Edexcel A2 Biology Unit 5 (6BIO5) - 22/06/2011- OFFICIAL THREAD !

I think the 2nd one was like "Phytochromes can respond to all wavelengths of light"

It was, I believe. That's why I decided it was false, as they only respond to red/Far red :P
Although my friend interpreted it as 'respond to light', but I'm glad I'm not the only one who read it like that :smile:

Reply 4461

abbas1994

1

does anyone know how much each question was out of?

Reply 4462

abbas1994

1

Original post by MartinK84

There was a question asking if they can respond to wavelengths, but that wasnt the second one.
That one wasnt as obvious.

I remember it was the second one too, dw though, it's only one mark :smile:

Reply 4463

MartinK84

another tricky question was, when they they asked 'suggest why rats with increased spine synapse count/density are better at finding food'?
(cant remember precise wording, you know the question where Group P of rats which starved were compared with other rats that didn't' )
That was pretty confusing for me, as the question said that they examined the rat's brains, but then the Data in the Table showed the SPINE not the Brain, which is not where a Rat would think, as that happens in the brain...

Reply 4464

PrismaticCore

Original post by antidotes-

oooh at least someone put the same as me! :biggrin:

haha
bit of a strange paper on the whole.. didn't really feel like you had to know that much actually biology to really answer the questions...
loved the multiple choice questions at the very beginning!

I've spent all day feeling absolutely cheated by Edexcel. I feel like I spent ages learning stuff that was barely even relevant to the exam.
There wasn't even any synoptic stuff!!
As for the multiple choice questions...Grey Matter would've provided excellent 6 marker questions??!?!!!!??

But I shouldn't complain, the exam could've been far far worse.

Reply 4465

PrismaticCore

That awkward moment when the thread appears to be incorrect as the date isn't the right one.

Reply 4466

Moleman101

Original post by MartinK84

another tricky question was, when they they asked 'suggest why rats with increased spine synapse count/density are better at finding food'?
(cant remember precise wording, you know the question where Group P of rats which starved were compared with other rats that didn't' )
That was pretty confusing for me, as the question said that they examined the rat's brains, but then the Data in the Table showed the SPINE not the Brain, which is not where a Rat would think, as that happens in the brain...

It was talking about the spine density of the neurones in the brain, not the spine itself

Reply 4467

Niiiiiiiiiick

Original post by PrismaticCore

I've spent all day feeling absolutely cheated by Edexcel. I feel like I spent ages learning stuff that was barely even relevant to the exam.
There wasn't even any synoptic stuff!!
As for the multiple choice questions...Grey Matter would've provided excellent 6 marker questions??!?!!!!??

But I shouldn't complain, the exam could've been far far worse.

There was one synoptic link - phase 3 trials. but yeah, the paper could have been worse. Just i hate suggest questions because it's like what was the point in learning everything we did if we just have to suggest other things! :P

Reply 4468

ash356

Original post by PrismaticCore

That awkward moment when the thread appears to be incorrect as the date isn't the right one.

Yeah, it's been doing that quite a bit. It's caught in 'temporal flux' or something else I probably heard off Back to the Future :P
Did anyone else find they were basically re-writing out information from the article for a significant amount of the question 7? It seemed a bit too...copy-pasta, or at least how I ended up doing some of them.

Reply 4469

Moleman101

Original post by Niiiiiiiiiick

There was one synoptic link - phase 3 trials. but yeah, the paper could have been worse. Just i hate suggest questions because it's like what was the point in learning everything we did if we just have to suggest other things! :P

For phase 3 was that the placebo trail?

Reply 4470

MartinK84

Original post by Moleman101

spine density of the neurones in the brain

- Spine density in the Brain ? whats that?

Reply 4471

PrismaticCore

Original post by ash356

Yeah, it's been doing that quite a bit. It's caught in 'temporal flux' or something else I probably heard off Back to the Future :P
Did anyone else find they were basically re-writing out information from the article for a significant amount of the question 7? It seemed a bit too...copy-pasta, or at least how I ended up doing some of them.

Yes!!

A whole five-marker where all I did was copy out paragraph 40 and 41??!
Are they being serious or what???!

Reply 4472

ash356

Original post by MartinK84

- Spine density in the Brain ? whats that?

I believe they mentioned in part of the question that it was something to do with the number of synapses on a neurone or something.
When I first saw the data I was like 'WTF?' but then it clarified what it meant somewhere in the question.

Reply 4473

PrismaticCore

Original post by Niiiiiiiiiick

There was one synoptic link - phase 3 trials. but yeah, the paper could have been worse. Just i hate suggest questions because it's like what was the point in learning everything we did if we just have to suggest other things! :P

Bah, you can barely call that synoptic, that's one of those 'science things' they try to drum into you in both Chemistry and Biology.
I was expecting a beautiful 6-marker on HIV/AIDS :frown:

But I totally anticipated the 'Give the structure of a triglyceride' one. I would've been really surprised if it hadn't come up.

Reply 4474

Niiiiiiiiiick

Original post by PrismaticCore

Bah, you can barely call that synoptic, that's one of those 'science things' they try to drum into you in both Chemistry and Biology.
I was expecting a beautiful 6-marker on HIV/AIDS :frown:

But I totally anticipated the 'Give the structure of a triglyceride' one. I would've been really surprised if it hadn't come up.

I revised all of the coronary heart disease, the inflammatory response and all the exercise stuff for the scientific article! And then it was just the structure of a triglyceride! Edexcel suck. :frown:

Reply 4475

MartinK84

What about the question where they asked to 'suggest how PET works or why glucose isnt broken down' or something like that
- at that point I ran out of time, there was just too much 'copy and paste' writing on the last few subQuestions of the synoptic paper.

Reply 4476

ash356

Original post by PrismaticCore

Yes!!

A whole five-marker where all I did was copy out paragraph 40 and 41??!
Are they being serious or what???!

Yeah, it seemed more akin to one of the old SAT 'English Reading'* tests than Biology, to be completely honest.
*Or something alone those lines - the ones where you just read through a booklet and the answers were practically just given to you, albeit more wordy :L

Reply 4477

sceptic_medic

9

Look at it on the bright side. Grade boundaries are characteristically low for this paper. And for the majority of us that will be our last experience with Edexcel.. NEVER AGAIN!!!!

Reply 4478

zincoff

I just thought that paper was stupid.
I know people complained about unit 4, but at least it tested us on a fair amount of content from each topic- maybe not on all the sub topics but at least it touched on all areas in a general sense.

The pre-release section was silly, because aside from the triglyceride question, it did not differentiate between candidates in both their preparation and aptitude for the subject, it only determined which candidates were better at comprehension questions. It was literally copying and pasting.