[Music] hey I'm Melanie King from the absolute recap and today's video will recap common frq mistakes if you find this video helpful make sure to like subscribe and share with a friend let's zoom out I've graded thousands of AP Bio exams throughout the years and even some of the highest scoring students fall into these traps again and again so here's a list of what not to do when completing free response questions number one don't ignore the error bars listen the error bars are there for a reason essentially they represent how spread out all of the data points are from the average so when you're asked to compare variable groups look at their error bars if they're overlapping then your answer must say that there is no statistical difference between groups number two don't mislabel the axis scale you need to pay careful attention to the data tables given because the College Board loves to have intermittent scaling don't fall on the Trap and space out your data points evenly on the X or y-axis because it looks nice and symmetrical not only will you miss out on a graphing point but this can also cause you to to misinterpret rate calculations three don't talk in generalities the AP readers can't give you points when you aren't specific statements like this one is more than that one or the data is different in the second trial and just isn't going to cut it the readers are left thinking which one different how pull terms from The Prompt and from your biology knowledge to be as specific as possible four don't confuse controls and constants students often assume that the experimental design questions are a slam dunk but we see these swapped all the time control groups can be positive or negative and serve as a reference point for data comparison constants are things that are held consistent among all groups so that the only thing changing in the experiment is the independent variable I'm sorry they both start with a c and lastly five don't have science vomit don't focus on the one term you know in the prompt and write a three-page novel with everything you've ever learned even including the bonus fact you saw the one time on a Netflix documentary while impressive recall this one aren't you any points stick to the prompt answer the task verb and be brief the AP readers thank you in advance to recap to avoid these frq mistakes on the AP exam you should always check the error bars scale your graph correctly use specific terminology distinguish between controls and constants and stick to the prompt if you're looking for additional study resources I've linked our podcast study guides and the AP biology ultimate review packet with full length practice tests in the description below see you next recap