Apologia Advanced Bio Question

[debinindy]

Ok, the question as to whether the instructional dvds for Apologia's Advanced Biology are helpful or not is quickly sliding down the page.....

 

How about this:

 

Have any of your students who have completed this course gone on to take the AP Bio. exam? Or the CLEP (still trying to decide between the two)?  Did this prepare them for it (as stated on the Apologia website)?  Did they score well?  What else did you do to prepare them for the exam?

 

Thanks so much!

Edited November 16, 2016 by debinindy

[debinindy]

Yes, dd did the first bio and the Adv and it did NOT line up well with the AP test. Yes, the Apologia folks says it's equivalent. it's not. Don't know about the CLEP. 

 

Thank you for your input.  That is very helpful!  :sad:  Disappointing as it may be.

 

Did you (she) use any other resources to prepare?

[teamturner]

You may find an answer to this question in history. I know I read it on here, but can't look for it right now. My opinion is it doesn't prepare them for the AP test, based on comments here and talking to my ds, who is taking Advanced Bio at co-op this year. His class is working through the Barron's AP Bio study guide along with the Apologia book, and he doesn't feel like he can answer the review questions in that book. He did Apologia Bio in 9th grade (2 years ago) and it doesn't cover many topics well enough. For one it doesn't give a decent study of evolution, which is heavy on the test.

 

Just my 2 cents. 

 

But I am considering having him take the SAT II subject test for Biology. I'm not sure. 

[AFwife Claire]

There is no way Apologia prepares for the AP bio test.  Even BJU biology, which is much more rigorous that Apologia, really doesn't.  

 

For just a small example, the AP exam has several grid-in questions that have mathematical answers.  There aren't that many kinds of problems in biology that will be like that, so you can pretty much figure out what the options most likely will be--things like Hardy-Weinburg equilibrium problems, chi-square analysis of data (probably in a genetics problems so they can kill 2 birds with one stone), calculating base pair size from an electrophoresis gel using a semi-log scale, bacterial transformation efficiency, water potential and solute potential . . . . things like that.  

 

Some (not all) of these concepts are at least mentioned in BJU, but students are not required to know how to solve problems or in any way be familiar with the formulas or whatnot. I don't think most of these concepts are even mentioned in Apologia.  

 

And of course the evolution emphasis is huge and must be studied.  Full disclosure:  I am a young earth creationist, but I have taught AP biology for several years now, and my students have gotten all 4's and 5's, so clearly I am able to convey the concepts.  It's a whole new level of familiarity with cladograms, phylogenetic trees, half-lives and carbon dating (another grid-in possibility!), and just lots of new vocab in this area compared to what they would learn in Apologia, BJU, etc.

 

As always in these threads, I'll give my recommendation for study guides.  I really like the "Pearson Education Test Prep Series for AP Biology" by the Holtzclaws.  It was written to accompany the big Campbell and Reece, which is pretty much the definitive AP bio text, and it is the only test prep book that has a handle on the redesigned test and has questions that line up with it.