IB Biology Exams 2010 - 17-18/5
Scroll to see replies
ragnar_jonsson
TZ2. I'm slightly worried about P3 now, since I gave up on memorizing tons of species names/bacteria...haha. Hopefully they want us to calculate simpson index and draw the nitrogen cycle 
Haha. I wish I had the motivation you have... I am contracting a sinus infection and am getting quite tired. I could rock the ecology exam with my hands tied behind my back, but I am worried about the neurobio, just learning the terms and stuff. I do wish we had time to revise and were not just thrown into this stuff a week after we learned other stuff. Ugh I do hate my school. Well, good luck! I hope it goes well for you and you get your seven!!!
And soon we will be able to discuss the horrors of the rotten TZ1 P2. Icky icky.
delightedly
Phew, so glad Papers 1 and 2 are out of the way now! Not exactly looking forward to Paper 3 - I have to work through one entire option (G) tonight and review the other (H... eugh) in order to keep up, but hopefully I can make it and it'll all work out haha. I'm still in high hopes for a 6, which makes me happy.
Since we are both TZ1, we should discuss after the 24 hours are up! I am interested to see how other people outside of my school did. Ugh I have options G and E... Good luck!
Ughhhh they asked about the bloody things I had hoped wouldn't come up :P Likely a 6.
Will discuss tomorrow.
Will discuss tomorrow.
i got a warning yesterday but 24 hours have passed for good now, so how did everyone feel about P2 DBQ besides part B which was fairly easy (I tught neurochem to my classinstead of my teacher) What were those insects, what was the point, most of us didht get what all the fuss was about
Well, let's see.
(TZ2 HL)
P1 was easy. It took me literally ten minutes to solve, and I only changed one or two answers after that. Some questions I wasn't 100% sure of - couldn't remember if nucleosomes included DNA or not, then remembered that the histones alone were called something else - but in the end I doubt I lost more than two marks. Though I did get ridiculously lucky on the sickle cell anemia question: I knew the gene mutation (GAG to GTG) but not the amino acids... oh, hey, there's a table on the previous page.
What was up with the population pyramids? Geography ftw.
P2:
Uncharacteristically easy DBQ. Rest of Section A was odd; easy, but odd. The stem cell question: well, you don't have differentiation without stem cells! What else do you write? I wrote everything I could think of, then added some stuff about therapeutic stem cells - the IB seems to like that sort of thing. Also, the carrier question - why did they specify sex-linked? All carriers are heterozygotes, doesn't matter if the trait is sex-linked or not. I was a bit spooked by that, so I wrote a bunch of extra stuff - all carriers are women, that sort of thing. By the way: 50,000 magnification and 0.1 micrometres, right?
Section B: Annoying mix of nice a/b and bad c or vice versa. I really wanted to answer 9, but the first two questions put me off - I have bad experiences with IB markschemes on things like that (did "discuss benefits/dangers of vaccination" on mocks, lost five points; though that could have been because I ranted about people who campaigned against vaccination). All in all, kinda odd distribution of points - 8 for phototropism seemed too high, though I think I got most of them. Forgot some details about how the plant senses the light, I think. The other question I did was 6; that one was better, just described diabetes followed by an overview of urine production focused on glucose. a/b were easy in both cases though, once again, oddly many points for fibrous/globular proteins. And I wish the glycolysis question had been expanded for 8 - I'm really strong in photosynthesis and cell respiration.
All in all, a decent feeling. I suspect grade boundaries will be lower than last year (last year's questions were much more straightforward, I feel), and I think I did well enough to offset my bad internals.
(TZ2 HL)
P1 was easy. It took me literally ten minutes to solve, and I only changed one or two answers after that. Some questions I wasn't 100% sure of - couldn't remember if nucleosomes included DNA or not, then remembered that the histones alone were called something else - but in the end I doubt I lost more than two marks. Though I did get ridiculously lucky on the sickle cell anemia question: I knew the gene mutation (GAG to GTG) but not the amino acids... oh, hey, there's a table on the previous page.
What was up with the population pyramids? Geography ftw.
P2:
Uncharacteristically easy DBQ. Rest of Section A was odd; easy, but odd. The stem cell question: well, you don't have differentiation without stem cells! What else do you write? I wrote everything I could think of, then added some stuff about therapeutic stem cells - the IB seems to like that sort of thing. Also, the carrier question - why did they specify sex-linked? All carriers are heterozygotes, doesn't matter if the trait is sex-linked or not. I was a bit spooked by that, so I wrote a bunch of extra stuff - all carriers are women, that sort of thing. By the way: 50,000 magnification and 0.1 micrometres, right?
Section B: Annoying mix of nice a/b and bad c or vice versa. I really wanted to answer 9, but the first two questions put me off - I have bad experiences with IB markschemes on things like that (did "discuss benefits/dangers of vaccination" on mocks, lost five points; though that could have been because I ranted about people who campaigned against vaccination). All in all, kinda odd distribution of points - 8 for phototropism seemed too high, though I think I got most of them. Forgot some details about how the plant senses the light, I think. The other question I did was 6; that one was better, just described diabetes followed by an overview of urine production focused on glucose. a/b were easy in both cases though, once again, oddly many points for fibrous/globular proteins. And I wish the glycolysis question had been expanded for 8 - I'm really strong in photosynthesis and cell respiration.
All in all, a decent feeling. I suspect grade boundaries will be lower than last year (last year's questions were much more straightforward, I feel), and I think I did well enough to offset my bad internals.
opaltiger
Well that was schizophrenic.
Don't you hate the 24 hour rule?
Don't you hate the 24 hour rule?
haha. :P
TZ1 testers, we shall discuss soon! (ish... well, not really.)
Meh.
Paper 1 SL: Fine, got atleast 24/30 and managed to control nervyness.
Paper 2 SL: Not so fine, got nerved up very quickly and didn't do as good as I should have on section A (I *STUPIDLY* forgot to add that an allele shares the same gene locus, among other things). The section B questions weren't nice; everything I wanted wasn't there, question 5 I didn't do because of the part a (was worried I'd confused hydrolysis with condensation) question 7 was a no no because I didn't get a chance to go over nerval transport (and that was an 8 mark question) so I ended up doing question 6, part a of which I think I handled well considering nerves, part b I wasn't happy with and I don't think I said enough on part c.
Meh. Hate nerves.
Paper 1 SL: Fine, got atleast 24/30 and managed to control nervyness.
Paper 2 SL: Not so fine, got nerved up very quickly and didn't do as good as I should have on section A (I *STUPIDLY* forgot to add that an allele shares the same gene locus, among other things). The section B questions weren't nice; everything I wanted wasn't there, question 5 I didn't do because of the part a (was worried I'd confused hydrolysis with condensation) question 7 was a no no because I didn't get a chance to go over nerval transport (and that was an 8 mark question) so I ended up doing question 6, part a of which I think I handled well considering nerves, part b I wasn't happy with and I don't think I said enough on part c.
Meh. Hate nerves.
opaltiger
Well, let's see.
(TZ2 HL)
P1 was easy.
P2:
Section B: Annoying mix of nice a/b and bad c or vice versa. I really wanted to answer 9, but the first two questions put me off - I have bad experiences with IB markschemes on things like that (did "discuss benefits/dangers of vaccination" on mocks, lost five points; though that could have been because I ranted about people who campaigned against vaccination). All in all, kinda odd distribution of points - 8 for phototropism seemed too high, though I think I got most of them. Forgot some details about how the plant senses the light, I think. The other question I did was 6; that one was better, just described diabetes followed by an overview of urine production focused on glucose. a/b were easy in both cases though, once again, oddly many points for fibrous/globular proteins. And I wish the glycolysis question had been expanded for 8 - I'm really strong in photosynthesis and cell respiration.
All in all, a decent feeling. I suspect grade boundaries will be lower than last year (last year's questions were much more straightforward, I feel), and I think I did well enough to offset my bad internals.
(TZ2 HL)
P1 was easy.
P2:
Section B: Annoying mix of nice a/b and bad c or vice versa. I really wanted to answer 9, but the first two questions put me off - I have bad experiences with IB markschemes on things like that (did "discuss benefits/dangers of vaccination" on mocks, lost five points; though that could have been because I ranted about people who campaigned against vaccination). All in all, kinda odd distribution of points - 8 for phototropism seemed too high, though I think I got most of them. Forgot some details about how the plant senses the light, I think. The other question I did was 6; that one was better, just described diabetes followed by an overview of urine production focused on glucose. a/b were easy in both cases though, once again, oddly many points for fibrous/globular proteins. And I wish the glycolysis question had been expanded for 8 - I'm really strong in photosynthesis and cell respiration.
All in all, a decent feeling. I suspect grade boundaries will be lower than last year (last year's questions were much more straightforward, I feel), and I think I did well enough to offset my bad internals.
Agree with P1. I hate classification - dropped two easy marks = (.
I also messed on the elbow joint question. The IB specify that the ulna is attached to the triceps ... but I was taught at GCSE that the radius in the bone attached to the thumb.. so i thought in the exam the elbow was from the left hand and not the right... ONE MARK LOST.
I would think I got 37 / 40. The kidney question was sneaky mind you.
Paper 2
I always struggle wid Data Analysis but this one was relatively straight forward. The rest of Section A was straightforward - the stem cell and sex linkage ones.. I felt I had to explain the obvious ? Did anyone feel like this ?
Like you, a and b for all the q's were nice then the 8 mark c's were crazy. how the hell can i find 8 marks for auxin and phototropism ?
I wrote like 6 lines for the fibrous proteins q's - long and narrow and insoluble in water and collagen ? 3 marks ?
I did the ecology q which was weird - 5 marks for the precautionary principle?
I dont feel I did my best but we shall see.
medstar
So no one else felt like they did reeeaaally badly in paper 2 for TZ2...great, then I will be number ONE! 
Me too
Thingeh
Meh.
Paper 1 SL: Fine, got atleast 24/30 and managed to control nervyness.
Paper 2 SL: Not so fine, got nerved up very quickly and didn't do as good as I should have on section A (I *STUPIDLY* forgot to add that an allele shares the same gene locus, among other things). The section B questions weren't nice; everything I wanted wasn't there, question 5 I didn't do because of the part a (was worried I'd confused hydrolysis with condensation) question 7 was a no no because I didn't get a chance to go over nerval transport (and that was an 8 mark question) so I ended up doing question 6, part a of which I think I handled well considering nerves, part b I wasn't happy with and I don't think I said enough on part c.
Meh. Hate nerves.
Paper 1 SL: Fine, got atleast 24/30 and managed to control nervyness.
Paper 2 SL: Not so fine, got nerved up very quickly and didn't do as good as I should have on section A (I *STUPIDLY* forgot to add that an allele shares the same gene locus, among other things). The section B questions weren't nice; everything I wanted wasn't there, question 5 I didn't do because of the part a (was worried I'd confused hydrolysis with condensation) question 7 was a no no because I didn't get a chance to go over nerval transport (and that was an 8 mark question) so I ended up doing question 6, part a of which I think I handled well considering nerves, part b I wasn't happy with and I don't think I said enough on part c.
Meh. Hate nerves.
You mean it was quite easy in the first part those bloody insects question? In my school no one knew what it was about, how about urs? part B was easy and probs the second aprt of part A went well so well amen, all i need is a 4 as I secured a 7 in italian A1 SL, a 7 in french B SL, my only problem now is to pass maths otherwise no ucl for me
Futurdoc
Agree with P1. I hate classification - dropped two easy marks = (.
I also messed on the elbow joint question. The IB specify that the ulna is attached to the triceps ... but I was taught at GCSE that the radius in the bone attached to the thumb.. so i thought in the exam the elbow was from the left hand and not the right... ONE MARK LOST.
I would think I got 37 / 40. The kidney question was sneaky mind you.
Paper 2
I always struggle wid Data Analysis but this one was relatively straight forward. The rest of Section A was straightforward - the stem cell and sex linkage ones.. I felt I had to explain the obvious ? Did anyone feel like this ?
Like you, a and b for all the q's were nice then the 8 mark c's were crazy. how the hell can i find 8 marks for auxin and phototropism ?
I wrote like 6 lines for the fibrous proteins q's - long and narrow and insoluble in water and collagen ? 3 marks ?
I did the ecology q which was weird - 5 marks for the precautionary principle?
I dont feel I did my best but we shall see.
I also messed on the elbow joint question. The IB specify that the ulna is attached to the triceps ... but I was taught at GCSE that the radius in the bone attached to the thumb.. so i thought in the exam the elbow was from the left hand and not the right... ONE MARK LOST.
I would think I got 37 / 40. The kidney question was sneaky mind you.
Paper 2
I always struggle wid Data Analysis but this one was relatively straight forward. The rest of Section A was straightforward - the stem cell and sex linkage ones.. I felt I had to explain the obvious ? Did anyone feel like this ?
Like you, a and b for all the q's were nice then the 8 mark c's were crazy. how the hell can i find 8 marks for auxin and phototropism ?
I wrote like 6 lines for the fibrous proteins q's - long and narrow and insoluble in water and collagen ? 3 marks ?
I did the ecology q which was weird - 5 marks for the precautionary principle?
I dont feel I did my best but we shall see.
I got lucky with the ulna - I'd been looking at that right before the exam. It was D, right? The lower bone?
And yeah, kidney question was tricky - I think a lot of people will see "ultrafiltration" and instantly choose that answer without actually looking at it. Oh, and the water absorption one - answer was small intestine, but water absorption is so intrinsically linked to the large intestine in my mind that I almost said colon.
Section A was exactly that - a lot of stating the obvious. That makes you nervous, though, wondering whether you'd missed something crucial.
andreavivan
You mean it was quite easy in the first part those bloody insects question? In my school no one knew what it was about, how about urs? part B was easy and probs the second aprt of part A went well so well amen, all i need is a 4 as I secured a 7 in italian A1 SL, a 7 in french B SL, my only problem now is to pass maths otherwise no ucl for me
I'm standard level, so I don't have a clue what you mean.
Maths HL?
Edit: OH! It's comming back to me...Hang on...
The bit with the anatomy of digestive system made me go "Wtf...?" and I struggled on the data analysis, wasn't very clear.
opaltiger
I got lucky with the ulna, too - I'd been looking at that right before the exam. It was D, right? The lower bone?
And yeah, kidney question was tricky - I think a lot of people will see "ultrafiltration" and instantly choose that answer without actually looking at it. Oh, and the water absorption one - answer was small intestine, but water absorption is so intrinsically linked to the large intestine in my mind that I almost said colon.
Section A was exactly that - a lot of stating the obvious. That makes you nervous, though, wondering whether you'd missed something crucial.
And yeah, kidney question was tricky - I think a lot of people will see "ultrafiltration" and instantly choose that answer without actually looking at it. Oh, and the water absorption one - answer was small intestine, but water absorption is so intrinsically linked to the large intestine in my mind that I almost said colon.
Section A was exactly that - a lot of stating the obvious. That makes you nervous, though, wondering whether you'd missed something crucial.
Yee the lower bone
I almost said colon, but from the diagram it was Small Intestine so lol
But tomorrow we shall discuss P3.
What options did you do btw?
Quick Reply
Related discussions
- University Application - Cambridge, Imperial, UCL, Manchester, Eidngurgh
- gyg gcse 2024!
- Can I go to a college for A levels at 18?
- Please answer this short questionnaire!
- Newcomer to the uk
- Holding myself accountable; study!
- Do you think A-levels should be structured differently?
- Inquiry about Private Candidates
- A Levels Subject Combination for Law at a Top UK University
- My attempt at not sabotaging my future career!
- What do you need to get DDM?
- My GCSE journey!! 🦞
- Rishi Sunak proposes the Advanced British Standard
- Investing in my future 🤎
- Which program is better for self-study IB DP or A-levels with additional subjects?
- Supermarket Hurt/Heal Game
- igcse edexcel higher maths- what topics to focus on?
- A level Biology vs HL IB biology
- GCSE Exam Discussions 2024
- GCSEs
Latest
Trending
Last reply 2 weeks ago
Should I leave IB year 12 and start foundation coursesLast reply 3 weeks ago
I m not sure abbout the IB combination i want to takeLast reply 5 months ago
Very very URGENT: Is taking both Business sl and Economics hl IB okayTrending
Last reply 2 weeks ago
Should I leave IB year 12 and start foundation coursesLast reply 3 weeks ago
I m not sure abbout the IB combination i want to takeLast reply 5 months ago
Very very URGENT: Is taking both Business sl and Economics hl IB okay
