OCR A2 Biology 2016 Predictions thread (F214/F215)

The synoptic part of f214 threw me as I couldn't remember the structure of a nucleotide .. Does anyone have any ideas on what they could include in f215??

Would it be bad to just focus on the stuff in the list as I've had so many exams in the last week and have another exam on the same day as F215 and I'm having to cram for this

If just focusing on the things on the list means that you're not panicking while revising, then definitely. There's so much in F215 and it's impossible to revise everything, so imo you have to prioritise some topics - but please know my list isn't a guarantee on things that will come up/things that won't as I'm really not sure and, like someone else said, OCR seem to take joy in ****ing people over...


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By 'Use of bacteria in biotechnology', did you mean like the batch and continuous culture methods?

The synoptic part of f214 threw me as I couldn't remember the structure of a nucleotide .. Does anyone have any ideas on what they could include in f215??

Sorry this is a bit last minute. Last years paper was... weird to say the least - lots of really odd stuff in there. Hopefully this years will be a little more 'on spec', especially after F214!

What came up in 2015:
Causes of genetic variationPredator/prey relations
Factors affecting population size
PCR
Mutations
Speciation
Chi Squared
Trophic levels and efficiency
Behaviour(innate vs learned)
Natural cloning
Polyploidy
Plant/Human responses to light
Effects of smoking (???)
The brain

What could come up this year:
Body plans
Apoptosis
Translation/transcription(long question likely, as didn’t come up last year or in F212 paper)
Epistasis
Hardy-Weinberg
Artificial Cloning Plants/Animals
Growth Curve– Primary/Secondary metabolites
Industrial Enzymes/Immobilisation
Improving productivity
Sequencing Genomes
Genetic Engineering (Golden Rice/Insulin)
Succession
Nitrogen cycle/Use of decomposers
Conservation and the Galapagos
Plant hormones (Giberillins/Ethene)
Learned Behaviour
Sympathetic/parasympathetic pathways
Muscles &sliding filament model (very likely)
Dopamine Receptors(application question likely?)

F215:

Cellular control:
- Mutations (advantageous/non advantageous)
- Body plans (most likely a long, application question)
- Translation/transcription
- Epistasis
- Hardy-Weinberg calculation (my teacher said this had a very strong chance of coming up)

Biotechnology:
- Cloning animals (embryo splitting/nuclear transfer)
- Asepsis
- PCR
- Gene therapy
- Use of bacteria in biotechnology


Ecosystems:
- Improving productivity
- Succession (application)
- Nitrogen cycle (detailed)
- Conservation and the Galapagos

Response:

- Apical dominance
-Sympathetic/parasympathetic pathways
- Muscles (almost certain) & sliding filament model
- Dopamine and its effects

can someone tell me what the predictions mean about parasympathetic and sympathetic like what do i need to know about it?

hey guys I was thinking, it might be a bit late for me to say this but if you want to predict what synoptic questions there might be you might want to try and contact some AS students. Last year I felt comfortable with smoking but it never appeared in F212. I was doing F215 for last year the other day and realised that they had a synoptic question on smoking.

Also I'd like to share a couple of my predictions:

- Long question on body plans/development/apoptosis
- Application or long question on the Golden Rice case study because everyone focusses on insulin
- Factual (eg fill in the gaps) on muscle contraction
- epistasis
- batch vs continuous cultures
- A question on transcription and translation but also requiring some random AS knowledge

The synoptic questions don't tend to be very comprehensive so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Last year's question about nicotine was more than manageable to answer.

Good luck!