Anatomy and Physiology Practice Test
This is a free 15-question sampler at the level of a first-year college anatomy and physiology course. It moves across the skeletal, muscular, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive and urinary systems, mixing multiple choice, select all that apply and fill in the blank. Answer all 15 questions, then check your score and read the explanation for every one.
Which of the following is classified as a long bone?
All 15 questions at a glance
Prefer to read before you play? Every question in the sampler is listed below. Answers and explanations stay collapsed until you open them.
1. Which of the following is classified as a long bone?
- A. The femur
- B. The patella
- C. The sternum
- D. The carpal bones of the wrist
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. The femur
Long bones are longer than they are wide and are built as a shaft, the diaphysis, capped by two ends called epiphyses. The patella is a sesamoid bone formed inside a tendon, the sternum is flat, and the carpals are short bones roughly as wide as they are long.
2. The elbow is an example of which type of joint?
- A. Ball and socket
- B. Hinge
- C. Pivot
- D. Saddle
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Hinge
A hinge joint allows movement in one plane only, so the elbow bends and straightens but does not rotate at that joint. Ball and socket joints like the shoulder and hip move in many planes, while the pivot joint between the first two vertebrae lets the head turn side to side.
3. According to the sliding filament model, why does a muscle fiber shorten during contraction?
- A. The actin filaments shorten
- B. The myosin filaments shorten
- C. Actin filaments slide along myosin filaments, pulling the ends of each sarcomere closer together
- D. New, shorter sarcomeres replace the old ones
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Actin filaments slide along myosin filaments, pulling the ends of each sarcomere closer together
Calcium uncovers the binding sites on actin, myosin heads attach and pivot, and the thin filaments are pulled toward the center of the sarcomere. Neither filament changes length; the sarcomere shortens because its Z discs are dragged closer, and thousands of sarcomeres in series make the whole fiber shorten.
4. Depolarization during a neuron's action potential is caused mainly by:
- A. Sodium ions rushing into the cell
- B. Potassium ions rushing into the cell
- C. Sodium ions being pumped out of the cell
- D. Calcium ions leaving the cell
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Sodium ions rushing into the cell
When the membrane reaches threshold, voltage-gated sodium channels open and sodium floods in down its gradient, flipping the inside of the cell from negative to positive. Repolarization then comes from potassium leaving the cell, and the sodium-potassium pump restores the original gradients afterward.
5. Which of the following happen when the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system is activated?
Select all that apply.
- A. Heart rate increases
- B. The pupils dilate
- C. Digestive activity speeds up
- D. The airways in the lungs widen
- E. Salivation increases
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Heart rate increases, B. The pupils dilate, D. The airways in the lungs widen
The sympathetic division prepares the body for exertion: it drives the heart faster, opens the pupils to let in more light and widens the bronchioles so more air moves per breath. Digestion and salivation are parasympathetic rest and digest activities, and both are turned down during a sympathetic response, which is why stress causes a dry mouth.
6. Which cranial nerve carries most of the parasympathetic output to the heart, lungs and digestive tract?
- A. The trigeminal nerve (CN V)
- B. The facial nerve (CN VII)
- C. The vagus nerve (CN X)
- D. The hypoglossal nerve (CN XII)
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. The vagus nerve (CN X)
The vagus nerve wanders from the brainstem down into the thorax and abdomen, slowing the heart and stimulating digestion. The trigeminal nerve handles facial sensation and chewing, and the hypoglossal nerve moves the tongue, so neither reaches the organs in question.
7. Complete the sentence.
Antidiuretic hormone is produced in the hypothalamus and released into the blood by the _____, and it makes the kidney reabsorb more water.
Options for blank 1: anterior pituitary, posterior pituitary, adrenal medulla, thyroid gland
Show answer and explanation
Answer: posterior pituitary
The posterior pituitary does not manufacture hormones. It stores and releases antidiuretic hormone and oxytocin, which are made by hypothalamic neurons whose axons run down into it, while the anterior pituitary makes its own hormones such as TSH, ACTH and growth hormone.
8. Which hormone raises the level of calcium in the blood?
- A. Calcitonin
- B. Parathyroid hormone
- C. Thyroxine (T4)
- D. Growth hormone
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Parathyroid hormone
Parathyroid hormone pulls calcium out of bone, makes the kidney reabsorb more calcium, and activates vitamin D so the gut absorbs more from food. Calcitonin, released by the thyroid, does the opposite and moves calcium back into bone.
9. Which hormone from the adrenal cortex makes the kidney reabsorb sodium, so that water follows and blood pressure rises?
- A. Cortisol
- B. Aldosterone
- C. Epinephrine
- D. Antidiuretic hormone
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Aldosterone
Aldosterone is the end of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone chain that fires when blood pressure or sodium falls. It acts on the distal tubule and collecting duct to hold on to sodium and dump potassium, and water follows the sodium back into the blood.
10. Which structure normally sets the rate of the heartbeat?
- A. The atrioventricular (AV) node
- B. The sinoatrial (SA) node
- C. The bundle of His
- D. The Purkinje fibers
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. The sinoatrial (SA) node
The sinoatrial node in the wall of the right atrium depolarizes on its own faster than any other part of the conduction system, so it acts as the pacemaker. The signal then passes to the AV node, which delays it long enough for the atria to empty, before the bundle of His and Purkinje fibers spread it through the ventricles.
11. Which of the following statements about blood are correct?
Select all that apply.
- A. Plasma is mostly water
- B. Red blood cells carry oxygen bound to hemoglobin
- C. Platelets are cell fragments rather than whole cells
- D. Mature red blood cells contain a nucleus
- E. White blood cells are the main oxygen carriers
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Plasma is mostly water, B. Red blood cells carry oxygen bound to hemoglobin, C. Platelets are cell fragments rather than whole cells
Plasma is roughly 90 percent water carrying proteins, ions and nutrients, and hemoglobin inside red blood cells does the oxygen carrying. Platelets are fragments broken off large megakaryocytes in the bone marrow, mature red blood cells eject their nucleus to make room for hemoglobin, and white blood cells handle defense rather than transport.
12. Complete the sentence.
Breathing is controlled by centers in the brainstem, and the strongest everyday signal to breathe faster and deeper is a rise in blood _____.
Options for blank 1: oxygen, carbon dioxide, glucose, calcium
Show answer and explanation
Answer: carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide reacts with water to form carbonic acid, so a rise in carbon dioxide shows up as a rise in hydrogen ions that central chemoreceptors in the medulla detect. Low oxygen is only a backup drive, sensed by peripheral chemoreceptors in the carotid and aortic bodies once oxygen falls a long way.
13. In a healthy kidney, which of the following pass out of the blood and into the filtrate at the glomerulus?
Select all that apply.
- A. Water
- B. Glucose
- C. Sodium ions
- D. Red blood cells
- E. Large plasma proteins such as albumin
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Water, B. Glucose, C. Sodium ions
The filtration membrane sorts by size and charge: water, ions and small molecules like glucose pass through easily, while blood cells and large plasma proteins are held back in the capillary. Glucose is then completely reabsorbed further along the tubule, which is why it does not show up in normal urine.
14. Complete the sentence.
Protein digestion begins in the stomach, where the enzyme _____ works in a strongly acidic environment.
Options for blank 1: salivary amylase, pepsin, pancreatic lipase, bile salts
Show answer and explanation
Answer: pepsin
Chief cells release the inactive form pepsinogen, and stomach acid converts it into pepsin, which only works at a low pH. Pancreatic enzymes finish the job in the small intestine, which is also where nearly all nutrient absorption happens across the villi and microvilli.
15. In a negative feedback loop, the body's response to a change in a variable:
- A. Pushes the variable further in the same direction
- B. Reverses the change and moves the variable back toward its set point
- C. Has no measurable effect on the variable
- D. Permanently resets the variable to a new value
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Reverses the change and moves the variable back toward its set point
Negative feedback opposes the change that triggered it, which is how body temperature, blood glucose and blood pressure stay in a narrow range: a rising core temperature triggers sweating and skin vessel dilation until the temperature falls again. Positive feedback is the rarer opposite, amplifying a change until an endpoint is reached, as in blood clotting and labor contractions.
What an A and P course actually tests
Anatomy and physiology is two subjects taught as one. Anatomy is the map: names, locations, landmarks, which structure sits next to which. Physiology is the machine: how those structures work, what triggers them, and what happens downstream when one part fails. Most courses test both in the same question, which is why pure name memorization stalls out around the first exam.
The exam questions that separate students are almost always mechanism questions. Not what does aldosterone do, but why does blood pressure rise when it is released. Not where is the sinoatrial node, but what happens to the heartbeat if it stops firing. If you can trace the chain from trigger to effect, you can usually reason your way to the answer even when the wording is unfamiliar.
Systems thinking beats memorizing lists because the systems keep referring to each other. The kidney is where an endocrine hormone does its work. Breathing rate is set by a nervous system center reacting to a blood chemistry change. Calcium levels connect bone, gut and kidney through one hormone. Studying these as one connected story means each fact is held in place by several others instead of floating alone.
How to use this sampler
The 15 questions below spread across the systems a first-year course covers, roughly one to three per system, and they mix the question formats A and P exams use: classic multiple choice, select all that apply and fill in the blank. Take the whole thing in one sitting without notes, at about 90 seconds per question, so the result tells you something honest.
Then read every explanation, including the ones for questions you got right. Each explanation names the mechanism, not just the answer, so it doubles as a short review. A guess that happened to land is worth reading about too, because you will not be able to repeat it on an exam.
Treat each miss as a signal about a system, not a single fact. Missing the aldosterone question and the filtration question points at the kidney and fluid balance as a unit to review. Missing the action potential question and the autonomic question points at the nervous system chapter. Study by the system that failed, then come back and retake this test.
How StudyPDF builds full practice tests from your own notes
Fifteen questions can show you which system is weakest. They cannot cover the specific muscles, hormones and pathways your instructor decided to emphasize, and generic question banks tend to drift away from the course you are actually being graded on.
StudyPDF works the other way around. You upload your own lecture slides, textbook chapters or class notes, and Bo, the study agent, builds practice tests, flashcards and study guides from that exact material. Every question is grounded in your pages and every explanation cites where the answer comes from, so you can jump straight to the source when something is unclear.
You can regenerate fresh tests as often as you want, narrow them to a single system like endocrine or renal before a unit exam, and track which concepts you keep missing across attempts. Starting is free.
Written by the StudyPDF team. Last updated 2026-08-19.