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IB Biology Exams 2010 - 17-18/5

Hey guys (just made a similar thread for Chemistry),

Just making a thread for the upcoming Biology exams (10 days!) so we can discuss things and help each other out pre-exams, and then discuss the exams afterwords.

How's everybody studying? Just reviewing syllabus, doing old exams, rote-memorizing markschemes, drawing diagrams over and over and over again and two friends and I are just going to quiz each other for three days straight.

If you have any good notes on your computer, please share them with the group (would but they're in notebooks :frown: ).

Good luck with your other exams! :woo:

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Reply 1
I bought the revision guide Biology for the IB Diploma and my plan is to finish re-reading and taking notes on every topic because to do well I need to refresh my memory on everything we learned. This organized and concise book sums up everything, using diagrams and tables, in under 200 pages. It just seems so much better than trying to go through and understand all of the assessment statements I've written.

Other than that, I'm going to keep doing practice exams, study the mark-schemes, and make hundreds of notecards.

Bio is going to be intense. Good luck everyone!
Reply 2
Bio's one of the hardest subjects to study for!!
lol I've got like 5 different bio books and two binderfulls of worksheets and I'm really just using one book to study. "Biology" by Ibid press has got pretty much everything for the exams.. its got all the questions and possible answers for the exam. if youve got it, use it... its green :]
Reply 3
I was really good at bio once upon a time, all 6's and so on. (SL here btw, what are you guys?) Cos of chem comin up now I'm not gonna get as much time for bio as I'd like, but the whole weekend will be very much Bio-dedicated. Can't wait to start reading bio though, cos then chem's done and I can breathe out a big sigh of relief. :smile:

I'd love a syllabus PDF with outline or whatever, do you guys have that? (and any notes if you have that too! that'd be great!) And if you do have syllabus outline/PDF thing, let me know where you guys find this stuff. :smile: Bio is a subject we should all do well at (at least those who have SL) cos it's one of the easier subjects at SL in IB; especially considering it's a science!
tc47
I was really good at bio once upon a time, all 6's and so on. (SL here btw, what are you guys?) Cos of chem comin up now I'm not gonna get as much time for bio as I'd like, but the whole weekend will be very much Bio-dedicated. Can't wait to start reading bio though, cos then chem's done and I can breathe out a big sigh of relief. :smile:

I'd love a syllabus PDF with outline or whatever, do you guys have that? (and any notes if you have that too! that'd be great!) And if you do have syllabus outline/PDF thing, let me know where you guys find this stuff. :smile: Bio is a subject we should all do well at (at least those who have SL) cos it's one of the easier subjects at SL in IB; especially considering it's a science!


Voila!
Reply 5
tc47

(and any notes if you have that too! that'd be great!)


I've put up notes written by my sister (she did HL bio) on my site. Currently there is only sections 1 to 3. I'll put up section 4 and most of (if not all of) section 5 tomorrow when she has finished writing them. They are still a work in progress so some more diagrams will be added soon (and better ones too).

Here's a link: IB guides biology notes
Reply 6
Does anyone have the markscheme for HL paper 1, N09, TZ0? I got the paper but was absent for the markscheme.
opaltiger
Does anyone have the markscheme for HL paper 1, N09, TZ0? I got the paper but was absent for the markscheme.


I should somewhere, will type it up v. quickly once found.

1B 2A 3D 4B 5A 6C 7A 8D 9A 10D
11D 12C 13C 14D 15C 16A 17A 18A 19C 20B
21A 22C 23D 24B 25A 26C 27A 28C 29A 30C
31C 32B 33D 34 B 35A 36D 37C 38C 39A 40D
Reply 8
Whoo, 39/40.
Reply 9
Holy damn, in HL opaltiger? Nice nice nice. :wink: You seem pretty set.

Thanks for those notes IBNoob, looking good! Let me (us) know when the rest are available too. This forum can be genius to be active on sometimes. :smile:
Reply 10
So my biology teacher thinks the best way to revise biology is to explain things to other people. In that spirit, would anyone like to explain osmoregulation?
opaltiger
So my biology teacher thinks the best way to revise biology is to explain things to other people. In that spirit, would anyone like to explain osmoregulation?


So in a nephron, there's the loop of Henle. The descending limb is permeable to water and impermeable to sodium ions. Whilst the ascending limb is permeable to sodium ions and impermeable to water.

The ascending limb pumps out ions into the medulla by AT (which makes the solute concentration high in the medulla).
After, when water goes down the descending limb it moves out of it into medulla (osmosis, moving water to high solute) and thus collecting some water.

The next place in which water can be re-absorbed is the collecting duct which can be regulated by ADH.
I am dreading this exam.

God, I feel I keep on reading/re-reading about things I felt I've never heard about before. I hope they don't overdose on physiology this year. :frown:
ragnar_jonsson
I am dreading this exam.

God, I feel I keep on reading/re-reading about things I felt I've never heard about before. I hope they don't overdose on physiology this year. :frown:


I agree. The physiology unit is terrible - even worse is that Option H is one of my paper 3 options. :frown: I don't know how I'm going to get through.
delightedly
I agree. The physiology unit is terrible - even worse is that Option H is one of my paper 3 options. :frown: I don't know how I'm going to get through.


And what's worse is they almost always make this the biggest part of the exam. Hopefully there will be plenty of plant science and biochem :smile:

I'm just writing out the answers to all the big physio questions over and over and over again. Hope it all works out.
Can anybody answer this syllabus statement for me? I'm thinking my answer (in my notes) isn't quite sufficient enough.

11.3.7 Explain the roles of the loop of Henle, medulla, collecting duct and ADH (vasopressin) in maintaining the water balance of the blood.

Edit: that is so hilarious.. the answer has already been posted. Thanks!
Reply 16
ragnar_jonsson
I am dreading this exam.

God, I feel I keep on reading/re-reading about things I felt I've never heard about before. I hope they don't overdose on physiology this year. :frown:


I'm only SL, but I'm in a similar scenario. I had a dream they set 3 data analysis questions for Section A last night...

I'm so desperate...
Thingeh
I'm only SL, but I'm in a similar scenario. I had a dream they set 3 data analysis questions for Section A last night...

I'm so desperate...


I remember thinking, "Biology is my sure 7 and Chemistry...oh boy." I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I WAS THINKING. Biology must be the most difficult HL science, even though you'd think it wasn't. (Given the ridiculously high boundaries, the sheer size of the syllabus, the surefire skewed representation of the syllabus, the high mark questions...ugh). & Chemistry was a definite 6, likely 7. Oh boy.
Reply 18
ragnar_jonsson
I remember thinking, "Biology is my sure 7 and Chemistry...oh boy." I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I WAS THINKING. Biology must be the most difficult HL science, even though you'd think it wasn't. (Given the ridiculously high boundaries, the sheer size of the syllabus, the surefire skewed representation of the syllabus, the high mark questions...ugh)


Indeed. I wanted to do chemistry but my school wouldn't timetable it with my HLmusic (which was basically why I did IB...). However, our school emphasised that biology was "the easiest" to us; they were quite wrong, and the incompetant teacher didn't help matters at all.

Meh anyway. I'ma sure you'll do fine; you've got the right mentality and I'm sure you're adept at learning by now, just remember to state the bleeding obvious before getting to the tricky st0f.
Thingeh
Indeed. I wanted to do chemistry but my school wouldn't timetable it with my HLmusic (which was basically why I did IB...). However, our school emphasised that biology was "the easiest" to us; they were quite wrong, and the incompetant teacher didn't help matters at all.

Meh anyway. I'ma sure you'll do fine; you've got the right mentality and I'm sure you're adept at learning by now, just remember to state the bleeding obvious before getting to the tricky st0f.


:frown: Biology is just evil. Good luck studying, though :smile:

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