About SAT Biology

The SAT Subject test in Biology is a popular choice among those who want to study Biology or a related subject such as medicine, biomedical sciences or Biology at university. This does not mean that students who are intending to study a non-scientific discipline should be deterred; quite the contrary, such students ought to be encouraged to sit the SAT Subject test in Biology as it will generally buttress their applications. However, the majority of the test takers sitting the SAT Subject test in Biology examination will be heading for a related field at university and so it may come as no surprise that the competition for high grades is especially accentuated as reflected in the official percentiles.

The syllabus for the SAT Subject test in Biology can be found here. As the Collegeboard site explains the prospective student is expected to know and understand the basic principles and concepts of biology and that there are two possible flavours of the SAT Subject Test in Biology, namely Biology Ecological (E) or Biology Molecular (M). You do not need to specify from the outset which you will eventually do though you will know which you prefer by the time you sit the actual examination. In reality, you need to know quite a lot more and in considerably more detail if you wish to excel in the SAT Subject test in Biology. It is interesting to note that even with the available publications of SAT Subject test in Biology books there are discrepancies in the coverage of material and the emphasis placed on different areas.

In the SAT Subject test in Biology (E/M) examination there are 80 questions that must be answered in 60 minutes: you need to be very fast, extremely focused, and know your material very well, and dependent on which examination you have opted for, E or M, there will be more emphasis in the questions in the respective examination though the vast majority will be the same in both examinations. Of the science based Subject Tests, Biology is generally deemed one of the more difficult as reflected in the Official Collegeboard SAT Subject Test percentiles. Please note that you are not permitted the use of a calculator in the test to do calculations – this may slow down some test takers. Fortunately, you do not have to answer all the questions correctly to attain an 800 score – you can leave blanks and/or make a number of mistakes and still achieve the 800. Generally, you will require a raw score of around 73/80 to attain the 800.

At the Tree Foundation tutorial college we have tutors who have attained 800 scores in the SAT Subject test in Biology and who are currently professional and/or academic biologists. If you are interested in preparing for a top grade in Biology then please do not hesitate to contact us.