**Higher level Biology 2012 Before/After**

Namlub

FreeFallin94 wrote: »

Do you think if I learnt all of the ecology theory and left out the experiments I'd be ok? Hope to get an A1 as I got 86% in the Mocks!

Yeah I'm not 100% sure what you mean either, but don't leave out the experiments. Seriously, they're not that hard and it's not as if the questions are that detailed.

reznov

Experiments = 1 hour revision in the morning. Or before bed!
Don't rely on predictions, anyone! Put in the extra effort.

FreeFallin94

Namlub wrote: »

Yeah I'm not 100% sure what you mean either, but don't leave out the experiments. Seriously, they're not that hard and it's not as if the questions are that detailed.

I'm on about investigating abiotic factors, quantitative and qualitative surveys etc. Just the parts of the ecology course that come up in the experiments section I never really learnt any of the practical ecology and even though it's not hard it just won't seem to stay in my head!

leaveiton

FreeFallin94 wrote: »

Oh no I meant just the ecology ones that can come up in the experiments section! God I'd never leave out all the experiments :P

Ah, phew! :P I dunno, the ecology experiments are fine really, and they tend to ask one in the long question. Throw a quadrat around, note results, repeat, et voila, there's your experiment :P I'd at least look over them if I were you, they're grand!

readystudypass wrote: »

what's this?

I'm not 100% sure but I think those starting 5th year next year will be doing a new course. It might not be 2014, it might be another year, but there is a new course coming in. Nothing we have to worry about though.

motorola1337

Well, this is the one exam where i wont even get a C....failed the mocks...got 39%...but got lucky as some of the stuff i actually know was on...this is what happens when your teacher gets pregnant in 5th year and you have dumb azz sub for all of 6th year -.-....

Praying for an easy paper is what im doing...i would be really happy if i passed

Helloxoxo

ashalingable wrote: »

I'm really hoping for an A1, I've left nothing out.....so fingers crossed
and I was just wondering should i do an extra question from section C or should i just do four really really well? ??

If you have all the information learnt well you'll probably finish the exam extremely quickly.. Look over once or twice and then do extra Qs if you still have time (which you should) its a good idea to do all short Qs and all exp Qs anyways and another long Q if you have time.. I know my biology mock only took me an hour and a half because when you know biology the whole paper feels like short Qs

Coeurdepirate

I'm not joking when I say I literally haven't looked at a single biology chapter since before the mocks. Is there any chance? Even of a D.

lorrieq

Coeurdepirate wrote: »

I'm not joking when I say I literally haven't looked at a single biology chapter since before the mocks. Is there any chance? Even of a D.

That completely depends. You'll know yourself. I hadn't looked at a book since the mocks before yesterday. I should get an A1. Because I knew it and know it. Do you?

QueenOfLeon

Coeurdepirate wrote: »

I'm not joking when I say I literally haven't looked at a single biology chapter since before the mocks. Is there any chance? Even of a D.

How much time have you to look over it beforehand? How were you getting on coming up to the mocks? At this stage concentrate on the experiments and the major topics - ecology, DNA/genetics and photosynthesis/resp are almost always on, if you can get your head around them, and units 1 and 2 cover more of the paper than unit 3.

UnholyGregor

a1

Coeurdepirate

lorrieq wrote: »

That completely depends. You'll know yourself. I hadn't looked at a book since the mocks before yesterday. I should get an A1. Because I knew it and know it. Do you?

Not at all. I had a 6 hour cramming session the day before the mock and got 48%. Needless to say I've forgotten virtually everything.

QueenOfLeon wrote: »

How much time have you to look over it beforehand? How were you getting on coming up to the mocks? At this stage concentrate on the experiments and the major topics - ecology, DNA/genetics and photosynthesis/resp are almost always on, if you can get your head around them, and units 1 and 2 cover more of the paper than unit 3.

Well I'm planning on spending about 5 hours on it tomorrow (cause I also have HL Irish paper 1 to study for...and a tiny bit for pass maths paper 2) and then planning on studying Irish paper 2 monday evening, going to bed at 9, getting up at 3 and studying until the exams start. I should have another 2 hours of revision between Irish paper 2 and bio. What are the absolute essentials? I'm hoping to get food, ecology, genetics, respiration, photosynthesis, enzymes, diffusion/osmosis, cell division/diversity/structure and human reproduction done if possible. If I managed to get all that done do you think it would be enough?

lorrieq

Coeurdepirate wrote: »

lorrieq wrote: »

That completely depends. You'll know yourself. I hadn't looked at a book since the mocks before yesterday. I should get an A1. Because I knew it and know it. Do you?

Not at all. I had a 6 hour cramming session the day before the mock and got 48%. Needless to say I've forgotten virtually everything.

QueenOfLeon wrote: »

How much time have you to look over it beforehand? How were you getting on coming up to the mocks? At this stage concentrate on the experiments and the major topics - ecology, DNA/genetics and photosynthesis/resp are almost always on, if you can get your head around them, and units 1 and 2 cover more of the paper than unit 3.

Well I'm planning on spending about 5 hours on it tomorrow (cause I also have HL Irish paper 1 to study for...and a tiny bit for pass maths paper 2) and then planning on studying Irish paper 2 monday evening, going to bed at 9, getting up at 3 and studying until the exams start. I should have another 2 hours of revision between Irish paper 2 and bio. What are the absolute essentials? I'm hoping to get food, ecology, genetics, respiration, photosynthesis, enzymes, diffusion/osmosis, cell division/diversity/structure and human reproduction done if possible. If I managed to get all that done do you think it would be enough?

You'd do well with that. Experiments dude! And swap diffusion/osmosis with plant reproduction. Get cramming!

QueenOfLeon

Coeurdepirate wrote: »

Well I'm planning on spending about 5 hours on it tomorrow (cause I also have HL Irish paper 1 to study for...and a tiny bit for pass maths paper 2) and then planning on studying Irish paper 2 monday evening, going to bed at 9, getting up at 3 and studying until the exams start. I should have another 2 hours of revision between Irish paper 2 and bio. What are the absolute essentials? I'm hoping to get food, ecology, genetics, respiration, photosynthesis, enzymes, diffusion/osmosis, cell division/diversity/structure and human reproduction done if possible. If I managed to get all that done do you think it would be enough?

Well firstly you're forgetting experiments! I would make sure you know these, you should be able to go over them and take out the main points quite quickly.

You've basically named all units 1 and 2 there. The only thing you've left out is the scientific method (has come up in some way every year in the past few years) which is only basic definitions so it would be a shame to get stuck on that question.

I'm not going to tell anyone that they have enough studied in case ye kill me at a later stage!! :P But if you look through all the past papers, you should have covered enough there to pass if you answered the questions well. Just looking at last years paper, 3 of the 6 long questions were based on Unit 3 though, so if reproduction didn't come up, how confident would you feel about questions on human/plant systems? Unit 3 is too big to get all covered between now and then, but if you had the time it would be worth looking over some of it. Personally I found that section really interesting so it wasn't too much hassle to go over it, but if the work is piling up too much just concentrate on the main stuff.

Coeurdepirate

QueenOfLeon wrote: »

Well firstly you're forgetting experiments! I would make sure you know these, you should be able to go over them and take out the main points quite quickly.

You've basically named all units 1 and 2 there. The only thing you've left out is the scientific method (has come up in some way every year in the past few years) which is only basic definitions so it would be a shame to get stuck on that question.

I'm not going to tell anyone that they have enough studied in case ye kill me at a later stage!! :P But if you look through all the past papers, you should have covered enough there to pass if you answered the questions well. Just looking at last years paper, 3 of the 6 long questions were based on Unit 3 though, so if reproduction didn't come up, how confident would you feel about questions on human/plant systems? Unit 3 is too big to get all covered between now and then, but if you had the time it would be worth looking over some of it. Personally I found that section really interesting so it wasn't too much hassle to go over it, but if the work is piling up too much just concentrate on the main stuff.

The effort of learning all the experiments though, and the amount of time it would take! are they really that important?

QueenOfLeon

Coeurdepirate wrote: »

The effort of learning all the experiments though, and the amount of time it would take! are they really that important?

They have a whole section to themselves :P Its not as daunting as it sounds. A lot of the questions on experiments are asking why you use or do certain things, like water baths, washing up liquid, salt, etc, and most of these don't have long scientific answers that would take ages to learn! In my experience they're easier to learn from revision books (the text book that we used was too focused on instructions for carrying it out in class) as they're nice and condensed, without extra details like amounts of solution used.

In saying all that, if you're really cutting down, the theory sections like ecology would probably be more useful to you than trying to go through every single experiment.

If you're getting confused with anything, biology is one of the only subjects I still remember enough to help with, so feel free to ask away! :P

Coeurdepirate

QueenOfLeon wrote: »

They have a whole section to themselves :P Its not as daunting as it sounds. A lot of the questions on experiments are asking why you use or do certain things, like water baths, washing up liquid, salt, etc, and most of these don't have long scientific answers that would take ages to learn! In my experience they're easier to learn from revision books (the text book that we used was too focused on instructions for carrying it out in class) as they're nice and condensed, without extra details like amounts of solution used.

In saying all that, if you're really cutting down, the theory sections like ecology would probably be more useful to you than trying to go through every single experiment.

If you're getting confused with anything, biology is one of the only subjects I still remember enough to help with, so feel free to ask away! :P

Maybe in my 'free time' I'll just read through them all a few times in a revision book, that way at least some of the stuff will stick in my head and it won't take too long!

Thanks a lot for all your help, I appreciate it. Let's just hope that the biology paper won't follow the pattern that the 2012 papers are forming so far!

GaryIrv93

Despite trying to get my head round those Punnett Squares or whatever they're called, I just can't. Can anyone explain them it's not too difficult? Thanks in advance.

partyatmygaff

Coeurdepirate wrote: »

The effort of learning all the experiments though, and the amount of time it would take! are they really that important?

You're guaranteed to get experiment questions. Nothing else is really guaranteed. They're usually reasonably nice questions too so there's no need to go in to excessive detail for any of them.

Here's an idea. Make a list of all the experiments on the course.

1. Test for sugar
2. Test for starch
3. Test for fat
4. Test for protein (Biuret test)
5. Simple keys ID flora/fauna
6. Apparatus collect plants/animals
7. Quantitative study of habitat
8. Investigate 3 abiotic factors of habitat
9. Light microscope
10. Onion cells
11. Cheek cells
12. Investigate effect of pH on enzyme activity
13. Investigate effect of temp on enzyme activity
14. Enzyme immobilisation
15. Effect of heat denaturation on enzyme activity
16. Light/CO2 effect on rate of photosynthesis
17. Prepare alcohol by yeast
18. Osmosis
19. Isolation of DNA from plant tissue
20. Growth of leaf yeast on agar
21. Transverse section of dicot stem
22. Heart dissection
23. Exercise pulse rate/breathing rate
24. IAA growth regulator on plant tissue
25. Water, oxygen and temperature effect on germination
26. Starch agar to show digestive activity during germination

Then, see which ones you've got completely covered and which ones you still need to do. There's a few you'll already have covered (Like the microscope experiment) from JC Science so you can cross them off your revision list. As for the rest... open up a document and paste in the titles of the experiments you still need to work on. Underneath those headings, write a very brief summary of the procedure (As in, the entire procedure in two lines or less) and a few bullet points outlining any special notes like colour changes or reasons for parts of the procedure. Usually, if you notice something getting a special mention in the procedure included in the book it's because it's mentioned in the syllabus. For example... if it says "Do X because of Y", it'd be a good idea to include a bullet point in your study guide about it.

partyatmygaff

GaryIrv93 wrote: »

Despite trying to get my head round those Punnett Squares or whatever they're called, I just can't. Can anyone explain them it's not too difficult? Thanks in advance.

It's very easy. For two diploid heterozygous individuals crossing with gene A...

Aa x Aa

|A|a
A|AA|Aa
a|Aa|aa

You line up the possible gametes of individual 1 on the top of the punnett square and the possible gametes of individual 2 down the side of the punnett square. Then you just match the two gametes.

Bubbleope

GaryIrv93 wrote: »

Despite trying to get my head round those Punnett Squares or whatever they're called, I just can't. Can anyone explain them it's not too difficult? Thanks in advance.

This is an example that might help:



(:

QueenOfLeon

GaryIrv93 wrote: »

Despite trying to get my head round those Punnett Squares or whatever they're called, I just can't. Can anyone explain them it's not too difficult? Thanks in advance.

The first thing you have to get right are the basics. Make sure you know what alleles, heterozygous/homozygous and dominant/recessive mean, not just the definitions you reel off but understand exactly what they mean when they are given in the description of the question. Know when to use capital and small letters, and what they stand for.

Then figure out exactly what letters you are giving to each of the parents before you start your Punnett Square. Write down what you have been given in the question...for example, look at the 2009 paper:

The first parent:

Brown hair - you're told that this is recessive, and the letter for it is b. It must be bb, as the only way it can have brown hair, which is recessive, is if it is homozygous. Heterozygous short hair - you're told that this is dominant, with S as the letter used, and you're told that its heterozygous, so it must be Ss.

So this parent is bbSs

The next parent:

Heterozygous black hair - you're told that this is dominant, with B as the letter used, so heterozygous means that it is Bb Long hair - you're told that long hair is recessive, with s as the letter used. It must be ss as the only way it can have long hair, which is recessive, is if it is homozygous

So this parent is Bbss

So now you cross (bbSs) by (Bbss) in the Punnet squares, which the others have posted pictures of. This type of one is more complicated as there are 2 variables (hair colour and hair length), sometimes you may get only one variable, so its even easier to sort out at the start.

I hope I haven't complicated this too much!

GaryIrv93

Thanks everyone for the replys. Much appreciated.

Mani09

Can anyone narrow done what experiments are due up please?? Also why does everyone think enzyme experiments are due up? :-)

Theorems

Mani09 wrote: »

Can anyone narrow done what experiments are due up please?? Also why does everyone think enzyme experiments are due up? :-)

As an enzyme exp hasn't been up since 2009 and there's 4 of them. Looking at the trend IAA comes up every two years but with the way exams are going we can't be too sure about that. I think one of the yeast exps will come up or a germination one either.

K_1

Anyone know if there's a marking scheme available for the sec sample from 2003/4???

Mani09

Theorems wrote: »

Mani09 wrote: »

Can anyone narrow done what experiments are due up please?? Also why does everyone think enzyme experiments are due up? :-)

As an enzyme exp hasn't been up since 2009 and there's 4 of them. Looking at the trend IAA comes up every two years but with the way exams are going we can't be too sure about that. I think one of the yeast exps will come up or a germination one either.

Thanks, so overall know enzyme exp's, IAA exp, yeast experiment, and germination? And be familiar with the basics of the rest

cocopopsxx

I sat down to revise unit 3 last night and I couldn't remember stuff, got a huge panic attack and couldn't study. even thinking bout biology gives me shivers now, nearly got sick this morning thinking bout it, I dunno what happened? I only remember the nervous system, endocrine system, breathing system and homeostasis from everything in unit 3 I spent ages learning really. I'm so so so scared. :'( what should I do?! :'(

K_1

cocopopsxx wrote: »

I sat down to revise unit 3 last night and I couldn't remember stuff, got a huge panic attack and couldn't study. even thinking bout biology gives me shivers now, nearly got sick this morning thinking bout it, I dunno what happened? I only remember the nervous system, endocrine system, breathing system and homeostasis from everything in unit 3 I spent ages learning really. I'm so so so scared. what should I do?!

Keep revising it, it'll come back if you knew it at all. Don't panic, put serious hours in today and tomorrow evening, but don't stay up too late. Look over your worst stuff after irish paper 2 before he exam. Its not that difficult to pick up marks in, don't leave any blanks!

FaoiSin

cocopopsxx wrote: »

I sat down to revise unit 3 last night and I couldn't remember stuff, got a huge panic attack and couldn't study. even thinking bout biology gives me shivers now, nearly got sick this morning thinking bout it, I dunno what happened? I only remember the nervous system, endocrine system, breathing system and homeostasis from everything in unit 3 I spent ages learning really. I'm so so so scared. what should I do?!

It'll come back don't worry. I had the exact same experience for the mocks but I calmed myself down and went in and did it without worrying I it worked out fine.

cocopopsxx

K_1 wrote: »

Keep revising it, it'll come back if you knew it at all. Don't panic, put serious hours in today and tomorrow evening, but don't stay up too late. Look over your worst stuff after irish paper 2 before he exam. Its not that difficult to pick up marks in, don't leave any blanks!

Thank you. Yes, I'll keep revising but I have maths tomorrow and I have to learn a lot for that as well so can't do much bio today. but I don't do Irish so I have almost all of tomorrow and Tuesday morning. I just hope it comes back. and I hope it's a kind paper. Btw, is it on the syllabus that there'll be 1 long ques from unit 1, 2 from unit 2 and 3 from unit 3 or can they put in as many from any unit as they like?