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AQA Biology exam - Makes the news

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.ACS.

It's more than likely the teachers messed up, to be honest.

My chemistry teacher was teaching something once, and a student piped up saying 'Oh, XXX at the local grammar said it's actually done like this.' and then he went 'Oh, okay, we'll do it like them then.' and basically went on what the students at the local grammar school were being taught as opposed to what he was going to teach us and what he'd apparently taught for years. :rolleyes:

It's a small example, but often teachers are the problem in school when pupils have problems with the exam. (Obviously providing they've studied fully what they've been taught.)

That said, it is difficult when dealing with a new specification. I did the new Edexcel FP2 specification when it came out, and despite my Further Maths teacher's best efforts to prepare all of us, none of us did very well since we had no idea how the questions would be asked or what was concretely expected of us. I can still approach the questions in the way I was taught, but the questions were asked in such an odd manner, and we didn't even have a proper textbook because they weren't published yet.

As they say: que sera, sera.

Reply 81

nenome

Sorry To hear about this guys.

I sat the WJEC one which was pretty good except for a random bit out Jellyfish Nerves :/

But I can see from what everyone is saying that the other papers were horrible! Do you have the option to resit in the summer?
I'm just wondering what you would like to happen about this?

Reply 82

Sparkly-Star

Kytiane

I agree, this paper was horrendous. The majority of it was either stats or geography. I found it very hard to see where the biology we'd been learning for the past few months applied at all, and some of the questions didn't even make sense. My personal favourite:

"Explain why a statistical test was necessary in analysing the results for the common shrew. Use the terms chance and probability in your answer."

Last time I checked, chance and probability meant the same thing... Hmm....

I didn't even get things like that asked in my statistics exam and those kind of things were actually in my book!

Reply 83

Mask Of Sanity

biobeth

haha i loved it i dont see the problem our teachers always tell us to expect alot of HSW and as for irrelevant apple questions it was asking about anaerobic respiration...

Since when do sliced apples respire? Aerobically or anaerobically. Oxidised, yes. :curious:

Reply 84

Mask Of Sanity

I want application of real scientific knowledge. No wonder chemistry is classed higher than biology by medical schools. :shifty:

Reply 85

HotCoco.

Guys it is not really a problem. Many schools don't let their students sit in Jan at all so if you didn't get the grades you want just resit in June.

Reply 86

cat1992

Sakujo

iPhone innit. :yep:

the invigilators at my college took my water away. how did you managed to get an iphone out and photograph the paper, without being expelled from the exam lmao :p:

Reply 87

Sakujo

cat1992

the invigilators at my college took my water away. how did you managed to get an iphone out and photograph the paper, without being expelled from the exam lmao :p:

I didn't.

It's a pic from fb, someone probably has a copy of the exam, like I want to take pictures in my exam.

Reply 88

You!Me!Dancing!

HotCoco.

Guys it is not really a problem. Many schools don't let their students sit in Jan at all so if you didn't get the grades you want just resit in June.

Why should students have to resit an exam paper when it was CLEARLY the exam board's mistake, and not the students?

Reply 89

*MJ*

Sakujo

This exam reads more like a stats paper than a Biology one. :lolwut:

Oh it definately was.

I think I could have bunked myself atleast 10% if I did S1 last year.

:rolleyes:

Reply 90

*MJ*

nenome

Yes, we do.

WJEC are lucky bastras, their maths paper was a gift and OCR was :lolwut:

The worst thing for me is...

My school did 30 something years of WJEC Biology and changed this year. :frown:

Reply 91

cat1992

Sakujo

I didn't.

It's a pic from fb, someone probably has a copy of the exam, like I want to take pictures in my exam.

lol fair enough

Reply 92

*MJ*

Mask Of Sanity

I want application of real scientific knowledge. No wonder chemistry is classed higher than biology by medical schools. :shifty:

Not just Medical schools have half a brain to class it higher, some of us normal people do, too. :yep:

Reply 93

thesalamander123

plastercaster

This.
Everyone's just pissy about it because they wasted their time revising stuff that didn't show up.

Gutted. Unlucky about the Spearmans rank thing, that was sly of them.

Reply 94

raceforthefishman

*MJ*

Yes, we do.

WJEC are lucky bastras, their maths paper was a gift and OCR was :lolwut:

The worst thing for me is...

My school did 30 something years of WJEC Biology and changed this year. :frown:

OCR C3 ---- :angry:

Reply 95

ibysaiyan

Meh OCR one wasnt easy either but i probably got over it , might have lost a mark or two.To be honest it was alot synoptic based kinda like based on enzyme nature and it was more use of common sense you got a question say on page 4 on respiration then on the next page( full of cute chubby little seals) , the question starts off like:
Here is a seal Nude. Sketch
Here is a seal in lingerie.Sketch
Come on 60 mark paper = 60 minutes T,T
Oh also the last question on photosynthesis lol was filled with irrelevant info <_< ...
Anyways good luck with the grades/ resits .

Reply 96

*MJ*

raceforthefishman

OCR C3 ---- :angry:

Couldn't agree more, tbh.

I had 90+ in both C1 + C2 and this was just :facepalm2:

I still may/should get an A, I just won't get what I wanted to get.

Summer, ftw! :woo:

Reply 97

amh

I've just skimmed through the paper and I honestly don't see what all the fuss is about. Yes it may not be testing your direct knowledge (or the ability to regurgitate answers from previous exam papers) but it's actually making you think and apply the things you've learnt.
It seems similar to the format of the SNAB papers I sat last year.
Admittedly I did just skim it but I could still see that biological concepts could be applied.

Reply 98

beeah92

Edexcel was just as bad, I mean there were questions on 'cow pat' and the nitrogen cycle, which was nowhere in the syllabus, I mean come on, seriously?