A dramatic overhaul of the College Board advanced placement (AP) test in biology, scheduled for introduction in spring 2013, has thousands of high school science teachers scurrying to revise their curriculum for this fall.

The change represents a fundamental shift from measuring the acquisition of information to evaluating the ability to apply new information and think critically. Since the AP test represents what students are expected to have learned in college-level introductory biology courses, professors also are grappling with how they too must adapt.