alevel snab a biology

To be safe, I would recommend using the term

which term?

To be safe, I would recommend using the term control group over the term placebo. This is because placebos explicitly refer to "dummy drugs" with no active ingredients made to look like a real drug whilst a control group covers a broader range of terms that might also include things such as a currently active treatment for an illness.

hope this helps

ah thank u!! but yk how sometimes in order to get the mark u need to describe what ur control group is, in that case what would u say? would it be best to say both placebo and existing drug to be safe since there’s no negative marking and they’ll ignore the other if it’s not in the ms?

Placebos are often used when there is no existing effective treatment for a disease. If the mark scheme specifies ignoring the term 'placebo' I would suggest you name the control group as any treatment that already exists as it might be a safer answer than naming both.