As the directions imply, some five-choice completion questions are individual questions in which the five answer choices refer to only one question. But more than half of the five-choice completion questions are group questions, in which a set of questions all refer to the same biological scenario, figure, or experiment.

    A series of about 20 individual multiple-choice questions are found in the core section just after the classification questions. About five individual multiple-choice questions will begin each specialty section. In both the core and the specialty sections, there is a general tendency for the questions to become progressively more difficult. The answer to the example question is B; we cover this material in the chapter on evolution.

 

    There are actually two types of group questions. Group questions that refer to figures often test your knowledge in a very straightforward manner. For example, the test might contain a figure of a flower, with each part labeled with a number. The questions will ask you to match a function with the correct part of the flower. Group questions that deal with an experiment or scenario are usually more complicated. Some of the questions in the group may test your ability to read the data in the experiment; others may test your understanding of the experiment itself by asking you how the experiment might have been improved, or how the results of the experiment might have changed along with a particular variable.

 

    In both the core and specialty sections, group questions appear after the individual multiple-choice questions. The difficulty of the questions within a group follows no pattern, but each group will generally be more difficult than the last. We provide examples of both kinds of group question below.

 

    Figure-Based Group Questions

 

    Figure-based group questions present you with an image or graphic and ask you to identify the structures or functions being represented. The questions are all five-choice multiple-choice questions. Most of the questions dealing with figures demand only simple recognition and recall. The first two questions in the following sample fit this type: you either know the name for a structure or you don't. Some figure-based questions go further, though, and ask about the major processes associated with the images you're identifying.