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.
| Topic |
Number of Questions |
| Cellular and Molecular Biology |
8–12 |
| The Cell and Cell Structure |
4–6 |
| Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry |
3–5 |
| Cell Processes |
1–3 |
| Mendelian and Molecular Genetics |
8–10 |
| Evolution and Diversity |
8–10 |
| Evolution |
2–4 |
| Diversity |
4–6 |
| Organismal Biology |
20–26 |
| Animal Structure, Function, and Behavior |
9–13 |
| Plant Structure and Function |
9–13 |
| Ecology |
7–9 |
This book is organized according to these categories,
allowing you to focus on each topic to whatever degree you feel
necessary. Also, each question in the practice tests at the back of
this book has been sorted into these categories, so that when you
study your practice tests, you can very precisely identify your
weaknesses and use this book to address them.
