Biology Forums - Study Force

I'm taking AP Biology and quite frankly, I feel like I'm going nowhere in that class. The teacher has NO idea what they are doing and the passing rate in my school is really low.

By passing the class, I'm resorting to test banks, which will not help me on the actual test at ALL. Does anyone have any good tips on how to study for the exam before it's too late? I'm reading the text book outlines and it's making my brain melt. I don't understand ANY of it. Mind you, these are the OUTLINES and not even the actual book. The teacher hasn't given us the book and most of the information they test us on is not on the outlines.

I'm going to buy the 5 steps to a 5
but more so, I'm concerned with the acquisition of the material I need for the exam
and I also need to know how to write my written responses.
In fact, if anyone has taken it, can they tell me the structure of the test and how much time we have as well?

Sorry if this is very rant-y and I apologize for bashing on my teacher, but I'm frustrated and I'm tired of having AP classes with teachers that are ultimately setting us up for failure.

(P.S I suck at forums. I hope I'm posting it in the right place)

The approach you take for every new concept learned should be different. There isn't a magical fix that will help you pass. For instance, if you are learning about photosynthesis and cellular respiration, animations are wonderful. Search this category for some awesome animations, https://biology-forums.com/index.php?board=16.0. If you're learning about anatomy, then I would draw out what it is I'm reading. For example, if they are referring to the heart, draw out the heart and use arrows to show the flow of blood from chamber to chamber.