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RESIT Edexcel Biology Unit 1 - 26th May (6BI01)

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So glad someone else feels the same! I'm just kind of looking over it and highlighting it thinking... Right what is the purpose of this? Hahaha, maybe it's been explained better in schools
Original post by moonandstars
So glad someone else feels the same! I'm just kind of looking over it and highlighting it thinking... Right what is the purpose of this? Hahaha, maybe it's been explained better in schools


Right so basically, the Unit 5 paper has I think about 40 marks dedicated to a scientific article. These will be questions based on parts of the article (so for example if the article mentions gene therapy there could be a question on it.)

The questions can be synoptic (meaning they cover other past units such as 1 and 2) and they can make a whole question from a single word such as "Drugs".
In relation to how relevant it is, you can choose to read through it or not, just to get an idea of what the questions could be, but I personally think as long as you know all your units, there's no need to read through it as you'll hopefully know the stuff anyway.
The article is given with your Unit 5 paper in the exam as well.
Hope this helps :smile:
I think it is more for the people who are not retaking AS, it gives an idea of what topics could come up for that section, but my teacher said it doesn't help too much. some of the questions will take part of the report so you read through that section and answer a question on a topic which might be slightly related to the text. It isn't really worth spending hours on going through it just pick out some topics you recognize and go over them, thats all i really know, sorry if it isn't that helpful!
Reply 143
Original post by Kat_b255
I'm also doing fast track biology as an external candidate - it's stressful! I found the paper hard and much harder than the past papers I'd been practising with. I completely messed up question 8 about the malaria and anaemia as I was rushing and didn't read the question properly. Need to do better on the next 3! :-/


Totally agree about the difficulty and the fact that the paper was not a true reflection of the past papers available online!

I just hope unit 2 is kinder than unit 1!
Reply 144
Original post by moonandstars
Ah that's good! Well done :biggrin: I wish mine would give me an idea of my grade! It's so stressful isn't it. I feel not too bad but it's more the unit 4 and 5! At the risk of asking a stupid question, I don't really understand the purpose of the pre release article? Should I be learning it and understanding it will I be asked questions about it in the exam? It hasn't really been explained to me that well by my distance course - can anyone shed some light ?! Sorry


so glad it's not just me worrying about unit 4 & 5! they were always going to be my weakest papers. With the nightmare I had in the unit 1 paper, i'm petrified about papers 4 & 5!
How's everyone feeling for tomorrow ?
how did everyone find it?
I'm really unsure!! I answered everything and didn't run out of time like the last time ... Felt like it went okay but not sure don't want to jinx it. The 'why are the cells smaller' etc question got me but I think that must have just been a gap in my revision or something I should have read in more depth but I struggled to answer that, I just described mitosis haha. Wish we could see a mark scheme! How did you find it? :smile: Also what did everyone put for the ratio one
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by moonandstars
I'm really unsure!! I answered everything and didn't run out of time like the last time ... Felt like it went okay but not sure don't want to jinx it. The 'why are the cells smaller' etc question got me but I think that must have just been a gap in my revision or something I should have read in more depth but I struggled to answer that, I just described mitosis haha. Wish we could see a mark scheme! How did you find it? :smile: Also what did everyone put for the ratio one


That question threw me off a bit too actually haha, wasn't sure how i felt about it i don't think i got the marks there. I am not great at maths but i put the first on i think 5:8 just because it seemed most logical and i didnt want to waste my time on it as i normally lose those marks, what did you put for it?
Original post by Silverstars123
That question threw me off a bit too actually haha, wasn't sure how i felt about it i don't think i got the marks there. I am not great at maths but i put the first on i think 5:8 just because it seemed most logical and i didnt want to waste my time on it as i normally lose those marks, what did you put for it?


Ah I'm glad I'm not the only one! I just kind of waffled hoping I could pick a mark up somewhere. The other one I was unsure about was the question about adding a suggestion of a change of method on the experiment about plant extract effect/bacteria... I put adding a control group of water to increase validity but then when I read everything again it occurred to me I should have put something about doing more repeats with the flower rather than stalk/leaf but I had no space or time to change it, so hoping they will accept that as a suggestion.
Funnily enough thats exactly what I put too and for that exact reason haha! Best of Luck :biggrin: hope the grade boundaries are kind to us too
(edited 7 years ago)
Hope the grade boundaries are low but I doubt it :frown:. I spent a good 5 minutes on that "why do cells get smaller" question and still couldn't come up with something feasible to write :colone:
Just googled it and I think it is 5:8 :smile: could be wrong though
Original post by moonandstars
Ah I'm glad I'm not the only one! I just kind of waffled hoping I could pick a mark up somewhere. The other one I was unsure about was the question about adding a suggestion of a change of method on the experiment about plant extract effect/bacteria... I put adding a control group of water to increase validity but then when I read everything again it occurred to me I should have put something about doing more repeats with the flower rather than stalk/leaf but I had no space or time to change it, so hoping they will accept that as a suggestion.
Funnily enough thats exactly what I put too and for that exact reason haha! Best of Luck :biggrin: hope the grade boundaries are kind to us too


haha yes I did the same thing:smile: yes that one I put down repeat for reliability but at first i read the question wrong and changed it. I am sure a control group will still get the mark though!!
well lets just hope we guessed right!
good luck:smile:
Reply 153
Agree that this one was better than the first paper. I put 5:8 for the ratio question and so did the other candidate sitting the exam with me. Made an error with the rabbit question on suggesting a suitable control - thought they were asking for a suitable control test not an actual control e.g. rabbit same age, weight etc..... so I put (paraphrasing) get a rabbit shave its back and don't put a cold pack on it! DOH! thankfully i'm laughing about it now!

Cells getting smaller and the outcome of the S phase questions - threw me, my fault as I didn't revise it.

is there an unofficial mark scheme out yet?
Original post by mpwb
Agree that this one was better than the first paper. I put 5:8 for the ratio question and so did the other candidate sitting the exam with me. Made an error with the rabbit question on suggesting a suitable control - thought they were asking for a suitable control test not an actual control e.g. rabbit same age, weight etc..... so I put (paraphrasing) get a rabbit shave its back and don't put a cold pack on it! DOH! thankfully i'm laughing about it now!

Cells getting smaller and the outcome of the S phase questions - threw me, my fault as I didn't revise it.

is there an unofficial mark scheme out yet?


I would love to see a mark scheme! where can you usually find them? haha aww, dont worry I think I put temperature of the room but then wasn't sure if that was irrelevant in an experiment where you are studying temperature........ but we shall see. Glad I can just focus on A level now but the panic has set in for that
so is everyone here also doing units 4 and 5 then? im struggling alot with unit 4 and the immune response :/ would anyone be able to give me some guidence or an easy way of remembering some of the stages?
Original post by Silverstars123
so is everyone here also doing units 4 and 5 then? im struggling alot with unit 4 and the immune response :/ would anyone be able to give me some guidence or an easy way of remembering some of the stages?


Have you got the GCP revision guide? I think it's really clearly written regarding the immune response.

I'm struggling with photosynthesis and remembering all the different stages and what is made/used when. Any tips for learning this?

There is just so much content for 4 and 5 I almost don't know where to start! :-(
Original post by Kat_b255
Have you got the GCP revision guide? I think it's really clearly written regarding the immune response.

I'm struggling with photosynthesis and remembering all the different stages and what is made/used when. Any tips for learning this?

There is just so much content for 4 and 5 I almost don't know where to start! :-(


I don't no everyone said the revision guide wasn't very good so i got a different one.
what i did for learning photosynthesis was split up respiration and photosynthesis so i didnt get any of the stages mixed up and i then just split it up and wrote it out step by step and repeated saying it out loud, i sounded silly but i found that repetition was the only proper way of learning this.
but yes i know exactly what you mean there is just so much content :s-smilie:
Original post by Silverstars123
haha yes I did the same thing:smile: yes that one I put down repeat for reliability but at first i read the question wrong and changed it. I am sure a control group will still get the mark though!!
well lets just hope we guessed right!
good luck:smile:


my two control groups were volume and concentration of enzyme solution?

Would that be right?
Original post by mpwb
Agree that this one was better than the first paper. I put 5:8 for the ratio question and so did the other candidate sitting the exam with me. Made an error with the rabbit question on suggesting a suitable control - thought they were asking for a suitable control test not an actual control e.g. rabbit same age, weight etc..... so I put (paraphrasing) get a rabbit shave its back and don't put a cold pack on it! DOH! thankfully i'm laughing about it now!

Cells getting smaller and the outcome of the S phase questions - threw me, my fault as I didn't revise it.

is there an unofficial mark scheme out yet?


for the s phase out come i just said that there would be two copies of the dna from the dna replication.

For the cells getting smaller i waffled a bit but the jist of what i was trying to say was that each time it divides the cells lose mass as they split in two and therefore each subsequent division would be smaller as the cell would lose mass each time.

Some of the questions were tricky, not because of the biology but because of what they were asking or how they asked it.

Like that question comparing organs and tissues threw me as i knew organs were made up of tissues and had never thought to compare them.

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