Edexcel igcse biology may 2012 exam discussion

Also were the second year doing this new specificatn so there are only 2 sets for past papers + specimen material

'Do uu have them and specimen papers? can uu upload them plus mark schemes if uu do??? pleaseeee

has anyone else noticed how the questions in the specimen are nothing like the ones in the real paper?

it isn't necessarily harder but it seems a lot more tedious and hypothetical. For example, in the B1 specimen there was a question about beetles where the answer was that it "would be cruel to expose beetles to temperatures higher than 35 degrees C". Which, despite being somewhat justifiable, would form the basis of a poor experiment as it would not allow the student to find the optimal temperature of the beetle's enzymes and cellular metabolism. To do that, you would need to go beyond 35 degrees, to the point at which the movement starts to decrease or indeed the point at which the beetle would die.

I agree, all papers are written 3 years in advance so the specimen is written with current papers so I don't know why they feel the need to make it so stupid ??

I know. They also feel the need to put emphasis on the "Human Influences on the Environment" section which, for all intents and purposes, is basically geography and as such shouldn't make up the majority of a biology exam. Then again we probably shouldn't expect too much from an exam board that allocates 10/60 marks on a paper for a basic english comprehension exercise. Not that I'm complaining

I know. They also feel the need to put emphasis on the "Human Influences on the Environment" section which, for all intents and purposes, is basically geography and as such shouldn't make up the majority of a biology exam. Then again we probably shouldn't expect too much from an exam board that allocates 10/60 marks on a paper for a basic english comprehension exercise. Not that I'm complaining

Yeah, that's the weird thing. When I did the past paper for the first time, I was worried there was loads of material I hadn't seen before - and then it turned out that the answers could be quoted directly from the text!

A question about marking, though. I don't suppose anyone really knows for certain, but what do you think the markers will do if we get the points on the mark scheme, but qualify them wrongly? Or if we cover enough points from the mark scheme (correctly qualified) but then say something wrong (as in, genuinely wrong, not just missing from the mark scheme)?

An example: the question was "Explain the methods used to produce large numbers of fish in a fish farm". Correct me if I'm wrong, but fish in fish farms are selectively bred to be high quality, not to reproduce in large numbers; would an answer saying "fish are selectively bred to produce large numbers of off-spring" get the mark? (Considering that the question does ask about how fish farms "produce large numbers of fish" rather than high-quality fish, and the mark scheme does include "selective breeding".)

Thankfully not, my lit exam is on the 22nd and 24th and language is sometime after that but I am doing it with AQA. How about you?

Yeah, that's the weird thing. When I did the past paper for the first time, I was worried there was loads of material I hadn't seen before - and then it turned out that the answers could be quoted directly from the text!

A question about marking, though. I don't suppose anyone really knows for certain, but what do you think the markers will do if we get the points on the mark scheme, but qualify them wrongly? Or if we cover enough points from the mark scheme (correctly qualified) but then say something wrong (as in, genuinely wrong, not just missing from the mark scheme)?

An example: the question was "Explain the methods used to produce large numbers of fish in a fish farm". Correct me if I'm wrong, but fish in fish farms are selectively bred to be high quality, not to reproduce in large numbers; would an answer saying "fish are selectively bred to produce large numbers of off-spring" get the mark? (Considering that the question does ask about how fish farms "produce large numbers of fish" rather than high-quality fish, and the mark scheme does include "selective breeding".)

"fish are selectively bred to produce large numbers of off-spring" would probably get you one or two marks depending on how many marks are available although in reality fish in fish farms are, as you say, bred to be of high quality and it is the conditions within the farm that ultimately affect the number of offspring. You would, however, be correct in so far as some farms breed their fish so that they grow at a much faster rate and thus their sexual organs mature earlier. I would probably say something about how conditions such as heat and water quality are kept at optimum levels and fish in the farms are protected from natural predators in the sea which leads to an increase in the relative amount of offspring produced.

The mark scheme rewards for correct answers but does not penalise for wrong ones fortunately