GCSE Edexcel Biology B2 Additional Science- June 2013

Original post by lewisarbucks

How did everyone find the exam? I thought it was pretty good, quite happy with it to be honest!

I hated it. I knew basically everything on the syllabus yet the 3 things I didn't know and said before I walked into the hall 'I hope ---- doesn't come up!' came up. :mad:

Probably got an E.

Reply 10

It was pretty easy but not as easy as I'd expected... the last two questions were a little hard. There wasn't much to write for the last six marker (xylem, phloem, transpiration, osmosis, active transport, root hair cells) and the one before that was slightly wierd. Actually I quite disliked question 5.

Also for the tick box on whether minerals moving from a high concentration in the soil into a low concentration in the plant - that's diffusion? Unless I misread the question and it's active transport.

EDIT: And yeah to be fair it was annoying that stuff on the heart and digestion system (asides from six marker) didn't come up. Would've been nice also if there had been a six marker on protein synthesis as there is a lot of stuff to write!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 11

The majority of my year found it incredibly easy though and therefore if everyone has done well, the grade boundaries will be higher. Hooray! :hmpf:

Reply 12

Original post by Clai

It was pretty easy but not as easy as I'd expected... the last two questions were a little hard. There wasn't much to write for the last six marker (xylem, phloem, transpiration, osmosis, active transport, root hair cells) and the one before that was slightly wierd. Actually I quite disliked question 5.

Also for the tick box on whether minerals moving from a high concentration in the soil into a low concentration in the plant - that's diffusion? Unless I misread the question and it's active transport.

EDIT: And yeah to be fair it was annoying that stuff on the heart and digestion system (asides from six marker) didn't come up. Would've been nice also if there had been a six marker on protein synthesis as there is a lot of stuff to write!

I put diffusion. I thought it was active transport but there was no option for active transport. I wrote about xylem, phloem, osmosis, active transport and root hair cells in that question too but when I looked at it, it was about 5 lines and didn't seem enough to get 6 marks.

Reply 13

Original post by Katie97

The majority of my year found it incredibly easy though and therefore if everyone has done well, the grade boundaries will be higher. Hooray! :hmpf:

Surely it's better for you if everyone else found it hard and the grade boundaries are low? Unless you know you've aced it of course.

Reply 14

flash2013

does anyone else think that the first question wasn't very well worded?

Reply 15

Original post by Clai

Surely it's better for you if everyone else found it hard and the grade boundaries are low? Unless you know you've aced it of course.

It would, I was being sarcastic. :frown:

I got the whole first page wrong. Wrote transcription instead of translation. What did you all put for the land animals not evolving until enough oxygen was in the air question?

Reply 16

Original post by flash2013

does anyone else think that the first question wasn't very well worded?

Yeah same it was terribly worded! They didn't make it clear whether the codon table they gave was referring to what the tRNA codon was or what the tRNA codon attached itself to, so you had to work it out yourself.

Reply 17

Original post by Katie97

It would, I was being sarcastic. :frown:

I got the whole first page wrong. Wrote transcription instead of translation. What did you all put for the land animals not evolving until enough oxygen was in the air question?

Oh right sorry! :redface:

Well since oxygen is needed for respiration, which produces energy, which can be used in growth, then naturally a lack of oxygen means they cannot carry out as much respiration and therefore grow as much. You can never tell with those questions though because they are asking you to speculate using what you know and your logic.

Reply 18

flash2013

Original post by Clai

Yeah same it was terribly worded! They didn't make it clear whether the codon table they gave was referring to what the tRNA codon was or what the tRNA codon attached itself to, so you had to work it out yourself.

i cant remember what the answer was but i put something like: TAA JSS WER (just random letters as an example)

Reply 19