CCEA GCSE exams 2016 *official only CCEA thread*

Did anyone do biology unit 2 (double award) today??

Yeah, I found it pretty straightforward. I thought the last question was a bit silly for 6 marks. I just tried to explain the results of each in as much detail as possible.

Everyone seems to think it was pretty easy, and I'm not complaining about the last 6 marker cos I knew the experiment in so much detail Ty ccea

grade boundaries will be ridiculous for biology! didn't like some of the questions, especially IVF 6 marker

EDIT: I do single award
I thought it was ok except question one really confused me lol! For the last question I wrote that heat would increase active uptake as it would increase aerobic respiration which is needed for the nitrates to move against the concentration gradient but I have no idea if that's right. For the agar jelly one did you guys shade the whole thing?

no way i loved that 6 mark i didnt think there was much to say for the swan neck question tbh it was okay though over all

i didnt revise ivf in depth so couldnt get 6 points but i wrote basically that they undergo hormone treatment, the surgically remove the eggs, mix with sperm to fuse, then treatment to build up the uterus lining and then implantation of embryos 😅

I said that- higher temperature, more energy so molecules move faster and increased active uptake/diffusion!

And I didn't shade the whole thing but I think you were supposed to!

How'd you find the bloodworm question?

I just shaded in most of the circle not all of it, I'm sure they'll have some variation in the answers so not one answer is definitely right.
I thought the bloodworm question was easy about indicator species and they like low oxygen etc.
For the burning and cutting down of the trees did you say about, combustion and photosynthesis and respiration, global warming etc..
Really annoyed it was mostly plants and there was hardly any human stuff like digestion and neurones there were people crying in the exam because they couldn't do it

For the bloodworms I wrote wayyy too much. I said bloodworms are an indicator species that only survive in low oxygen conditions. I then said that from the graph you could see that the more nitrates the less oxygen so the one with the highest nitrogen concentration would have the most bloodworms. Also aquatic animals died if there was less than 3mg/l oxygen which there would be at the concentration I picked meaning that decomposers would break them down using the oxygen in aerobic respiration reducing the oxygen content meaning more bloodworms. Needless to say I needed more paper for that one haha.



In my school the triple award class (the really sciencey people) thought it was really good and the people who just do biology on its own (the not so sciencey people) thought it was really bad. Were people actually crying in your exam? That'd be really off-putting!

Anyone do business? I thought it was pretty good but it was practically a copy and paste job of the 2013 paper which I did yesterday rofl. Last question threw me a bit and I think that my analysis of the income statement and cash flow forecasts were pretty bad haha.

Btw for business studies, was it off the job training? And what did everyone say for the expected preformance from cash flow

I messed up 1 or 2 questions. I got a little messed up on. I can get 77% and get an A* still so i'm not too bothered. My controlled assessment was full marks and I got 127 for unit 1.

Anyway. The exam was okay. Most of it was straightforward.

Yes, it was off-the-job training. They highlighted "at a training centre" in the question. Induction training (which many people put) can fall under off/on the job therefore it would be incorrect as per CCEA's mark scheme with an identical question last year.

Cash flow, the question about if it's inaccurate? Basically said that if it's inaccurate you won't have the cash at the right time to pay suppliers and with a lack of raw materials you may not be able to produce and therefore result in closing down. You won't be able to get loans from banks if your cash flow is unreliable/inaccurate and you won't be able to pay staff. That's what I said.

Only other question I got messed up on was application letter. Didn't have a clue. I thought it'd be similar to an application form and put that they can tailor it to the exact needs of a business however the employee can falsify their information on the document.

For the last question:

The business is net profit percentage = 30% therefore a business is making 30% profits per £1. Therefore the business is making 30p profits per every £1 it sells so we can see that the business is making a profit. Successful businesses make a profit.

Then from part A of the question we knew that they were growing and experiencing economies of scale so I mentioned about how growing with economies of scale and increasing your market share is a sign of success in the business.

I need around 90-94% for an a* i wrote in cash flow, have to close- refuced profits during time, have to sell stock - reduced profitability and i said may have to cut back on employees- business start to fail or something was too rushed to think about that one. What did u say for the 4 mark about how the forecast of their expected products in the future after august?

What question was that? I thought it said compare end of July with August.