Question 9

The graph above shows how difficult students found the unit 4 biology exam.

With reference to enzyme activity describe what is shown by the graph.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------d[3 marks]

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 6

Siberiaan

Found it very tough , idk why they had an entire section on peat bogs da***

Reply 7

wizardpig

I'm really hoping that the grade boundaries for this paper are low, because otherwise I'm sure I haven't done very well. I wasn't expecting all the AS questions to come sneaking in like that! I had no idea what to put for the male pollen question??? or for the last 6 mark question?? All I could think of was splicing!

Reply 8

TraceyE

Was disappointing predicted A* no chance after all the AS questions. Revised for unit 4 not AS.

Reply 9

Catalyst1

I talked about RNA splicing, you should be able to get the full marks if you have talked about it in detail. For example, talking about the removal of the introns using splicosomes and splicosomes would also remove some exons which causes a range of proteins to be made.

Reply 10

LewisEdwards1234

Original post by Catalyst1

I think for the full marks a reference to translation would have to be made due to the fact that post transcription modification only really forms different lengths of mRNA. I said about translation and the differing combinations of exons would lead to varying positions of start and stop codons which would affect primary and therefore secondary and tertiary structure folding.

Reply 11

Catalyst1

What did people put for my peat bogs preserve pollen grains? I think it was a 4 marker.

I talked about how the conditions were cool, anaerobic and acidic which affects the enzyme activity of decomposers. It being cool reduced enzyme activity as there will be less frequent successful collisions between particles. I did not know what to write for the others

I wrote about the enzyme activity in the question before that on RUBISCO with respect to temperature? why so much on enzymes, this plus peat as well

Reply 14

Catalyst1

I think there was also 2 whole questions dedicated on peat log / pollen

Reply 15

natarowl

If anyone wants to see a rough mark scheme, search EDEXCEL JAN14 IAL paper ... It's almost identical to our exam today!

Reply 16

Jack Whittle

Has anyone actually seen the structure of a b plasma cell as part of their spec? I'm pretty sure I definitely haven't!

Reply 17

melanin101

Original post by Jack Whittle

Has anyone actually seen the structure of a b plasma cell as part of their spec? I'm pretty sure I definitely haven't!

I think they wanted us to apply our knowledge of AS cell structure to that question. It was a pretty pathetic question seeing as the picture was blurry...

I was lucky in that just before the exam I read that "plasma cells have extensive rough endoplasmic reticulum as to manufacture vast quantities of antibodies". And as the question asked how structure Q related to the function of a plasma cell, I kind of put two and two together. Pretty lucky!

But yeah, it was a crap question nonetheless and I hope it translates to lower grade boundaries.

Reply 18

Lauren2812

Honestly shocking to look at the IAL Jan 2014 paper. Feels like Edexcel just copied and pasted as many questions are they could from that, don't think they can get more lazy. So similiar.

Reply 19

Anon113

Original post by Lozzie97

Honestly shocking to look at the IAL Jan 2014 paper. Feels like Edexcel just copied and pasted as many questions are they could from that, don't think they can get more lazy. So similiar.