the format is not new on the day.

The calculator rule is narrower than it looks, and it is worth checking against the exam your friends are taking. Environmental Science is the only other course College Board restricts to a non-graphing calculator, and the two are named together in the 2027 notice; the AP Environmental Science FRQ guide covers that one. AP Chemistry sits on the same table with the opposite rule, both scientific and graphing calculators available, so a chemistry classmate’s answer does not transfer here. Our AP Chemistry FRQ guide has its format and point values.

Where students lose points

Every point is awarded for a specific move, and College Board defines the verbs it uses to ask for them. Most lost points are a verb the answer never performs: it describes where the question said justify, or identifies where it said explain.

How to practice

Pull College Board’s released AP Biology free-response questions and score yourself against the published scoring guidelines, since the rubric rewards specific moves you can learn. Start with the 2 long questions under a timer, because together they carry 18 of the 34 points. Once you have a raw count, the AP Bio score calculator turns it into a projected 1–5.

Both sources are free. The full format, the point values and the reference sheet are in the AP Biology Course and Exam Description, and past AP Biology free response questions with their scoring information are on the AP Central exam page.