My complaint email to OCR about Biology F215 June 2012

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OCR have every right to reuse the question - it is based on our syllabus (explain, with the aid of diagrams and photographs, the sliding filament model of muscular contraction) So there is no need for complaints. As people have said on here, papers are easily available online and you should have used these as part of your revision. OCR repeat questions all the time!

If you actaully think about it, those questions were actually easy marks, and you didn't have to see the paper before to just label a stupid diagram or guess what would happen to glycogen granules. It was pretty much common sense if you actaully made teh effort to revise properly.

Reply 41

hannah60000

Is access to legacy papers restricted? I know for OCR Chemistry in my school we have access, I don't know about Biology but I used legacy papers for Chemistry practice.

Plus there are always rumour about private school kids getting extra help for exam board, nothing new there even in AQA Philosophy our teacher mentioned this in the public schools, get an extra advantage over us

Sorry but you cannot base the fact you will not meet your grade due to one question or the boundary being higher, how about the other questions on the paper!

Reply 42

hprmc

Original post by YB101

it was such an easy question, I just don't understand the hype. it's pretty much labelling something you should be familiar with!

the arguement isnt about whether it eas easy or not... i only lost one mark anyway cos i put nucleus instead of mitochondria... but thats not the point... the point that its not right.

Reply 43

hprmc

Original post by hannah60000

tbh i thought this was the easiest question on the paper hahaha most of the other questions were too ambiguous or broad haha

Reply 44

Nickini

Original post by hprmc

the arguement isnt about whether it eas easy or not... i only lost one mark anyway cos i put nucleus instead of mitochondria... but thats not the point... the point that its not right.

Exactly. The point is OCR shouldn't be able to get away with just reusing an entire question. Exam papers in their entirety are meant to be confidential until the exam sat. Look at Edexcel having to swap the C4 paper for next week because it might have been leaked.

Someone who had done very little revision could have chanced across this question the night before, giving them 11 marks in the real exam they might not have otherwise got. How is that fair?

Reply 45

Skaterkid

If the mark scheme of the 2003 was available then you have no argument but if it wasnt available then you do have an argument

Reply 46

kka25

Original post by Norton1

I would start with this:

http://pdf.ocr.org.uk/download/contact/ocr_58816_contact_complaints_policy.pdf?

And if that doesn't resolve it then;

And finally if all that doesn't work;

Wow! You know a lot about this topic! :eek:

Reply 47

kka25

Original post by Flyteryder

The paper was from 2003, it was not a recent paper, and it was not available on the website or to most teachers. There are rumours that private school students were given the paper the day before the 2012 exam and told the question would come up.

I've heard such things before; some of them who went to Uni struggled because there's no one to take the spoon and shoved it down their throats. :rolleyes:

Reply 48

kka25

Original post by furiousbio_student

All of you that say is our fault, karma has a nice way of coming back at you. Whether it be 5 days or 5 years it will get you.... :wink:

Strange isn't it how it works! :wink:

Reply 49

kka25

Original post by hprmc

you cant say that "its your fault for not doing enough past papers" because this was a paper from the old course... i didnt even know these legacy papers existed and im sure many other people didnt either... so how does this reflect the amount of revision ive done? how is it my fault that i didnt know that there were papers out there similar to ours, and how is it my fault if i have rubbish teachers who dont tell me these things to give us past questions? why is it right for OCR to put students in such a situation where they are disadvantaged just because they didnt do a certain past paper?
its just a stupid arguement to say that just because you havent done a certain past paper, you havent done enough revision.
lets say a student did no revision at all but happened to come across the 2003 past paper because they did it in lesson or something. why should that student be able to gain 10 easy marks just because of chance? its ridiculous.

I'm not in anyway being unsupportive or whatnot, but some people might come back and attack you with the line; "Ignorance is not an excuse".

You would need to make sure you know how to argue with these sort of people.

Reply 50

freedomyak

Whenever I'm writing something like this I usually leave a note at the end mentioning I'll be passing on the response received to various newspapers...

Seems to get me a better-than-generic or non-templated reply to the issue.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 51

tiny hobbit

The complaints I hear from students doing A level Biology is that the mark schemes are so picky about exactly how you word your answers. It therefore seems to make sense to read lots of mark schemes of old questions.

Are you looking through old papers while revising for next week's F214?

Reply 52

Flyteryder

Original post by freedomyak

I've already sent the BBC an email about it on their 'Have you got a story?' page, and I'll be emailing them with the response I get from OCR, that is if I even get one.

Reply 53

Issy123

The most annoying part is that the copied it WORD FOR WORD. Unfair advantage or what? :frown:

Reply 54

Norton1

Original post by kka25

Wow! You know a lot about this topic! :eek:

Unfortunately I'll have to admit that all the information was in the link I gave. Although I'm pleased I at least gave the impression of being well informed.

Reply 55

Gangee

This happens with many other subjects too, OCR haven't done anything wrong - in fact, they have made it easier for you to get a good grade. Not OCR's fault you didn't prepare adequately

Reply 56

YB101

Original post by hprmc

the arguement isnt about whether it eas easy or not... i only lost one mark anyway cos i put nucleus instead of mitochondria... but thats not the point... the point that its not right.

Enlighten me

Why is it not right ?

No one complained about it in the AS Biology exams when a 9 mark question on the properties of water come up in Jan 2012 and a previous paper (June 2010)

Face it, the only reason everyone is so dissatisfied is because they KNOW they didn't do as well as they wanted to. it was a difficult exam and it always has been/will be. They didn't get the questions that wanted and now they are trying to scapegoat the OCR exam board by haressing them for doing something they've always done!

I'm sorry but I highly doubt they are going to do anything about it, they will just look at you lot as a group of nagging students who will try and blame them for not getting into your first choice uni. Time to face the harsh realities of life: you don't always get what you ask for

Reply 57

kka25

Original post by Norton1

Unfortunately I'll have to admit that all the information was in the link I gave. Although I'm pleased I at least gave the impression of being well informed.

Well, personally it has been so long for me doing these sort of things, so I'd never know :tongue:

Reply 58

Flyteryder

Original post by YB101

The properties of water question was NOT exactly the same. This question was directly copied and pasted from a previous paper, with the exact same diagrams and exact same wording of the question, which will inevitably have the exact same mark scheme for the question.

If somebody stumbled across the 2003 paper and mark scheme the night before whilst attempting to do some last minute revision, and didn't do any revision other for the 2012 one, why is it fair they've gotten 10 marks for doing nothing?