OCR 21st Century Science B4 B5 B6 10th June 2016

Yeah, I agree. I think that the similarities and differences part of the question is gonna be the most heavily marked. But that's just my opinion so

Why would some people be against a child having DNA from 3 people?

I put about the child not knowing who their real parents are (although they clearly would), more risk of genetic disorder due to more possibilities, and something else which I can't remember. Didn't have a clue lol

EDIT: Remembered it - it was the donor demanding contact with the child which the parents might not want

Yeah, you need like 3-4 as long as you've done ok on the rest of the paper, i know someone who got 2 on every long marker and still came out with an A so I think you'll be ok!

I thought that was a much nicer paper than the first one - more knowledge based I thought. Some of the ethics stuff threw me off (as always because I always forget one thing or put something they don't allow) but I'm pretty confident about what I put.

For the 1st six marker: talked about the optimum temperature/pH and denaturing of enzymes involved in growth of the plants or changes to active site caused by alkalis and acids.

For the 2nd six marker: talked about A being meiosis, C being mitosis then made 2/3 similarities and more heavily focused on the differences.

For the 3rd six marker: fatty sheath (took me a while - felt like I was playing a 'spot the difference' game at first!) and insulation/speed of impulses. Slows it down and interferes with it, so reflexes are slower and responses are slower, etc.

So pretty much the same as you guys; any grade boundaries predictions? I found it easier than last year's so I think it'll be slightly higher this time. Though last year's was quite low - 40 or 41 for an A* I think?

I said people may think it's unethical and unnatural and there could be a risk to the child like a disease or mutation. I also said it might be expensive and it's new so they don't know much about it

Yeah I think so, i talked about many differences (difference in number of chromosomes, when each process happens, why it happens etc) but I didn't mention one similarity which is just stupid. I explained the whole mitosis process which is probably unnecessary lol

I said people may think it's unethical and unnatural and there could be a risk to the child like a disease or mutation. I also said it might be expensive and it's new so they don't know much about it

I put playing God but I kinda put about the embryos being disposed of and how people could consider that wrong because the embryos had the propensity to turn in to a human being- which is wrong but I couldn't think of anything else!

In the revision guide it did say something similar about the potential of human life being lost so I think you'll be fine there. I also put playing God and how others may not agree with the decision. I also put the fact that it is fairly new (in the stem of the question) and how there may be unseen risks.

Ah true, I'm awful at ethics questions as I always miss the points completely!

Nice answers - I also had that problem with the B6 picture haha! I forgot to mention reflexes though - I slightly panicked and said they'd get tired easily
What was the boundary last year? I didn't do that paper so I have no idea what it was like

Ah that's okay then, I'll take 2 marks cause I didn't think of a third one in time! But those are some really good points so I think you'll get 3 marks there!

Hi! Thought that paper went better than the first. For the graph question, did the line of best fit have to be straight? I drew it curved.

I put playing God but I kinda put about the embryos being disposed of and how people could consider that wrong because the embryos had the propensity to turn in to a human being- which is wrong but I couldn't think of anything else!

Ah true, I'm awful at ethics questions as I always miss the points completely!

Haha I did that and explained the process of meiosis on top of that and only then did I link it back to the question...feel sorry for the markers that are going to have to sift through all of that text.

Thanks, tbf 2 marks out of 3 is good enough. You don't need 100% for an A* thankfully.