Life Science: Biology Regents tutoring, for the exam your child actually sits
This is the biology examination New York sets now. Most tutoring sites still sell preparation for Living Environment, and most revision advice still repeats a number from it. We hold all 5 conversion charts the State has published for this exam, and they say something uncomfortable: the paper has not been marked out of the same total twice in a row.
The number everyone quotes is from the old exam
There is no “you need X out of Y” any more
Living Environment was marked out of 85 raw points for 32 consecutive administrations, from June 2014 to June 2026, without a single exception. That is why “you need about 40” became a piece of common knowledge in New York, and why it was safe to say. On Life Science: Biology it is not safe to say anything of the kind:
| Sitting | Paper marked out of | Raw score for a 65 | Raw score for an 85 |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 2026 | 48 | 20 | 36 |
| June 2026 | 49 | 20 | 35 |
| January 2026 | 45 | 20 | 35 |
| August 2025 | 45 | 21 | 34 |
| June 2025 | 48 | 21 | 38 |
Three different raw totals in 5 sittings. A student who walks in aiming at a number of questions is aiming at something that moved last January. What does hold is the share of the paper: a 65 has taken between 40.8% and 46.7% of it. So the target we set in a first session is a proportion, and it gets converted into questions only once we know which sitting is ahead.
5 charts are not a curve and we do not treat them as one. Nothing above is projected forward to a sitting that has not happened; each line is read from the spreadsheet NYSED published after that administration. The end of Living Environment is from the State’s implementation schedule, not from a missing file.
A newer exam means fewer papers, so the work changes shape
Preparation for a twelve-year-old exam is largely archaeology: you drill thirty papers and the patterns hand themselves to you. With 5 administrations behind it, that is not available here, and any tutor who claims to know this exam’s habits is claiming more than the record supports.
What is available is the scoring key, and it is the more useful document anyway. New York publishes what a marker may award points for, and the gap between a student’s answer and that key is the single largest source of lost marks in biology — not the vocabulary. A student who can define diffusion and cannot explain, in three sentences a marker can award to, why a cell in that solution behaves as it does, loses marks on every paper you put in front of them.
The second half is reading an investigation: what was varied, what it was compared against, what the line actually shows. Textbook revision never touches it, because the textbook does not test it. We work from released material and its official key, and the first thing that changes in most students is answer length — they write too little and believe they wrote enough, and the key is the only honest referee for that argument.
Free, no sign-up
The Life Science: Biology tools we built, before you talk to anyone
Put a practice raw score in with the right sitting selected — on this exam the paper's total changes, so last June's chart is the wrong ruler for a January result. We hold 5 published Life Science: Biology charts, June 2025 to August 2026, read exactly as NYSED printed them — the August 2026 table included.
Straight answers about the biology Regents
What is the Life Science: Biology Regents?
It is New York State’s current high-school biology Regents examination. The State first administered it in June 2025 and has published 5 conversion charts for it so far, the most recent being August 2026. It took over from Living Environment, whose final administration was June 2026.
How many points do you need to pass the Life Science: Biology Regents?
There is no single answer, and that is the point. Across the 5 published charts the raw score that first reaches 65 has been 20 to 21, out of a paper marked out of 45, 48, 49 depending on the sitting. The only stable way to talk about a target is as a share of the paper — around 41.7% on the most recent chart. Read a raw score against the chart for the exact sitting.
Is this the same as the Living Environment Regents?
It is the same subject and a different examination. Living Environment was New York’s name for its first high-school biology course; Life Science: Biology replaced it under the State’s new science learning standards, and June 2026 was Living Environment’s last administration. A Living Environment result already on the transcript keeps its standing.
Can my child still sit Living Environment?
No. The State’s implementation schedule set June 2026 as its final administration, and no later chart exists. A student who needs a biology Regents now sits Life Science: Biology.
Are there released papers to practise on?
Fewer than for the old exam, and that shapes how we work. With 5 administrations behind it, there is not a decade of papers to drill. We use what NYSED has released for this exam, and for the skills that did not change — reading an investigation, writing a response long enough to earn the marks on the key — the older biology papers are still honest practice, provided nobody reads their raw scores against the new chart.
What does biology tutoring cost?
A $150 diagnostic, then $125 per one-on-one session, at 928 Broadway in the Flatiron or online. Pay per session — no packages, no contracts, no minimum.
Holding an old result instead? The Living Environment page reads it properly. The same changeover is under way in chemistry and physics, and what the new charts demand against the old is measured across all three. Everything else is on the Regents tutoring page.
Take the next step
Tell us the grade and the school
Those two facts settle which biology paper is ahead and which chart the practice scores should be read against. We will say so straight if the answer is that no tutoring is needed yet.