* Biology Higher level 2011 * (one thread please)

Ash_M

hatethisfeeling wrote: »

... how many amino acids are common to every protein?

There are 20 common amino acids, arranged in all different ways. Pretty sure the answer was 20.

J_E

Ash_M wrote: »

There are 20 common amino acids, arranged in all different ways. Pretty sure the answer was 20.

How did you figure it out? Or did you know?

brownlad

Ash_M wrote: »

There are 20 common amino acids, arranged in all different ways. Pretty sure the answer was 20.

she is right...there are 20 .... got that right:D

Lexii307

Best paper ever
I was bricking it this morning but i feel i did really well. At least i knew all the experiments and a good portion of the long and short questions. Ill be surprised if i don't get at least a B2

soccymonster

Cydoniac wrote: »

This totally got me too, because I thought proteins were composed of literally thousands of types of amino acids. I said 3 as a guess, honestly NO idea there.

i said 200. Isnt a peptide less than 20, a polypeptide more than 20 and a protein >200 amino acids? Or is that what it meant? grand paper although that scientific method experiment was blah!!

pray i can get the B1!

edit : ah crap someone said twenty amino acids theres goes three marks.

njd2010

I fell in love with that paper. It knew me so well... but the ducks bit was weird.

sketchz700

i thought short answers were fine.. section B was easy those exp's were really nice then section C was a bit weird.. but i hope i did well maybe a c1-b2 as long as the marking scheme isnt to tough...

Ash_M

Cydoniac wrote: »

How did you figure it out? Or did you know?

Just something I knew. It's not that there 20 amino acids that are in every protein, it's that there are twenty commonly occurring amino acids.
At least that's what I understand it to be anyway..

J_E

Did anyone find that 3 hours was too much for the paper? Everyone had left the hall by 11 to half 11.

Digits

Platinum2010 wrote: »

So unfair how they fudged up the paper this year , everything I studied didn't come up I was furious sitting there like a dunce I attempted all the experiments and short questions and section c too but don't think I got anywhere . Took the higher level in the end and would like to take this time to thank the sec for changing the paper this year and ****ing up my chances of going on to third level

How is it the SEC's fault that stuff you studied didnt come up?

J_E

Digits wrote: »

How is it the SEC's fault that stuff you studied didnt come up?

To be fair, the Biology course is so broad that nobody is going to be able to prepare for the entire course the week before. You focus on your strong questions and hope they come up, and be ready for the unexpected to a degree too. That's what most people do.

Rabbitandcavy

That was horrible, hope I passed.
No human or plant reproduction and the weirdest ecology question ever

Platinum2010

Rabbitandcavy wrote: »

That was horrible, hope I passed.

THANK YOU !!! at least someone agrees with me

It's SECS fault because the layout this year was nothing like I'm used to , The 3 questions that always pop up didn't show and those were the ones I focused on mostly throughout the week

Digits

Cydoniac wrote: »

To be fair, the Biology course is so broad that nobody is going to be able to prepare for the entire course the week before. You focus on your strong questions and hope they come up, and be ready for the unexpected to a degree too. That's what most people do.

Yeah but that poster was saying how the SEC have ruined his/her chances at gaining access to third level. I mean yeah it could be pure unlucky that nothing she studied came up but IMO anyone that would be serious about getting a good grade/getting into 3rd level would have been prepared a lot longer than 1 week before the exam.

BrendaN_f

Cydoniac wrote: »

Did anyone find that 3 hours was too much for the paper? Everyone had left the hall by 11 to half 11.

yep, way too long. by half 11 i had finished every part of every question. stayed for the whole thing though, just looking over it

Cydoniac wrote: »

To be fair, the Biology course is so broad that nobody is going to be able to prepare for the entire course the week before. You focus on your strong questions and hope they come up, and be ready for the unexpected to a degree too. That's what most people do.

there's so much choice in the biology paper, it's really a persons own fault if they're not prepared for it

DessieMG

Platinum2010 wrote: »

Where the F*** was my human reproduction

nothing like being allowed to draw a knob in an exam!

Exothermic

I think I've got my A1 anyway. Answered every question on the paper except 15(a) on the ear/eye.

It wasn't quite what a lot of people were expecting I'd say :P How did people find it? I thought the experiments were a bit odd, short and long questions were lovely.
When will they have it up on examinations.ie, I want to have another look.

galwayman17..

Exothermic wrote: »

I think I've got my A1 anyway. Answered every question on the paper except 15(a) on the ear/eye.

It wasn't quite what a lot of people were expecting I'd say :P How did people find it? I thought the experiments were a bit odd, short and long questions were lovely.
When will they have it up on examinations.ie, I want to have another look.

yeah i thought Q8 was strange? bits of everything! the rizhopus was my worst but still managed to answer most of it so i hope i got a B1

J_E

Platinum2010 wrote: »

THANK YOU !!! at least someone agrees with me

It's SECS fault because the layout this year was nothing like I'm used to , The 3 questions that always pop up didn't show and those were the ones I focused on mostly throughout the week

Well, okay, if they were the ONLY ones you focused on, you should have known better and at least have had a general knowledge of everything. But whatever, the exam is through with, no point worrying yourself stupid, you might surprise yourself.

Exothermic

galwayman17.. wrote: »

yeah i thought Q8 was strange? bits of everything! the rizhopus was my worst but still managed to answer most of it so i hope i got a B1

I was surprised Rhizopus was on, was expecting some kind of organism reproduction, maybe budding yeast or viral reproduction.
I felt quite well prepared but I have to admit the paper isn't what I expected at all.

cglanton123

flyaway. wrote: »

I was dead set on doing the OL paper until about five minutes before the exam. My friends talked me into doing HL and I'm SO glad they did. The paper was fine. Certainly not the disaster I had been anticipating. I was actually pleased with the experiments. But yeah, would have been kicking myself if I'd dropped down to OL.

I was in the same way. :eek: I said i'd give it a go.... Levels wouldnt change what i did, i did not know... but Uber-Happy stayed in Honours... Ecology:D:D:D Nice paper overall....

soccymonster

For the scientific method question, what did people say in how they sterilised the compost? :P God, i have so much hatred for that question.

LifesaverNiall

i put loads of pressure on myself and was expecting to come out of that exam with an A.. im realy hoping for a B1 now.. im realy annoyed.. im just glad business went well so hopefully my points still even out.. *sigh

J_E

soccymonster wrote: »

For the scientific method question, what did people say in how they sterilised the compost? :P God, i have so much hatred for that question.

Autoclave/heated it. Was the only way I could think of really.

Eggy Baby!

The two scientists for the Cohesion-Tension model were Henry Dixon and John Joly...Irish the book seemed quite proud to state that lol...

I probably got an A2 or A1 in it, but I have to admit that the questions were pretty challenging, particularly some the way that they were worded. My jaw dropped when I discovered that, in the middle of a very easy excretion question, I had to draw a ****ing kidney? WTH??? Our teacher said they'd never asked that and I spent ages studying off the diagram of the Nephron...made a good attempt at it though I suppose :rolleyes:

Plus you had to draw a bloody pelvis under it...wtf...

Exothermic

Yeah, Ecology question was beautiful. It's always my best question on the paper, I got full marks in it for the mocks.

Ash_M

soccymonster wrote: »

For the scientific method question, what did people say in how they sterilised the compost? :P God, i have so much hatred for that question.

I did that one as extra so I just threw down Milton's Solution :P Don't think that was exactly what they were looking for somehow..

Exothermic

Cydoniac wrote: »

Autoclave/heated it. Was the only way I could think of really.

I said that too Thought using some some kind of disinfectant on soil sounded odd and could alter the pH.

xaoifsx

njd2010 wrote: »

I fell in love with that paper. It knew me so well... but the ducks bit was weird.

what i said for the ducks was that the females have more fat than males so they are warmer up north and the males cant handle the cold so they are more south...i thought that lot of questions was weird..

i didnt like the whole paper at all....my A is out the window..i totally screwed up that paper

J_E

Exothermic wrote: »

I said that too Thought using some some kind of disinfectant on soil sounded odd and could alter the pH.

Yeah, I was thinking either that or some sort of bacteria but then I thought either of those would defeat the point of it all.