Narrow Down Biology HL

Alv_M

Anyone with advice on which topics i should focus on for HL biology now? ie.what do you think will defiantley come up?

NotExactly

Alv_M wrote: »

what do you think will defiantley come up?

Ecology and respiration.

LC2010HIS

Human reproduction

Kidney

Framble

Genetic Crosses... most likely. And they're easy!

Alv_M

Thanks..At the moment now im studying photosynthesis and Respiration because i was told they come up EVERY year.

J_E

Definitely reproduction, photosynthesis, human systems, bacteria/fungi are worth knowing well. Don't forget your experiments either!

MikeHough

Microscope slide
pH effect on enzymes experiment (or temp effect).
Anyone agree???

J_E

Personally I'm learning all of the enzyme experiments. They're not hard to learn and banking on just one might be a bit risky. They're all very similar anyway.

biggaman

Do you guys think it's a better idea to learn predictions, or rather stick to the unit 1/unit 2 + reproduction (animal + plant) which is guaranteed 90%?

Victoria.

Start with the larger more popular topics first and then work back.

Experiments are big because they account for an entire section of the exam and if you learn your experiments you get a really good return from your work because they're usually thrown into parts of long and short questions too. Last year one of the three questions was based on multiple experiments so that threw a few people. It was fine because the questions were basic enough it’s just if your best experiment was thrown in with others you barely studied you had a problem.

There should be 2 long questions from unit 1, 2 from 2 and 2 from 3 so don't just learn all of of unit 3 because its the largest section, it’s not the most important. All are equally represented in the exam.

Enzyme experiments are always popular.
Food tests, heart dissection, plant, DNA extraction.

There has always been a long question on genetics so far and comes into short Qs

Ecology is easy so far has always been a long question and a good one

Photosynthesis and respiration, one or both together make up a long Q.

Usually plant or human reproduction is on it.

Do human systems like circulatory, excretion, breathing, lymph, nutrition

Just make sure you do a good mix of stuff from the course, as in don't start at the front of the book and work back chapter by chapter because there will be an equal amount of qs from each! If you only get through 1 + 2 you will be able to answer the amt of questions required but you have no choice, not something you want because if one of the long qs is on photosynthesis or something you want to leave out and you cant answer it you wont be happy.

Try to write out the details of photosynthesis like a map with the different substances going around and you'll be able to visualise it! The same approach is great for respiration.

Good luck and any other qs feel free to pm me and I’ll try to help you out.

Grindylow

If you learn topics 1 and 2, with the enzyme experiments, do you think it'd be enough to at least get a C in it?

I'd be delighted with that, but I'm going to learn the male and female reproductive systems too as they nearly always come up.

Victoria.

Noel2k9 wrote: »

If you learn topics 1 and 2, with the enzyme experiments, do you think it'd be enough to at least get a C in it?

Hey Noel, when you say topics 1 and 2 are you saying it as all of section 1 and 2 or just the 1st 2 chapters?

If you are thinking the 1st and 2nd sections you should be fine.

The 1st section is very manageable and you'll always get 2 long questions, 2 short and an experiment question out of it. Main areas here would be food and ecology.

Ecology always comes up and is really a great question. Learn off the definitions exactly as they are in the book though or you'll be in trouble. Learn off a food web too. Try to learn a bit about the nitrogen cycle if you have time.

For food know the food tests. These could come up in the short question or as an experiment. Know the fat and water soluble vitamins, the deficiencies associated with them. The difference between an anabolic and catabolic reaction.

The 2nd section would be more difficult for most people because it has genetics, photosynthesis and respiration. If you don't know much about these topics now I wouldn't advise trying to cram them because they're things you really have to get your head around.

The enzyme chapter is grand though and there's a good possibility that you could at least get an experiment question out of that. Osmosis is also pretty easy.

If you feel that the harder chapters are too much just do the experiments from them so you'll be able to answer qs on the main experiments. They'd be the enzyme ones, photosynthesis with the plant in water, osmosis, DNA extraction.

If you want to go for something different than those hard chapters in section 2 you could do a bit of section 3. You might be better off if you think that you're gonna make no progress looking at them you might be faster in section 3.

Some good ones in section 3 to do are:
Human reproduction like you said is grand and pretty likely
Structure of plants
Heart
Human nutrition
Nervous system

The heart dissection would be the most important experiment in section 3 and then the plant ones.

Grindylow

Victoria. wrote: »

Hey Noel, when you say topics 1 and 2 are you saying it as all of section 1 and 2 or just the 1st 2 chapters?

If you are thinking the 1st and 2nd sections you should be fine.

The 1st section is very manageable and you'll always get 2 long questions, 2 short and an experiment question out of it. Main areas here would be food and ecology.

Ecology always comes up and is really a great question. Learn off the definitions exactly as they are in the book though or you'll be in trouble. Learn off a food web too. Try to learn a bit about the nitrogen cycle if you have time.

For food know the food tests. These could come up in the short question or as an experiment. Know the fat and water soluble vitamins, the deficiencies associated with them. The difference between an anabolic and catabolic reaction.

The 2nd section would be more difficult for most people because it has genetics, photosynthesis and respiration. If you don't know much about these topics now I wouldn't advise trying to cram them because they're things you really have to get your head around.

The enzyme chapter is grand though and there's a good possibility that you could at least get an experiment question out of that. Osmosis is also pretty easy.

If you feel that the harder chapters are too much just do the experiments from them so you'll be able to answer qs on the main experiments. They'd be the enzyme ones, photosynthesis with the plant in water, osmosis, DNA extraction.

If you want to go for something different than those hard chapters in section 2 you could do a bit of section 3. You might be better off if you think that you're gonna make no progress looking at them you might be faster in section 3.

Some good ones in section 3 to do are:
Human reproduction like you said is grand and pretty likely
Structure of plants
Heart
Human nutrition
Nervous system

The heart dissection would be the most important experiment in section 3 and then the plant ones.

Thanks a million Victoria!

Well so far what I've learned is Food, Ecology, Respiration, Photosynthesis, Geneteics, DNA and RNA so hopefully I'll be able to fit in a few more chapters over the next week!

But seriously thanks a million for that, it's a great help.

Victoria.

Noel2k9 wrote: »

Thanks a million Victoria!

Well so far what I've learned is Food, Ecology, Respiration, Photosynthesis, Geneteics, DNA and RNA so hopefully I'll be able to fit in a few more chapters over the next week!

But seriously thanks a million for that, it's a great help.

That's no problem at all Noel.

Sounds like you're doing great so far. You're well on your way to doing really well

Good luck!

B_Fanatic

Didn't the heart disection come up last year?

jumpguy

LC2010HIS wrote: »

Human reproduction

According to my teacher, human reproduction probably won't feature strongly this year, but know the hormones and what they do (FSH, oestrogen, LH, progresterone, oxytocin, etc) and some disorders (fibroids, female infertility, male infertility) and contraception.

Genetics (once again, according to my teacher) will probably feature strongly on the paper. In section C there's likely to be a good chunk of evolution and the Theory of Natural Selection along with the normal definitions and probably a cross.

Photosynthesis and respiration will be important.

The nephron, circulation (lymph especially), diversity (fungi, monera, protista, etc) and enzymes are also important.

And of course the usually easy ecology question.

paperplane93

Anyone know if a diagram of the heart is likely this year ?

Iceboy

I advise everyone to know all of unit 1+2 its only 17 chapters and will cover 80% of your exam if you pick the right question.

As far as unit 3 is concerned I'd look at the Urinary system, skeleton and bones, structure of flowering plants viruses, nervous system and blood

kittaaaaaay

I heard that the alcohol and DNA experiments were most likely to come up in Section B. And rhizopus hasn't come up in a while, might be worth looking over.

hatethisfeeling

Do you think I could skip the heart expt since it came up last year?

szybki

hatethisfeeling wrote: »

Do you think I could skip the heart expt since it came up last year?

i'd say so ...... if it came up last year it is highly unlikely to come up again this year i would also looka at exp on osmosis and germination

Dr.Evil

Unit 1, Unit 2 and the experiments make up 80% of the test apparently, so focus on them. 5 experiments have never been asked before either..
The effect of exercise on pulse/breathing rate
osmosis
plant cells under microscope
collecting animals in an ecosystem
test for starch.

Osmosis is the most likely to come up out of those I think, I'll give that a look.

Lexii307

What do people think on:

• Photosynthesis
• Food
• Respiration
• Genetics
• Genetic Crosses
• DNA and RNA
• The heart
• Plant Structure
• Plant transport
• Ecology
• All experiments

Im banking on these to come up!

LC2010HIS

Lexii307 wrote: »

What do people think on:

• Photosynthesis
• Food
• Respiration
• Genetics
• Genetic Crosses
• DNA and RNA
• The heart
• Plant Structure
• Plant transport
• Ecology
• All experiments

Im banking on these to come up!

Add in a bit of the kidney, lymphatic, blood and respitary and your golden:D

NotExactly

LC2010HIS wrote: »

Add in a bit of the kidney, lymphatic, blood and respitary and your golden:D

I'd cover all of the kidney if I was you..not just a bit of it

LC2010HIS

NotExactly wrote: »

I'd cover all of the kidney if I was you..not just a bit of it

Im covering all of it too:)

Meller

Are there any chapters it's safe to totally leave out? Or, since there's a bit of choice on the paper, can you pick a few and just leave them out...?

Framble

Meller wrote: »

Are there any chapters it's safe to totally leave out? Or, since there's a bit of choice on the paper, can you pick a few and just leave them out...?

I'm leaving out HL Photosynthesis and HL Respiration and all of sexual reproduction in plants... I know they're guaranteed questions but I they're so hard and I could do 3 chapters in the time it take me to do one of them.

Meller

Framble wrote: »

I'm leaving out HL Photosynthesis and HL Respiration and all of sexual reproduction in plants... I know they're guaranteed questions but I they're so hard and I could do 3 chapters in the time it take me to do one of them.

So if they come up you can just skip them? If there's a chapter you don't like, is it always avoidable? (while still answering all Qs)

biggaman

you can leave it out but it would mean that you would have to learn more chapters if you leave out a guaranteed question, or just leave it out and not learn anything as a substitute and hope you'll get your 4 questions anyways?
All are avoidable, but some are advisable to do, seeing as they are guaranteed?

NotExactly

Framble wrote: »

I'm leaving out HL Photosynthesis and HL Respiration and all of sexual reproduction in plants...

I could see them coming up as two questions in section A leaving you only being able to answer 4/6 potentially losing 20 marks/5 percent.