Edexcel A2 Biology SNAB 6BI04 ~ 6BIO5 June 2016

We should try and push edexcel to make a new paper.. It is possible, they did it for the June 2013 paper in maths c3 or 4! Sign the petition!! https://www.change.org/p/edexcel-lower-grade-boundaries-for-edexcel-unit-4-a2-biology-paper

Reply 821

username1884577

19

You can sign as many petitions as you want, I guarantee nothing will come from it.

It is common knowledge that A2 is SYNOPTIC - meaning they can ask anything from AS as well as A2.

Reply 822

DENTISTLAURA

1

Original post by A-LJLB

You can sign as many petitions as you want, I guarantee nothing will come from it.

It is common knowledge that A2 is SYNOPTIC - meaning they can ask anything from AS as well as A2.

I get what you mean, I knew it was synoptic and I tried to go over as much AS as possible but the argument is not that it had AS content, the argument is that almost every question was based entirely on AS knowledge instead of A2 knowledge - one 3 marker on how b cells are activated hardly tests our knowledge about the entire immune system topic so how can this paper adaquately show how well we knew unit 4 when it was essentially a unit 2 exam

Reply 823

geekykid25

1

So true 😞 Don't think they'll do anything. 2013 C3 was like this and not much change happened. Guys lets just concentrate on unit 5, hopefully they'll be a little bit loyal. Says me, the one that thinks she got under 50% 😂

Reply 824

tayloryeah

6

Original post by A-LJLB

You can sign as many petitions as you want, I guarantee nothing will come from it.

It is common knowledge that A2 is SYNOPTIC - meaning they can ask anything from AS as well as A2.

Yeah, it's not synoptic in the sense that the whole paper should be synoptic, it's meant to be a few questions here and there. They extracted 2 out of many spec points. And basically copied and pasted the January 2014 IAL paper.

Reply 825

tayloryeah

6

Original post by geekykid25

So true 😞 Don't think they'll do anything. 2013 C3 was like this and not much change happened. Guys lets just concentrate on unit 5, hopefully they'll be a little bit loyal. Says me, the one that thinks she got under 50% 😂

They re wrote a paper for June 2013

Reply 826

username1884577

19

Original post by tayloryeah

Yeah, it's not synoptic in the sense that the whole paper should be synoptic, it's meant to be a few questions here and there. They extracted 2 out of many spec points. And basically copied and pasted the January 2014 IAL paper.

Original post by DENTISTLAURA

I get what you mean, I knew it was synoptic and I tried to go over as much AS as possible but the argument is not that it had AS content, the argument is that almost every question was based entirely on AS knowledge instead of A2 knowledge - one 3 marker on how b cells are activated hardly tests our knowledge about the entire immune system topic so how can this paper adaquately show how well we knew unit 4 when it was essentially a unit 2 exam

The argument on the petition is that "students did not know hey had to revise this content" but it's synoptic, so they did.

If you look at past papers unfortunately a lot are like that

Reply 827

tayloryeah

6

Original post by A-LJLB

The argument on the petition is that "students did not know hey had to revise this content" but it's synoptic, so they did.

If you look at past papers unfortunately a lot are like that

I have done all the past papers and the only one that was "like that" was January 2014 (IAL) the rest of the papers had a FAIR share of unit 4 knowledge.

Reply 828

setarcos

8

Original post by tayloryeah

I have done all the past papers and the only one that was "like that" was January 2014 (IAL) the rest of the papers had a FAIR share of unit 4 knowledge.

Would rather forget about it and work on unit 5 and other exams than have to revise for another unit 4 bio exam tbh, despite how badly it might have gone.

Reply 829

nav1234567

4

Original post by Millie_mcl

http://www.slideteam.net/media/catalog/product/cache/2/thumbnail/543x403/c68698d68bdc5cacf3dcc75ce675b615/0/6/0614_plasma_cell_immune_system_medical_images_for_powerpoint_Slide01.jpg

this is the actual photo used. You can clearly see it is the rough endoplasmic reticulum. Look guys it's only 4 or 5 marks at the most. Which to some of you seems a lot but put it this way you can lose 20-25 marks and still get an A or an A*. Stop *****ing and whining what's done is done smh.

Reply 830

sockface

1

Original post by nav1234567

this is the actual photo used. You can clearly see it is the rough endoplasmic reticulum. Look guys it's only 4 or 5 marks at the most. Which to some of you seems a lot but put it this way you can lose 20-25 marks and still get an a or an a*. Stop *****ing and whining what's done is done smh.

if u write ribosomes will u get credited cos the rer are formed from tibosomes... Then in the 3 marker explain the role of ribosomes in protein synthesis

Reply 831

.JC.

14

Here's my take on the scenario:

1) They basically copied and pasted the IAL January 2014 paper. I'm almost certain this was due to laziness as we're sitting the old spec and they're focused on the new spec. This is the main point for me, since anyone who did that paper for revision or as a mock has an unfair advantage. As such, our college has complained about this.

2) The image of the RER was unclear which meant people put anything from RER, SER, ribosome or Golgi. This question may award for all of these or be disregarded completely due to clarity.

3) There was a lack of key unit 4 topics which teachers across the country wasted months of lessons teaching, and students even more so learning.

4) Anyone who re sat the unit 2 exam from last week has an unfair advantage given there were 4 markers on unit 2 and only unit 2.

Overall, they can't do much apart from lower the grade boundaries (IAL January 2014 was 62 for an A*) and removing that Q on the organelle.

Lowering the grade boundaries does not fix the issue of students getting an advantage, as it pretty much just secures those students who did the 2014 IAL paper the A* and full UMS.

It's frustrating to know that doing every single past paper for the A-Level specification prepared me worse than any student who had just done the January 2014 IAL an hour before the exam, with no other revision.

There's nothing more we can do now. Just revise for unit 5 and make sure you do the IAL papers in case they do the same.

Oh, and make sure you revise the nitrogen cycle. It's not on our spec but that just makes me thing it'll come up even more now!

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 832

Ladymusiclover

20

Original post by sockface

if u write ribosomes will u get credited cos the rer are formed from tibosomes... Then in the 3 marker explain the role of ribosomes in protein synthesis

Oh I really hope so. I said ribosomes since they are in the cytoplasm freely.

Reply 833

Anon113

2

https://www.change.org/p/edexcel-lower-grade-boundaries-for-edexcel-unit-4-a2-biology-paper?recruiter=259252896&utm_source=petitions_share&utm_medium=copylink I know the paper was synoptic, I done every past paper and a couple of IAL papers, but NOT January 2014. Over half or just half of the marks were allocated to AS ****. **** that

Reply 834

iipebblesii

1

Original post by nav1234567

this is the actual photo used. You can clearly see it is the rough endoplasmic reticulum. Look guys it's only 4 or 5 marks at the most. Which to some of you seems a lot but put it this way you can lose 20-25 marks and still get an A or an A*. Stop *****ing and whining what's done is done smh.