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New Jersey Biology Competency
Test Science Standard 5.3:
Life Science
Core Content Overview
The following section outlines Core Content you need to
understand to be successful on the New Jersey Biology
Competency Test (NJBCT). The test measures your abil-
ity to solve problems by applying biology concepts. Most of
the questions will be multiple choice. Each has a weight of
one point. There will be two Performance Assessment Tasks
(PATs) that require you to construct your own written or
graphical responses and to explain your responses. Your
response to each of these will receive a score from 1 to 4
points based on a 4-point rubric.
The areas to be tested are:
A.
Organization and Development: Living organisms are
composed of cellular units (structures) that carry out
functions required for life. Cellular units are composed of
molecules, which also carry out biological functions.
B.
Matter and Energy Transformations: Food is required
for energy and building cellular materials. Organisms
in an ecosystem have different ways of obtaining food,
and some organisms obtain their food directly from other
organisms.
C.
Interdependence: All animals and most plants depend
on both other organisms and their environment to meet
their basic needs.
D.
Heredity and Reproduction: Organisms reproduce, devel-
op, and have predictable life cycles. Organisms contain
genetic information that influences their traits, and they
pass this on to their offspring during reproduction.
E.
Evolution and Diversity: Sometimes, differences between
organisms of the same kind provide advantages for
surviving and reproducing in different environments.
These selective differences may lead to dramatic chang-
es in characteristics of organisms in a population over
extremely long periods of time.