The Student Room Group

OCR A2 Biology textbook wtf moment

Was doing the stretch and challenge questions on page 130-131 which for some reason have a whole 2 page dedicated to them. I got to question B (about the black/pale moths) and the phenotypes in the question contradict the phenotypes in the answers (bottom of page 275).


Is this a mistake of the book or am I missing something?

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Cant help without seeing the questions bro.
Reply 2
Original post by The Illuminati
Was doing the stretch and challenge questions on page 130-131 which for some reason have a whole 2 page dedicated to them. I got to question B (about the black/pale moths) and the phenotypes in the question contradict the phenotypes in the answers (bottom of page 275).


Is this a mistake of the book or am I missing something?


Alot of it is wrong, my teacher has to use older parts to teach us it
Reply 3
Original post by The Illuminati
Was doing the stretch and challenge questions on page 130-131 which for some reason have a whole 2 page dedicated to them. I got to question B (about the black/pale moths) and the phenotypes in the question contradict the phenotypes in the answers (bottom of page 275).


Is this a mistake of the book or am I missing something?


I thought this too! I must have spent about 1hr going over it until I just gave up, I thought I was really stupid or something...

There are so many mistakes in that book though. My college gave us a big list of all the errors in the first half of the book (for F214) but I don't have such a list for the second half... so I guess we have to take a lot of what the book says with a pinch of salt. Pretty unacceptable really.
Original post by CGB
I thought this too! I must have spent about 1hr going over it until I just gave up, I thought I was really stupid or something...

There are so many mistakes in that book though. My college gave us a big list of all the errors in the first half of the book (for F214) but I don't have such a list for the second half... so I guess we have to take a lot of what the book says with a pinch of salt. Pretty unacceptable really.


could you send me that list please? pretty please? :puppyeyes:
Reply 5
how is everyone finding this module? worth so many marks :/
Original post by CGB
I thought this too! I must have spent about 1hr going over it until I just gave up, I thought I was really stupid or something...

There are so many mistakes in that book though. My college gave us a big list of all the errors in the first half of the book (for F214) but I don't have such a list for the second half... so I guess we have to take a lot of what the book says with a pinch of salt. Pretty unacceptable really.


Phew so it's not just me then. The textbook is crap, I have no idea why OCR endorse it. Can you send me the F214 errors, I don't need them I just want to see is I spotted any on the list because I need to procrastinate atm :biggrin:
Reply 7
Original post by darkxangel
could you send me that list please? pretty please? :puppyeyes:

Yep here you go! (hope it works)
Original post by Raj K
how is everyone finding this module? worth so many marks :/


I never get what people say when they mean module. Do you mean genetics of F215? I think F215 is okay it's just a lot of new concepts. I'm enjoying most of it though which makes revising for it a lot easier. But as always it's gonna make up a massive chunks of my revision time since there is so much to learn. the only good thing about the Ecosystem module (or unit, whatever it called) is that I already have notes on some of it from AS.
Reply 9
hey I was just wondering how most of you are revising for this exam?
For f214 I just made notes from the Ocr textbook and tried to memorise them and completely failed :/. But doing this 'technique' at As level i got C's (not amazing I know but I only need a C). But, I would like a B in this and f214 to hopefully take my overall grade upto a B with the hope I done well on my practicals.

so yeah.... and I have just started my notes for f215 recently, am I starting too late to achieve a grade B? But my notes for f214 are already done.

Any help appreciated thanks :smile:
Original post by b41nzy
hey I was just wondering how most of you are revising for this exam?
For f214 I just made notes from the Ocr textbook and tried to memorise them and completely failed :/. But doing this 'technique' at As level i got C's (not amazing I know but I only need a C). But, I would like a B in this and f214 to hopefully take my overall grade upto a B with the hope I done well on my practicals.

so yeah.... and I have just started my notes for f215 recently, am I starting too late to achieve a grade B? But my notes for f214 are already done.

Any help appreciated thanks :smile:

As you can tell from the above sometimes the book is wrong. Instead of memorising make sure you understand the concepts because they'll be looking to catch out the people who have just memorised the textbook. When I make notes I try and link what I'm making notes on to what I've already learnt. I also write down anything I don't understand or agree with so that I can look it up. Looking at past papers is a massive help as it makes you understand the style of questions and you can begin to recognise the kind of patterns they use to try and trip you up.

The best advice I can give you is that Biology isn't just memorising a bunch of facts, if it was it wouldn't be as hard as it is and everyone would be getting A*'s. Understanding of concepts and exams is how you can push up your grade.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 11
Original post by The Illuminati
As you can tell from the above sometimes the book is wrong. Instead of memorising make sure you understand the incepts because they'll be looking to catch out the people who have just memorised the textbook. When I make notes I try and link what I'm making notes on to what I've already learnt. I also write down anything I don't understand or agree with so that I can look it up. Looking at past papers is a massive help as it makes you understand the style of questions and you can begin to recognise the kind of patterns they use to try and trip you up.

The best advice I can give you is that Biology isn't just memorising a bunch of facts, if it was it wouldn't be as hard as it is and everyone would be getting A*'s. Understanding of concepts and exams is how you can push up your grade.


yeah I think that approach sounds better when you have to apply your knowledge to questions as well.
What do you mean by looking at past papers? do you time yourself doing them once you've covered everything? or do you just read through them with the mark scheme and see what the answers would be and what key words they are asking for?
Reply 12
Original post by The Illuminati
As you can tell from the above sometimes the book is wrong. Instead of memorising make sure you understand the incepts because they'll be looking to catch out the people who have just memorised the textbook. When I make notes I try and link what I'm making notes on to what I've already learnt. I also write down anything I don't understand or agree with so that I can look it up. Looking at past papers is a massive help as it makes you understand the style of questions and you can begin to recognise the kind of patterns they use to try and trip you up.

The best advice I can give you is that Biology isn't just memorising a bunch of facts, if it was it wouldn't be as hard as it is and everyone would be getting A*'s. Understanding of concepts and exams is how you can push up your grade.


ohh thank you for this (: even i was memorising my notes for this exam thinking i understood everything :/ but i just hate the way they ask questions in the exam .. because every question is so different (as in i think that past paper questions are not very similar for this A2 one but they are in AS)..suppose you get questions wrong in past papers do you go back to revising notes? thankss
Original post by CGB
Yep here you go! (hope it works)


+rep
Wondered if you have it for other units as well..especially the crappy f215! :colondollar:


EDIT: just read your posts ! it looks as though you dont have it!! we can make one if everyone just point out one mistake in the thread!
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by Raj K
ohh thank you for this (: even i was memorising my notes for this exam thinking i understood everything :/ but i just hate the way they ask questions in the exam .. because every question is so different (as in i think that past paper questions are not very similar for this A2 one but they are in AS)..suppose you get questions wrong in past papers do you go back to revising notes? thankss


I've just found that this method works for me. I start off by making the notes as I already said. Then I'll loo at past papers from the old spec (the new spec is just the old spec with the modules mixed up and some parts taken out). I don't sit and do the papers according to time. I do each question answer it myself then compare my answer to the MS, if I having added enough detail, I'll write the extra details in my notes. If they have some stuff on the MS for the answer that isn't on my spec I ignore it. Some people say that it is better to sit and do the past papers lie you're in an exam but I find that this way works ether for me when Im revising especially on essay type questions as you know what they rare looking for in the answer. I also check the spec to see what bits I definitely need to know.
As much as I hate Ecology, I always make sure that I spend as much time on it as I do the other parts because you never know what's going to come up (never use the technique where you guess by what's come up in the past exam since questions that were in the January 2012 F214 paper were almost identical to ones that were in the June 2012 F214 paper) so you want to know each section to the same level.
When I'm pretty sure I know everything in detail, I then start doing past papers using the recent ones on the OCR website.

I find that doing this early means that 'cramming' does;t become cramming. It's much easier to remember the information because I already spent time and energy understanding it.

some people use mind maps, flashcards, voice recordings etc but I find that what I wrote above works really well for me :smile:
Reply 15
Original post by arvin_infinity
+rep
Wondered if you have it for other units as well..especially the crappy f215! :colondollar:


EDIT: just read your posts ! it looks as though you dont have it!! we can make one if everyone just point out one mistake in the thread!


I'll ask if they've made one for F215 when I go back on monday, I'll let you know :smile: I will pester them if they haven't!
Reply 16
The F215 part is horrific apparently,most of the stuff on DNA is completely or partially wrong.
Reply 17
Original post by ch0wm4n
The F215 part is horrific apparently,most of the stuff on DNA is completely or partially wrong.


Could you possibly point some things out please? :smile:
Reply 18
Original post by The Illuminati
I've just found that this method works for me. I start off by making the notes as I already said. Then I'll loo at past papers from the old spec (the new spec is just the old spec with the modules mixed up and some parts taken out). I don't sit and do the papers according to time. I do each question answer it myself then compare my answer to the MS, if I having added enough detail, I'll write the extra details in my notes. If they have some stuff on the MS for the answer that isn't on my spec I ignore it. Some people say that it is better to sit and do the past papers lie you're in an exam but I find that this way works ether for me when Im revising especially on essay type questions as you know what they rare looking for in the answer. I also check the spec to see what bits I definitely need to know.
As much as I hate Ecology, I always make sure that I spend as much time on it as I do the other parts because you never know what's going to come up (never use the technique where you guess by what's come up in the past exam since questions that were in the January 2012 F214 paper were almost identical to ones that were in the June 2012 F214 paper) so you want to know each section to the same level.
When I'm pretty sure I know everything in detail, I then start doing past papers using the recent ones on the OCR website.

I find that doing this early means that 'cramming' does;t become cramming. It's much easier to remember the information because I already spent time and energy understanding it.

some people use mind maps, flashcards, voice recordings etc but I find that what I wrote above works really well for me :smile:


hopefully i can get my A lol..thankyou so much! you are the best!!! :biggrin:
Reply 19
Original post by Maaya_D
Could you possibly point some things out please? :smile:


The pages our teacher told us not to read were p118 to p134, P136 to p140, P168 to P172. Im not sure about module 3 as we haven't be taught it yet and module 4 is fine my teacher said :smile:.

Quick Reply

Latest