Biology help

Hey I am currebtly doing the new spec OCR A as level biology and I understand the work it's just I cant apply it very well and I was wondering if you could give me some tips for the exam? Every oast paper I've done I only get C's and once I did get a B but the thing is I know all of the details it's just when it comes to applying the knowledge in exams I can't do it very well

Hey everyone, I am a medical student who doesn't really have time to do any proper, paid tutoring, however I am interested in teaching and helping people in general. I have tutored before, so if anyone is stuck on any GCSE/AS/A2 biology (or chemistry too for that matter) then feel free to ask and I'll help. Also if anyone has any questions about applying to medical school then I can help there too as I was in that position only last year, so it's fresh in my mind. I got 4 A's at AS and 3 A*s at A2 (bio, chem, maths, all above 95%)

Hi, would you be able to help me out with a definition for metabolic activity please?

Hi, so metabolism/metabolic activity is just a broad term for all the enzyme controlled chemical reactions that happen in a cell. It's split into catabolism (making small molecules from large ones) and anabolism (large molecules from small ones). An example of catabolism would be the conversion of glucose to energy (ATP molecules). Metabolic activity varies to suit the needs of the body, for example of you exercise, metabolic activity will increase so that more glucose is converted to ATP. However the basic lowest level of reactions occuring in a cell (ie the rate of reactions happening while you're resting) is known as basal metabolic rate. But you don't need to know about that. If you're still unsure of something then let me know

Thank you!! I'm not too sure on what lysosomes are either?

So a lysosome is a type of organelle, which are distinct, recognisable structures in a cell with a specific function. The function of a lysosome is to carry out "intracellular digestion". Intracellular just means "within the cell", so lysosomes contain many different "hydrolytic" enzymes which breakdown things inside the cell that it doesn't need. This may be if the cell has taken in something bad (for example bacteria), or if it just wants to get rid of molecules that the cell no longer need. The contents of this breakdown are then usually recycled.

Hi, yh biology is a tricky one where knowing the content only helps very little, they like to ask how science works questions alot more in biology which do require you to think. It's sadly not something that can be taught, so the best thing to do is make sure you nail any factual based questions, and then with the more wishy washy questions, just sit back and think for a minute, understand what the question is asking and what it is looking for, and just use logic, write what makes sense and apply what you know where appropriate, think of scientific reasons which may be causing the thing you're trying to explain. I can't really think of a particularly structured method to go about answering these, I just sort of wrote what came to mind, sometimes it was right and sometimes it wasn't. Don't worry too much though, people very rarely get anywhere near full marks on those questions, it's all ********, you just have to make up any lost marks in the sciencey questions, grade boundaries are also always lower for biology because no one can do HSW questions very well at all, I couldn't, and many others in my school couldn't, as long as you get 1 or 2 per question then it all adds up, so just write everything you can think of, and something in there will be right. Also do every past paper available to you when it comes to revising (even if they're old spec), as they do sometimes repeat questions with slightly different wording. I went slightly overboard last year for my A2s and wrote out mark scheme answers for every tricky HSW question that there has ever been, and then I learnt them. I also made some of my own questions that may have come up (none did though). But that might be a bit too much, you don't even need to do that to get an A*, but I wanted the best mark possible and went all out (although I only revised for 1 week for my A-levels, it's amazing how much you can get done in that time!), and I only dropped like 7 UMS overall for A level biology. So I wouldn't recommend trying to learn previous answers unless you think it will help. Best of luck!

Hey everyone, I am a medical student who doesn't really have time to do any proper, paid tutoring, however I am interested in teaching and helping people in general. I have tutored before, so if anyone is stuck on any GCSE/AS/A2 biology (or chemistry too for that matter) then feel free to ask and I'll help. Also if anyone has any questions about applying to medical school then I can help there too as I was in that position only last year, so it's fresh in my mind. I got 4 A's at AS and 3 A*s at A2 (bio, chem, maths, all above 95%)

Hey, I recently found out you need 6 As to get into medicine (in GCSE's) . I don't have those grades but will universites still accept me if I get their A level grades ? Also I have a bio test tomorrow and I am really confused about meiosis on how you go from two chromosomes to 4 .
Thanks

Hi I was wondering if anyone could help me with the natural selection/geographical isolation/other related 4-6mark questions we get asked, i kind of need help making a markscheme model answer for them I'd appreciate it a lot if someone could i really struggle with them Thanks!


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Hey buddy, so some medical schools have minimum GCSE requirements, some don't, some might just require you to have A's in maths, science and english for example while some might be on the other end of the spectrum and require you to have atleast 7 A*s. You'll have to look in the individual prospectuses/websites to find out which unis need what grades. If you're really in doubt, then ring up the unis.

As for meiosis, I don't know how much detail you need, but the essential principal is that you start off with a "germ cell", which is diploid (this means that it has a chromosome from your mum and your dad). This means it contains 46 chromosomes in total (23 pairs). What happens is, these chromosomes replicate in a phase called interphase, so that each cell has twice as much DNA as it originally did. These form the classic >< shaped chromosomes, each > is called a chromatid and both chromatids are joined at a centromere. Anyway, in meiosis I, the chromosome pairs (called homologous pairs) are separated to form 2 haploid cells, each haploid cell contains 23 chromosomes in this X shape. Meiosis II then separates the CHROMATIDS into separate cells, which are the gametes. As the original germ cell had 92 CHROMATIDS you end up with 4 gametes per germ cell (92/23 = 4). That is the relatively complicated version (although we haven't gone into independent segregation etc yet).

The very simple version is, you have 1 cell with 23 homologous (chromosome) pairs, i.e. 46 chromosomes, this cell divides into 2 cells with 23 chromosomes each. However, as these cells contain twice as much DNA as usual (i.e. 2 copies of each chromosome) then each cell divides once more each into 4 cells each with 1 copy of a chromosome.

Hey buddy, so some medical schools have minimum GCSE requirements, some don't, some might just require you to have A's in maths, science and english for example while some might be on the other end of the spectrum and require you to have atleast 7 A*s. You'll have to look in the individual prospectuses/websites to find out which unis need what grades. If you're really in doubt, then ring up the unis.

As for meiosis, I don't know how much detail you need, but the essential principal is that you start off with a "germ cell", which is diploid (this means that it has a chromosome from your mum and your dad). This means it contains 46 chromosomes in total (23 pairs). What happens is, these chromosomes replicate in a phase called interphase, so that each cell has twice as much DNA as it originally did. These form the classic >< shaped chromosomes, each > is called a chromatid and both chromatids are joined at a centromere. Anyway, in meiosis I, the chromosome pairs (called homologous pairs) are separated to form 2 haploid cells, each haploid cell contains 23 chromosomes in this X shape. Meiosis II then separates the CHROMATIDS into separate cells, which are the gametes. As the original germ cell had 92 CHROMATIDS you end up with 4 gametes per germ cell (92/23 = 4). That is the relatively complicated version (although we haven't gone into independent segregation etc yet).

The very simple version is, you have 1 cell with 23 homologous (chromosome) pairs, i.e. 46 chromosomes, this cell divides into 2 cells with 23 chromosomes each. However, as these cells contain twice as much DNA as usual (i.e. 2 copies of each chromosome) then each cell divides once more each into 4 cells each with 1 copy of a chromosome.

Hey everyone, I am a medical student who doesn't really have time to do any proper, paid tutoring, however I am interested in teaching and helping people in general. I have tutored before, so if anyone is stuck on any GCSE/AS/A2 biology (or chemistry too for that matter) then feel free to ask and I'll help. Also if anyone has any questions about applying to medical school then I can help there too as I was in that position only last year, so it's fresh in my mind. I got 4 A's at AS and 3 A*s at A2 (bio, chem, maths, all above 95%)

Hi, yh biology is a tricky one where knowing the content only helps very little, they like to ask how science works questions alot more in biology which do require you to think. It's sadly not something that can be taught, so the best thing to do is make sure you nail any factual based questions, and then with the more wishy washy questions, just sit back and think for a minute, understand what the question is asking and what it is looking for, and just use logic, write what makes sense and apply what you know where appropriate, think of scientific reasons which may be causing the thing you're trying to explain. I can't really think of a particularly structured method to go about answering these, I just sort of wrote what came to mind, sometimes it was right and sometimes it wasn't. Don't worry too much though, people very rarely get anywhere near full marks on those questions, it's all ********, you just have to make up any lost marks in the sciencey questions, grade boundaries are also always lower for biology because no one can do HSW questions very well at all, I couldn't, and many others in my school couldn't, as long as you get 1 or 2 per question then it all adds up, so just write everything you can think of, and something in there will be right. Also do every past paper available to you when it comes to revising (even if they're old spec), as they do sometimes repeat questions with slightly different wording. I went slightly overboard last year for my A2s and wrote out mark scheme answers for every tricky HSW question that there has ever been, and then I learnt them. I also made some of my own questions that may have come up (none did though). But that might be a bit too much, you don't even need to do that to get an A*, but I wanted the best mark possible and went all out (although I only revised for 1 week for my A-levels, it's amazing how much you can get done in that time!), and I only dropped like 7 UMS overall for A level biology. So I wouldn't recommend trying to learn previous answers unless you think it will help. Best of luck!

Hi, could please help me with my Empa practical exam since you have all the experience?

would be kind to share any notes? please i am really struggling with bio

I can't quite understand what's the difference between geographical and Reproductive isolation in terms of how they lead to speciation ?

Many thanks

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I'm doing Chemistry, Biology and sociology.
Does it put me in a disadvantage if I'm doing sociology to apply for medicine in university?