How Your Knowledge of Biology Will Be Tested

The SAT II Biology tests your knowledge of biology in three different ways. Knowing how your knowledge may be tested should help you better prepare yourself for the exam.

Recall Questions.

These questions test your basic knowledge of the fundamental facts and terminology of biology. A typical recall question might ask you to pick out the function of ribosomes or to name the nitrogenous base that DNA and RNA do not have in common. These questions are straightforward—they’re simply a matter of knowing your stuff. Some recall questions might be organized in sets around a figure, as in the example of the questions about the structure of the heart we described earlier.

Interpretation and Application Questions.

These questions test your ability to digest data or biological scenarios and to extrapolate answers from that understanding. These questions often necessitate that you are able to use, in tandem, your knowledge of different topics in biology. An interpretation and application question might present a scenario in which the temperature drops and then ask you to predict how this change will affect the metabolism of a lizard and a dog. To answer this question you have to realize, first, that a question about the change in metabolism due to temperature is asking about warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals. To get the question right, you must first recall that a dog is warm-blooded and a lizard cold-blooded. Then you have to understand how a lowered temperature will affect each type of animal (as temperatures decrease, the metabolism of a cold-blooded animal will slow down, while the metabolism of the warm-blooded animal will remain constant).

Laboratory Questions.

Laboratory questions describe a situation in a laboratory and often provide you with data. To answer these questions, you must be able to read and understand the data, to form hypotheses and conclusions based on the data, and to be able to identify the goals and assumptions underlying the experiment.

Basic Math and the SAT II Biology

The writers of the SAT II Biology assume that you are able to deal with basic mathematical concepts, such as ratios and proportions. They also assume that you know the metric system. You will not be allowed to use a calculator on the test, which isn’t a big deal because you won’t have to do any calculations more difficult than multiplication.

Scoring on the SAT II Biology is the same as scoring for all other SAT II tests. For every right answer, you earn one point. For every wrong answer, you lose

¹ /₄ of a point. For each question you leave blank, you earn zero points. These points combined equal your raw score. ETS converts your raw score to a scaled score using a curve tailored to the particular test you take.

For example, on an 80 question test, you could score:

• 800 if you answered 79 right and left 1 blank
• 750 if you answered 73 right, 4 wrong, and left 3 blank
• 700 if you answered 67 right, 8 wrong, and left 5 blank
• 650 if you answered 60 right, 12 wrong, and left 8 blank
• 600 if you answered 54 right, 16 wrong, and left 10 blank

Introduction to the SAT II Biology

The key to doing well on the SAT II Biology test is simple: be really good at biology. But it might surprise you to know that the biology whiz who spends the week before taking the SAT II cramming on the nuances of mitochondrial DNA and the physiological role of the amygdala probably won’t fare any better on the test than the average student who reviews this book carefully. Why? Because the SAT II Biology doesn’t cover mitochondrial DNA or the amygdala.

Happy? Good. In this chapter we’ll tell you precisely what the SAT II Biology will cover, how the test breaks down, and what format the questions will take. Take this information to heart and base your study plan around it. There’s no use studying topics you won’t be tested on, or spending countless hours studying bacterial diversity while ignoring meiosis, which is covered far more extensively by the test.

The Strange Dual Nature of the SAT II Biology

The official name of the SAT II Biology is actually the SAT II Biology E/M. The test has this strange name because it’s actually two tests built into one. One test, the Biology E Test, emphasizes ecology and evolution. The other test, the Biology M Test, emphasizes molecular biology and evolution. On test day, you will take either the Biology E or the Biology M test. You can’t take both.

The Biology E and Biology M Tests aren’t completely dissimilar. In fact, out of a total of 80 questions, the two tests share a core of the same 60 questions. The test contains an additional 40 questions, split between the E and M specialty sections. So if you take the Biology E test, you will only have to answer the section of 20 ecology and evolution questions. If you take the Biology M, you need only answer the molecular biology and evolution section.

Content of the SAT II Biology

The SAT II Biology covers the biology topics taught in any standard American high school biology course, with particular emphasis on either ecology or molecular biology. ETS breaks the test down into five basic categories:

Topic	Number of Questions
Cellular and Molecular Biology	8–11
Ecology	8–11
Classical Genetics	7–9
Organismal Biology	22–26
Evolution and Diversity	7–10

As we said, depending on which specialty section you elect to take, you will also face 20 questions (25 percent of the total questions you will see) in either ecology/evolution or molecular biology/evolution.

While these categories are helpful, they are also very broad. For example, you may have cell structure down pat, but biochemistry throws you for a loop, and you would like to get a sense of how much of the test is devoted to these two topics. To help you out, we’ve broken the core of the test down even further, so that you’ll know exactly where to expect to feel the squeeze.