CLEP Biology Exam Topics 2026: Three Equal Areas, 90 Minutes
Three areas, each about a third of the paper, roughly 115 questions in 90 minutes. The score that matters is not 50 - it is whatever your college says it will accept.
- ~115 (some unscored)Questions
- 90 minTime
- 3Sections
- YesWeights published
- 50 on 20-80 (ACE)Pass mark
- $97 + admin feeFee
Table of Contents
The whole paper in one bar
The CLEP Biology content outline on College Board's exam page (no effective date) is the exam guide College Board publishes for College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) Biology, restated so you can see the shape of the paper before you read a word of the detail. The bar below is the entire syllabus: 3 sections, in the order the certifying body lists them.
- §1 Molecular and Cellular Biology — 33%
- §2 Organismal Biology — 34%
- §3 Population Biology — 33%
Those percentages are College Board’s own, not an estimate. That matters more than it sounds: most pages ranking for this query quote weightings the certifying body never published.
The syllabus, section by section
Each block below is one section of the official outline. The bullets are the sub-objectives College Board publishes underneath it — the actual scope statement, not a summary of it.
Molecular and Cellular Biology
- Chemical composition of organisms: bonds, properties of water, carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, nucleic acids, origin of life
- Cells: organelle structure and function, membrane properties, prokaryotic versus eukaryotic cells
- Enzymes: enzyme-substrate complex, coenzymes, inorganic cofactors, inhibition and regulation
- Energy transformations: glycolysis, aerobic and anaerobic respiration, photosynthesis
- Cell division: chromosome structure; mitosis, meiosis and cytokinesis in plants and animals
- Chemical nature of the gene: Watson-Crick model, DNA replication, mutations
- Control of protein synthesis: transcription, translation, post-transcriptional processing; structural and regulatory genes
- Transformation and viruses
Organismal Biology
- Plant structure and function, angiosperm emphasis: root, stem, leaf, flower, seed and fruit
- Water and mineral absorption and transport; food translocation and storage
- Plant reproduction: alternation of generations in ferns, conifers and flowering plants; gametes and fertilization
- Plant growth: hormonal control, tropisms and photoperiodicity
- Animal systems, vertebrate emphasis: digestive, gas exchange, skeletal, nervous, circulatory, excretory, immune
- Homeostatic mechanisms and hormonal control of homeostasis and reproduction
- Animal development: cleavage, gastrulation, germ layers, extraembryonic membranes, placenta, embryonic circulation
- Heredity: Mendelian inheritance, chromosomal basis, linkage and sex linkage, polygenic traits, multiple alleles
Population Biology
- Ecosystems: energy flow, productivity and biogeochemical cycles
- Population growth and regulation: natality, mortality, competition, density, r- and K-selection
- Communities: biomes, succession, habitat, niche and island biogeography
- Evolutionary ecology: life history strategies, altruism and kin selection
- Evolution: history of the idea, natural selection, Hardy-Weinberg, speciation, punctuated equilibrium
- Adaptive radiation, homology and analogy, convergence, extinction, balanced polymorphism, genetic drift
- Classification of living organisms and the evolutionary history of humans
- Behavior: stereotyped and learned social behavior; insect, bird and primate societies
- Social biology: human population growth, resource management, pollution, reproductive control, genetic engineering
About 115 questions in 90 minutes is roughly 47 seconds each, and some of them are unscored pretest items you cannot identify. College Board's sample questions are all five-option multiple choice, including Roman-numeral 'I, II and III' combinations and pairs of questions built on one data table. You earn one point per correct answer and lose nothing for wrong or blank ones, so answer everything. The raw score converts to a scale of 20-80. ACE recommends credit at 50, equivalent to a C, for 6 semester hours - but your college sets its own score and credit. Your score appears on screen as soon as you finish.
What the weightings really mean
A percentage in an exam guide is a promise about how many questions get drawn from a section, not about how hard those questions are. On a paper of roughly 115 items, Organismal Biology at 34% is worth about 39 questions and Molecular and Cellular Biology at 33% is worth about 38. No single section decides the result on its own here - the largest is 34% of the paper - so the result is decided by how few sections you leave weak, not by how well you master one.
The trap is treating that arithmetic as permission to skip. Weightings are the floor of what a section costs you, because the low-weight sections on almost every blueprint are the ones that supply context for questions filed under a different heading. You lose those marks in the heavy section and never find out why.
Reading the verbs in the objectives
The verb at the front of each sub-objective is the part candidates skim and examiners take literally. It sets the depth you are tested at, and it is the difference between recognising a term and being asked to choose between two answers that both look right.
| Verb | What a question at that depth looks like |
|---|---|
| Recall / Identify | The first published skill: knowledge of facts, principles and processes. Name the stage of meiosis, the organelle, the pancreatic hormone, the group an organism belongs to. The outline's subtopic lists are the answer bank. |
| Interpret / Predict | The second skill: how information is collected and interpreted, how a hypothesis follows from it, what it predicts. Expect a table or experiment and questions such as which condition was the control, or what the data imply in a new setting. |
| Apply / Evaluate | The third skill: science as a human endeavor with social consequences. The outline anchors it in social biology - human population growth, resource management, pollution, control of reproduction and genetic engineering. |
College Board pitches CLEP Biology at a one-year college general biology course, so it rewards breadth over depth: a full year's syllabus at under a minute per item. Fluent recall of the subtopic list is what buys time for the data questions.
Study it in this order, not the syllabus order
Exam guides are written to describe what a candidate must know, not to teach it. The published order is almost never the order that builds knowledge fastest. This is the sequence that front-loads the material everything else depends on.
| Order | Why here |
|---|---|
| 1. Molecular and Cellular Biology | 33%. Chemistry of life, cells, enzymes, respiration and photosynthesis, mitosis and meiosis, DNA and protein synthesis. Everything later leans on it, so it goes first. |
| 2. Principles of heredity (from Organismal Biology) | Pull Mendelian inheritance, linkage, sex linkage, polygenic traits and multiple alleles forward to sit straight after meiosis and DNA. It is the same mechanism seen from the outside. |
| 3. Organismal Biology: plants and animals | The rest of the 34%. Angiosperm structure and transport, plant reproduction and hormones, vertebrate organ systems, homeostasis and embryonic development. The most memorization-heavy block. |
| 4. Population Biology | 33%. Ecology, evolution, behavior and social biology. Hardy-Weinberg and natural selection need the heredity from step 2, so this block goes last. |
The three areas are within a point of each other, so none can be skipped: dropping any one caps you at about two-thirds of the scored questions. The only reordering worth making is moving heredity forward to sit next to the molecular genetics it depends on.
What changed, and how to spot the next change
Nothing in the Biology exam is changing. The content outline on College Board's exam page carries no effective date, and archived copies of that page show the same three areas, the same 33/34/33 split, the same approximately 115 questions in 90 minutes and the same subtopics, bar small wording edits, since at least 2021. No revision has been announced. What moved is cost: the exam fee rose from $95 to $97 in mid-2025. On top of it you pay either your test center's own administration fee or a flat $30 for remote proctoring. Two score sends are free if you name the colleges when you register; later transcripts are $20 each. Scores from exams taken since 1 July 2022 stay on file for 10 years. Retaking the same title within three months voids the score and forfeits the fee.
Two habits keep you from studying a retired outline. First, open the official exam guide and look for its revision date before you buy anything — courses and question banks lag a syllabus change by months, and the cheapest ones never catch up. Second, re-check it the week you book. A revision announced after you started studying is still a revision you sit.
Turn the syllabus into questions
Reading an outline tells you the shape of the paper. Answering questions tells you which sections you would actually lose marks on. Start free, then $5.99 unlocks the full CLEP Biology bank.
App StoreGoogle PlayFree practice testCLEP Biology exam pageFAQ
What are the CLEP Biology exam topics and their weightings?
Three: Molecular and Cellular Biology 33%, Organismal Biology 34% and Population Biology 33%. College Board describes the split as approximately equal. Molecular covers chemistry, cells, enzymes, energy, cell division and the gene; Organismal covers plant and animal structure, reproduction, development and heredity; Population covers ecology, evolution, behavior and social biology.
What score do you need to pass CLEP Biology?
There is no pass or fail. Your raw score - one point per correct answer, nothing deducted for wrong or skipped ones - converts to a scaled score from 20 to 80. ACE recommends granting credit at 50, worth 6 semester hours and equivalent to a C grade, but each college sets its own score and number of credits. A 50 earns nothing at a college that does not accept the exam, so check its CLEP policy before you book.
Can I take CLEP Biology at home?
Yes, with remote proctoring through Proctortrack, for $30 on top of the $97 exam fee. You need a Windows 10 or 11 desktop or laptop - Macs, tablets, Chromebooks and phones are not allowed - a clear room and government-issued ID, and a human proctor watches the session. Timing, content and format match a test center sitting. One reschedule is free; further ones cost $10.
How much does CLEP Biology cost in total?
The exam fee is $97, paid to College Board. Add either your test center's administration fee, which each center sets itself, or $30 for remote proctoring. The official examination guide is an optional $10 PDF. Score sends to two colleges named at registration are free; each later transcript is $20. A retake costs the full fee again after a three-month wait. DANTES funds one attempt per exam title for eligible military test takers.
Sources
Every section title, sub-objective and number on this page comes from the certifying body:
- https://clep.collegeboard.org/clep-exams/biology
- https://clep.collegeboard.org/clep/pdf/what-your-score-means.pdf
- https://clep.collegeboard.org/clep-exam-policies
- https://clep.collegeboard.org/register-for-an-exam/registering-remote-proctoring
- https://clep.collegeboard.org/about-remote-proctoring/clep-remote-proctoring-requirements
- https://clep.collegeboard.org/scores/send-scores-transcripts
Checked October 7, 2026. Exam guides are revised without notice — confirm against College Board before you build a study plan around this page.