AP Biology Exam 1 Review Sheet
This is to be used for REVIEW. It is not all encompassing.
Knowing only what is on this sheet does not guarantee success.
Exam 1 will cover:
Chapter 1: ALL
Chapter 2: ALL
Friday:
Chapter 1 – ALL
Chapter 2 – up to radioactivity slide
Monday: Chapter 2 - ALL
***Use the PowerPoint, your notes, and the textbook
figures/bold words/questions to study (I do not recommend
rereading the textbook). Make sure you cover up the
information and ask yourself questions.
The numbers are all mess, ignore them.
1. Describe the hierarchy of life starting from the atom level and ending at the ecosystem
level. You should know the definition and have an example of each level.
2. In class we discussed the concept of emergent properties. Describe this concept in
terms of the hierarchy of life.
3. You should understand each level of the hierarchy and how each level is different from
the others. Ex. Compare and contrast the community level to the population level. How
are these two similar and how are they different?
5. In class we discussed the structure-function relationship. I used the example of a
hammer. Describe this example. Now describe how this relationship relates to living
organisms.
4. What is science?
5. Describe why DrT doesn’t really consider biology to technically be a “science” class.
6. Explain why you cannot know for certain (prove) that if I drop a pen it will fall to the
Earth before I actually do it even if you have seen that pen drop before.
7. You are walking down the hall in school and as you do, you are moving out of the way
of people and people are moving out of the way of you. Do you know that you would hit
them if you didn’t move? Why are you moving?
8. In class we said that all organisms are ALWAYS doing science. Whether your
watching football on TV, playing the guitar, scratching your head, etc… it doesn’t matter,
you are doing science. Explain why.
9. All findings from science are obviously tentative and can be fallible. Why are all of our
finding and knowledge tentative? Give an example of fallible conclusions. Were these
scientists just not very smart? Explain.
10. Know the scientific method.
11. Compare inductive to deductive reasoning and give an example.
12. Explain the scientific method in detail. Be able to give an example, step-by-step,
starting with an observation and ending with a conclusion.
13. Know the case study in your book concerning mimicry in terms of independent
variable, dependent variable, control, experimental, etc…
14. Be able to design a VALID controlled experiment. Make sure you include the control
and experimental groups, independent variable, dependent variable, etc… Study the
experimental design packets.
15. Compare and contrast the independent variable and dependent variable. Explain
where they get their names.
16. What is the purpose of the control group in an experiment and give an example.
17. Be able to explain the limitations of an experiment and how you might improve it.
18. How can one make an experiment more valid?
19. How does a theory differ from a law? Give an example of each.
20. How do theories and laws differ from hypotheses? How are they related?
21. When and why might a scientist use a placebo? Explain what a double-blind
experiment is and why we do this (some questions will not be in the book or notes, which
requires you to find the answers elsewhere)?
22. What does the phrase “unity in diversity” refer to? Explain the evidence for unity in
diversity. Make sure to include such things as DNA, cell theory, comparative anatomy.
23. Describe the SEVEN characteristics that are common to all life and be sure to give
examples of each. Explain why non-living things can have some of the characteristics,
but living things must have all of them. Give an example of a non-living thing that has at
least four of these characteristics.
24. What is meant by metabolism? Give many examples.
25. Explain the function of a phlyogenetic tree.
26. Recall how to convert numbers between units (see online worksheet).
27. Give one example of natural selection. Explain how it works. What was Darwin’s
contribution to the theory of evolution?
28. What is meant when someone says that an object has “energy”? What can it do if it
has energy??
29. What is a force? There are only four fundamental forces in the universe. Identify
theses forces.
30. The four forces are what give objects energy. Explain. Think about a bowling ball on
a table. It has energy. Why? What force gives it energy?
31. Explain why science cannot support or refute the existence of a supernatural entity.
32. How many microns in a millimeter? Know your conversions.
33. Explain how the human population could split into two different species.
34. What do I mean when I say that you should always design your experiments to
minimize doubt or alternative explanations for your findings?
35. What do I mean when I say that humans have a more recent common ancestor with
frogs than with oak trees? Draw a phylogenetic tree that depicts this.
36. What is the term we use for classifying life?
37. Make sure you know the characteristics of each kingdom (table in the powerpoint)
and domain. For example, if I tell you that I discovered a unicellular, heterotrophic
organism you should be able to narrow it down to the appropriate kingdom(s). ***There
is a mistake in the table. It should read the prokaryotes do not have a nucleus or other
INTERAL MEMBRANOUS ORGANELLES. They have organelles like the ribosome
of course.
38. Compare and contrast prokaryotes and eukaryotes (table in the powerpoint). Which
domains/kingdoms are each found?
39. Identify the two major groups of bacteria. Why do we split monera into these two
domains? Which group are eukaryotes more similar to and why do we hypothesize this?
Draw a simple phylogenetic tree of the three domains showing eukarya to have a more
recent common ancestor with archae than with eubacteria.
40. Explain why scientists changed the five kingdom system to the 3 domain system via
the 6 kingdom system.
41. Based on what information do we construct phylogenetic trees?
42. What is a taxon (look this up – you know what it is)? Give examples.
43. List the taxa (plural for taxon) in order from most inclusive to least inclusive in terms
of number of species.
44. If two species are grouped into the same family then they must also be part of the
same…
45. Explain how the creation of phylogenetic trees and taxonomy are related.
46. Draw a phylogenetic tree showing the evolutionary relationship of species A, B, C , D
and E based on the following information. Species A and D are part of the same class,
species B, C and E are all in the same class as well, but a different class from species A
and D, and species C and E are grouped in the same family.
47. What is a dichotomous key used to do and how do they work? Look this up.
48. Explain why we said that energy flows (one-way). Describe, starting from the sun, the
flow of energy to Earth and away from Earth as it passes through life. Make sure you can
explain why the energy in you will likely not be used by my cells in the future, but you
atoms could be used by me.
49. Explain why we said that energy flows (one-way). Describe, starting from the sun, the
flow of energy to Earth and away from Earth.
50. Describe what is meant when we say that chemical nutrients cycle between the
abiotic and the biotic. Give specific examples of nutrients cycling. Describe how an atom
somewhere could end up somewhere else as we did in class (i.e. a carbon in me could
find itself being part of your great, great grandkids a hundred years from now).
51. Identify the two levels of the food chain (web) required by all ecosystems. Explain.
52. Compare the holistic to the reductionist approach to science.
115. Explain the endosymbiotic theory and give evidence.
116. Explain why wood burns and why in order for wood to burn, molecular oxygen
needs to be present. Why does this process generate so much “heat”. Your
explanations need to be specific ones on the molecular level. The reductionist
approach is the only way to understand everything.
117. Compare negative to positive feedback and know biological examples of each.
118. Describe the “madison square garden cell analogy”.
119. Describe the structure and function of DNA. Explain the “DNA is a book”
analogy.
120. Explain the importance of genetic variation in populations. Explain how
bacteria generate variation while continuing to reproduce asexually. Why must
humans use sexual reproduction to maintain variation?
121. Briefly describe how your blood glucose is lowered back to its homeostatic
level after eating something like chocolate.
122. What is meant by differential gene expression and why is this important in
terms of differentiation of stem cells into adult cells?
123. You should be able to explain how a carbon atom inside you as part of one of
your molecules can find itself being part of a different person next week.
124. Describe briefly the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics.
125. What is the definition of an organic molecule?
126. Explain how it is that all organic molecules contain energy.
127. Describe the role of enzymes in biological systems. What type of
macromolecule are enzymes?
128. What is meant by “survival of the fittest”?
129. What is LUCA?
130. Explain what homologous structures are and how they arise. Give an example.
131. Make sure you know how eukaryotes are organized down to the 9 major
animal phyla and have a general example for each.
132. Explain how electrons can move between shells in an atom (quantum leap).
Explain how light bulbs work in terms of jumping electrons.
133. How does the term hydrophobic relate to the term non-polar? Likewise, how
does hydrophilic relate to polar?
35. Compare homeostasis to equilibrium.
39. Describe the central dogma of molecular biology (DNA  RNA 
polypeptide/protein). Make sure to include the terms DNA, mRNA, tRNA, rRNA,
gene, ribosome, transcribe, translate, amino acids. Know the library analogy.
40. Compare producers to consumers. What nutritional classes do these two groups
of organisms belong to?
41. Describe how a plant obtains its vitamins like vitamin C.
42. Where does an autotrophs C,N,O,H,P and S come from? What about a
heterotroph?
43. Dry mass of a plant is mostly what element? What is the abiotic reservoir of this
element? In what molecule is it found in this abiotic reservoir.
44. Autotrophs need to do cell respiration just like heterotrophs. Why is this if they
can do photosynthesis/chemosynthesis?
45. ATP fuels what molecules?
46. Make sure you know the organ systems of humans in terms of anatomy
(structure) and physiology (function). Look at all bold red words in powerpoint.
47. Define hormone.
48. Compare excretion to egestion.
49. Define the five methods by which evolution works. Which one was figured out by
Darwin (Charles)?
50. What is a gene?
51. All bold words in assigned sections including those not discussed in class like
bioinformatics, systems biology, etc…
CHAPTER 2
53. What is matter?
54. Define what an atom is. What does “atom” mean in Greek and why is this
appropriate.
55. What is an element? (Two similar definitions)
56. How many elements are known? How many occur naturally? How many are found in
organisms (are essential to life)?
57. Be familiar with the table in section 2.1. Identify the major elements of life.
58. What is meant by a trace element? Give an example that demonstrates the importance
of these elements even though we only need them in small amounts.
59. Compare an element to a compound and give examples of each.
60. Explain how emergent properties apply when going from element to compound. Give
an example.
61. Atom drawing work sheet online under notes section. Be able to do every problem on
that sheet.
62. Molecule drawing worksheet online. Be able to do every problem on that sheet. You
do not need to worry about draw the electron dot structures, just the structural diagrams.
63. Identify the subatomic particles that make up all atoms. Know the charge of each
particle and the mass of each particle in atomic mass units, daltons and kilograms.
64. How does one determine the mass of a given atom? Why are the electrons not
counted when they clearly have a mass?
65. Explain how the protons, neutrons and electrons are arranged in an atom according to
the Bohr model.
66. Draw a neutral oxygen atom with a mass of 16 in the lowest energy state (also called
the ground state because all the electrons are closest to the “ground” if you think of the
nucleus as the Earth). Now modify your atom so that it is not in the ground state.
67. Explain why the electrons in the inner most orbital (shell) have less energy than the
electrons in the outer orbitals (shells). Make an analogy using a basketball and planet
Earth.
68. Explain why electrons move around the nucleus if Isaac Newtons first law of motion
clearly states that an object will continue moving in a straight path unless acted upon by a
force. Describe the force. Explain how this concept is similar to the moon going around
the Earth or the Earth around the sun. Describe this force.
69. If gravity is the attraction of all matter to all matter then why don’t we say that
gravity is pulling the electrons to the nucleus like the Earth to the sun? Basically, why do
you think we completely ignore gravity on the atomic level? (Hint: why do we ignore
electrons when calculating mass?)
70. The nucleus of elements larger than hydrogen obviously has more than one proton in
close proximity. How can this be if the electromagnetic force is pushing these like
charges apart?
71. What determines the elemental identity of an atom? How does this relate to the
atomic number?
72. Make sure you have memorized the atomic numbers of the first ten elements.
73. If I had a mole of pencils, how many pencils would I have?
74. A. What is the significance of a mole? Be able to explain why 1 mole of anything is
6.023E23.
75. If I have 18g of water, I have 1 mole of water molecules. Likewise, if I have 36 g of
water I have 2 moles of water molecules or 2 x 6.023E23 molecules. Explain why this is.
76. What is the other name for the number that represents a mole?
77. Why if I were to stand in front of an x-ray laser, 99% of the x-rays would pass right
through me as if I were not even there (x-rays are a form of light like visible light, UV
and IR). How does this relate to the formation of super dense objects like black holes.
78. Describe the analogy we used in class to convey how much empty space is present in
matter.
79. Make sure you understand how to write and read the atom format:
80. How big is an average size nucleus (in parts of a millimeter)? How many could fit
across a millimeter. How large is an average sized atom (in parts of a millimeter)? How
many could fit across a millimeter. How many water molecules are in a mere 18ml of
water? What do these numbers tell you about atoms?
81. How large would an atom be inside a cell if the cell were scaled up to the size of
Madison Square Garden?
82. What happens in terms of mass, charge and elemental identity if the number of
neutrons in an atom change?
83. What is nuclear radioactivity and when does it occur? Give an example of an atom
undergoing radioactive decay.
84. How can radioactive decay be useful and harmful? Give examples of each. Look at
and understand Figure 2.5.
85. Explain how you can use radioactive carbon (C-14) to determine the fate of CO2 after
entering the leaf of a plant.
86. How does one determine the charge of an atom? What happens to an atom if one
changes the number of electrons in terms of charge, elemental identity and mass? What if
one changed the number of protons?
87. What determines how an atom reacts with other atoms (chemical reactivity)? When
are atoms most stable (happy)?
88. Explain why when sodium metal is added to chlorine gas a somewhat violent
explosion occurs. Be sure to include the word AFFINITY in your explanation. It is all
about affinity. What type of bond forms? Why does this type of bond form? What force is
involved?
89. Where does an ionic bond get its name? What is an ion? Describe the difference
between a cation and an anion. Which is sodium and which is chlorine after they react to
form sodium chloride?
90. What is salt? Describe the structure of a salt crystal.
91. Compare a covalent bond to an ionic bond. Give an example of a covalent bond.
Show, using valence shell diagrams, how two oxygen atoms come together to form a
double bond.
92. Arrange the terms single, double and triple covalent bonds from strongest to weakest.
Which would require the most energy (would need to be hit the hardest) to break?
93. Define molecule.
94. If I give you a substance, you should be able to characterize it in terms of whether it
is a molecule, element, compound. There are examples in the PowerPoint for you to try.
95. When does molecular motion stop (matter has zero kinetic energy)? How fast are
atoms/molecules moving on average at room temperature? What happens as temperature
increases?
96. Write out a chemical reaction. It can be any reaction you want. Indicate the reactants
and the products. What is a chemical reaction?
97. Compare a reversible to an irreversible reaction.
114. What is heat on the molecular level? Explain how you heat something up (on
the MOLECULAR LEVEL). Don’t just say I turn on the stove. What is the difference
between heat and temperature?
GOOD LUCK, STUDY HARD!! REVIEW WILL BE HELD BEGINNING AT 7AM
TOMORROW MORNING IN ROOM 610.