edexcel igcse biology paper 1 advance info wrong?
for those who took paper 1 edexcel igcse biology on the 17 may 2022...
it has been revealed that aqa messed up their advance information for the gcse physics exam this year.
now knowing that this is possible, does anyone feel like edexcel igcse made a similar mistake with the advance information for biology?
for example, in paper 1, we were given a question on respiration in yeast, although the advance information states that the whole respiration topic would not be assessed.
i found the paper difficult because i relied on the advance information and the questions didn't seem to match up with the topics listed.
please let me know your thoughts as i now feel like it was a mistake made by edexcel.
it has been revealed that aqa messed up their advance information for the gcse physics exam this year.
now knowing that this is possible, does anyone feel like edexcel igcse made a similar mistake with the advance information for biology?
for example, in paper 1, we were given a question on respiration in yeast, although the advance information states that the whole respiration topic would not be assessed.
i found the paper difficult because i relied on the advance information and the questions didn't seem to match up with the topics listed.
please let me know your thoughts as i now feel like it was a mistake made by edexcel.
Scroll to see replies
No I don't think it was a mistake. I don't remember that question on respiration in yeast, although I do remember there being a 4-mark question on fungi, so maybe that was it?
The thing is about respiration is it is such a hugely fundamental part of biology that it's just completely insane to me that edexcel thought it was a good idea to take it out. It almost seems to make sense that, if they have slipped up, that is how they've done it.
I also found the paper hard, and I relied mainly on the advanced info too, but it was difficult because there were so many 3 and above mark questions that made the paper really awkward to navigate.
The questions did match up to the advances info, just not how anyone expected. Let me give you some examples. Selective breeding ended up being about crops, but most people were expecting to answer a question on selective breeding on animals. Reproduction ended up being in plants, instead of humans. They asked some rogue questions on the Inheritance topic that no one saw coming because it's never really been assessed (mainly thinking about that question where the answer was "polygenous" - 3.22 in the spec). The only thing that seemed to be what was expected was Coordination and Response. However, everything on the AI that edexcel said would be on the paper was, in some form, on the paper. They didn't make a mistake with it - they made the paper harder so they would still be able to differentiate students. Otherwise everyone would get 9s, or they would have to make the grade boundaries ridiculously high.
AQA are a bit weird anyway because they, at least for Computer Science, hedged their bets completely with the advanced info - what we got was a load of rubbish where they said that basically there was no guarantee that what was written on the advanced information would 100% be on the exam, and that you should learn everything anyway, on the off chance that basically anything else on the spec might be in it. So I'm not particularly surprised to find that it's AQA everyone is saying messed up.
The thing is about respiration is it is such a hugely fundamental part of biology that it's just completely insane to me that edexcel thought it was a good idea to take it out. It almost seems to make sense that, if they have slipped up, that is how they've done it.
I also found the paper hard, and I relied mainly on the advanced info too, but it was difficult because there were so many 3 and above mark questions that made the paper really awkward to navigate.
The questions did match up to the advances info, just not how anyone expected. Let me give you some examples. Selective breeding ended up being about crops, but most people were expecting to answer a question on selective breeding on animals. Reproduction ended up being in plants, instead of humans. They asked some rogue questions on the Inheritance topic that no one saw coming because it's never really been assessed (mainly thinking about that question where the answer was "polygenous" - 3.22 in the spec). The only thing that seemed to be what was expected was Coordination and Response. However, everything on the AI that edexcel said would be on the paper was, in some form, on the paper. They didn't make a mistake with it - they made the paper harder so they would still be able to differentiate students. Otherwise everyone would get 9s, or they would have to make the grade boundaries ridiculously high.
AQA are a bit weird anyway because they, at least for Computer Science, hedged their bets completely with the advanced info - what we got was a load of rubbish where they said that basically there was no guarantee that what was written on the advanced information would 100% be on the exam, and that you should learn everything anyway, on the off chance that basically anything else on the spec might be in it. So I'm not particularly surprised to find that it's AQA everyone is saying messed up.
Original post by Whizz2244
No I don't think it was a mistake. I don't remember that question on respiration in yeast, although I do remember there being a 4-mark question on fungi, so maybe that was it?
The thing is about respiration is it is such a hugely fundamental part of biology that it's just completely insane to me that edexcel thought it was a good idea to take it out. It almost seems to make sense that, if they have slipped up, that is how they've done it.
I also found the paper hard, and I relied mainly on the advanced info too, but it was difficult because there were so many 3 and above mark questions that made the paper really awkward to navigate.
The questions did match up to the advances info, just not how anyone expected. Let me give you some examples. Selective breeding ended up being about crops, but most people were expecting to answer a question on selective breeding on animals. Reproduction ended up being in plants, instead of humans. They asked some rogue questions on the Inheritance topic that no one saw coming because it's never really been assessed (mainly thinking about that question where the answer was "polygenous" - 3.22 in the spec). The only thing that seemed to be what was expected was Coordination and Response. However, everything on the AI that edexcel said would be on the paper was, in some form, on the paper. They didn't make a mistake with it - they made the paper harder so they would still be able to differentiate students. Otherwise everyone would get 9s, or they would have to make the grade boundaries ridiculously high.
AQA are a bit weird anyway because they, at least for Computer Science, hedged their bets completely with the advanced info - what we got was a load of rubbish where they said that basically there was no guarantee that what was written on the advanced information would 100% be on the exam, and that you should learn everything anyway, on the off chance that basically anything else on the spec might be in it. So I'm not particularly surprised to find that it's AQA everyone is saying messed up.
The thing is about respiration is it is such a hugely fundamental part of biology that it's just completely insane to me that edexcel thought it was a good idea to take it out. It almost seems to make sense that, if they have slipped up, that is how they've done it.
I also found the paper hard, and I relied mainly on the advanced info too, but it was difficult because there were so many 3 and above mark questions that made the paper really awkward to navigate.
The questions did match up to the advances info, just not how anyone expected. Let me give you some examples. Selective breeding ended up being about crops, but most people were expecting to answer a question on selective breeding on animals. Reproduction ended up being in plants, instead of humans. They asked some rogue questions on the Inheritance topic that no one saw coming because it's never really been assessed (mainly thinking about that question where the answer was "polygenous" - 3.22 in the spec). The only thing that seemed to be what was expected was Coordination and Response. However, everything on the AI that edexcel said would be on the paper was, in some form, on the paper. They didn't make a mistake with it - they made the paper harder so they would still be able to differentiate students. Otherwise everyone would get 9s, or they would have to make the grade boundaries ridiculously high.
AQA are a bit weird anyway because they, at least for Computer Science, hedged their bets completely with the advanced info - what we got was a load of rubbish where they said that basically there was no guarantee that what was written on the advanced information would 100% be on the exam, and that you should learn everything anyway, on the off chance that basically anything else on the spec might be in it. So I'm not particularly surprised to find that it's AQA everyone is saying messed up.
I’m like 90% sure there was a question asking for the waste product that yeast produce during respiration, but my memory could be playing tricks on me and it may have been fungi haha
Do you think the paper was slightly unfair tho? compared to the topic papers i did for revision, it was significantly more difficult for me! i feel like the difficulty of the paper wasn’t fair despite having AI, because for many people, the AI didn’t help one bit. what do you think?
Original post by kbajj
I’m like 90% sure there was a question asking for the waste product that yeast produce during respiration, but my memory could be playing tricks on me and it may have been fungi haha
Do you think the paper was slightly unfair tho? compared to the topic papers i did for revision, it was significantly more difficult for me! i feel like the difficulty of the paper wasn’t fair despite having AI, because for many people, the AI didn’t help one bit. what do you think?
Do you think the paper was slightly unfair tho? compared to the topic papers i did for revision, it was significantly more difficult for me! i feel like the difficulty of the paper wasn’t fair despite having AI, because for many people, the AI didn’t help one bit. what do you think?
To be honest, it feels like so long ago that I have no idea whether you're right or not!
It was for me too - biology isn't my best subject by far. Yeah, I agree with you on that, because most of the paper ended up being kind of more about exam technique just because of the number of 3 mark questions that they asked - and questions like selective breeding in crops really aren't very common. But, my mum did igcse biology, I think a couple of years before they changed to the 9-1 system, and she said that out paper 1 was very similar to hers - lots of high mark questions which made it awkward, and she almost ran out of time (I got halfway through the time and realised I wasn't even halfway through the paper yet, having skipped a 5 mark question haha). She also said paper 2 was really easy - maybe edexcel have done it like that, so hopefully our paper 2 next week will be easier.
Thinking about it now, the chemistry paper 1 was easy, but paper 2 is full of difficult topics that we only looked at from the start of Y11, and physics paper 1 was quite hard to tell - I don't know if I was just tired after exams every day that week, or if it was actually hard, but I'm sure there were questions in there that I haven't seen often in past papers. So maybe they'll make physics paper 2 a bit easier? Think I'm just hoping there's a pattern here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpNnDgek_v8&t=111s
This video sums it up..
This video sums it up..
Original post by Whizz2244
To be honest, it feels like so long ago that I have no idea whether you're right or not!
It was for me too - biology isn't my best subject by far. Yeah, I agree with you on that, because most of the paper ended up being kind of more about exam technique just because of the number of 3 mark questions that they asked - and questions like selective breeding in crops really aren't very common. But, my mum did igcse biology, I think a couple of years before they changed to the 9-1 system, and she said that out paper 1 was very similar to hers - lots of high mark questions which made it awkward, and she almost ran out of time (I got halfway through the time and realised I wasn't even halfway through the paper yet, having skipped a 5 mark question haha). She also said paper 2 was really easy - maybe edexcel have done it like that, so hopefully our paper 2 next week will be easier.
Thinking about it now, the chemistry paper 1 was easy, but paper 2 is full of difficult topics that we only looked at from the start of Y11, and physics paper 1 was quite hard to tell - I don't know if I was just tired after exams every day that week, or if it was actually hard, but I'm sure there were questions in there that I haven't seen often in past papers. So maybe they'll make physics paper 2 a bit easier? Think I'm just hoping there's a pattern here!
It was for me too - biology isn't my best subject by far. Yeah, I agree with you on that, because most of the paper ended up being kind of more about exam technique just because of the number of 3 mark questions that they asked - and questions like selective breeding in crops really aren't very common. But, my mum did igcse biology, I think a couple of years before they changed to the 9-1 system, and she said that out paper 1 was very similar to hers - lots of high mark questions which made it awkward, and she almost ran out of time (I got halfway through the time and realised I wasn't even halfway through the paper yet, having skipped a 5 mark question haha). She also said paper 2 was really easy - maybe edexcel have done it like that, so hopefully our paper 2 next week will be easier.
Thinking about it now, the chemistry paper 1 was easy, but paper 2 is full of difficult topics that we only looked at from the start of Y11, and physics paper 1 was quite hard to tell - I don't know if I was just tired after exams every day that week, or if it was actually hard, but I'm sure there were questions in there that I haven't seen often in past papers. So maybe they'll make physics paper 2 a bit easier? Think I'm just hoping there's a pattern here!
I'm so relieved that there are people who found it difficult like me!! I'd like to do medicine in the future so i love biology and was confident going into the exam
I did the exact same thing with my paper. when I saw I didn't have much time left, I skipped to the cormmss question and did that, then I worked my way through some larger marks. I didn't answer quite a few questions which was disappointing for me. Did you miss many questions? honestly i am glad to hear that your mum thinks it may be a similar pattern to hers. i am really hoping paper 2 will be better so it can give me the grade boost i desperately need after the first paper nightmare
its not very long away now so i am frantically trying to figure out how i am going to revise everything
Original post by :) MrMister
haha omg yes literally!!
Original post by kbajj
compared to the topic papers i did for revision, it was significantly more difficult for me! i feel like the difficulty of the paper wasn’t fair despite having AI, because for many people, the AI didn’t help one bit.
i dont take bio igcse but about that, i think most papers are set to be hard, because the exam boards did reveal grade boundaries will be lower, and the only way they can get lower is by making the papers hard, so theres that i suppose.
Original post by Whizz2244
To be honest, it feels like so long ago that I have no idea whether you're right or not!
It was for me too - biology isn't my best subject by far. Yeah, I agree with you on that, because most of the paper ended up being kind of more about exam technique just because of the number of 3 mark questions that they asked - and questions like selective breeding in crops really aren't very common. But, my mum did igcse biology, I think a couple of years before they changed to the 9-1 system, and she said that out paper 1 was very similar to hers - lots of high mark questions which made it awkward, and she almost ran out of time (I got halfway through the time and realised I wasn't even halfway through the paper yet, having skipped a 5 mark question haha). She also said paper 2 was really easy - maybe edexcel have done it like that, so hopefully our paper 2 next week will be easier.
Thinking about it now, the chemistry paper 1 was easy, but paper 2 is full of difficult topics that we only looked at from the start of Y11, and physics paper 1 was quite hard to tell - I don't know if I was just tired after exams every day that week, or if it was actually hard, but I'm sure there were questions in there that I haven't seen often in past papers. So maybe they'll make physics paper 2 a bit easier? Think I'm just hoping there's a pattern here!
It was for me too - biology isn't my best subject by far. Yeah, I agree with you on that, because most of the paper ended up being kind of more about exam technique just because of the number of 3 mark questions that they asked - and questions like selective breeding in crops really aren't very common. But, my mum did igcse biology, I think a couple of years before they changed to the 9-1 system, and she said that out paper 1 was very similar to hers - lots of high mark questions which made it awkward, and she almost ran out of time (I got halfway through the time and realised I wasn't even halfway through the paper yet, having skipped a 5 mark question haha). She also said paper 2 was really easy - maybe edexcel have done it like that, so hopefully our paper 2 next week will be easier.
Thinking about it now, the chemistry paper 1 was easy, but paper 2 is full of difficult topics that we only looked at from the start of Y11, and physics paper 1 was quite hard to tell - I don't know if I was just tired after exams every day that week, or if it was actually hard, but I'm sure there were questions in there that I haven't seen often in past papers. So maybe they'll make physics paper 2 a bit easier? Think I'm just hoping there's a pattern here!
Yeah the questions for that paper are really worrying me, I keep thinking about things I might have got wrong in them and the large mark questions are usually where I lose most of my marks; I know of several things which I should have said that I didn't. I also spent quite a lot of time revising the content but hardly any of this came up in the exam. Anyway, hopefully I can make up the marks in paper 2.
Original post by kbajj
I’m like 90% sure there was a question asking for the waste product that yeast produce during respiration, but my memory could be playing tricks on me and it may have been fungi haha
Do you think the paper was slightly unfair tho? compared to the topic papers i did for revision, it was significantly more difficult for me! i feel like the difficulty of the paper wasn’t fair despite having AI, because for many people, the AI didn’t help one bit. what do you think?
Do you think the paper was slightly unfair tho? compared to the topic papers i did for revision, it was significantly more difficult for me! i feel like the difficulty of the paper wasn’t fair despite having AI, because for many people, the AI didn’t help one bit. what do you think?
there was a Q on respiration (like the waste product of anaerobic respiration)… how has the exam board got away with this
Original post by Maddie_bell
there was a Q on respiration (like the waste product of anaerobic respiration)… how has the exam board got away with this
yes i thought so! i think the paper was unfair in many ways
Original post by plankt0n
Yeah the questions for that paper are really worrying me, I keep thinking about things I might have got wrong in them and the large mark questions are usually where I lose most of my marks; I know of several things which I should have said that I didn't. I also spent quite a lot of time revising the content but hardly any of this came up in the exam. Anyway, hopefully I can make up the marks in paper 2.
me too! and it felt like almost every question was a trick. i was so shocked at the content and its difficulty, that I missed quite a few questions and came out of the exam crying
i am trying so hard for paper 2 and making sure I learn every topic in depth!!Original post by david.321
Guys, any ideas for tomorrow Bio 2b paper ?
i think a large portion of the paper may be about excretion since there are so many questions that could be asked about it. i could be completely wrong tho!
looking at the advance info, i think there will be multiple questions on 'cycles within ecosystems' and 'human influences on the environment', since the topics intertwine with each other
what do you think?
Original post by kbajj
i think a large portion of the paper may be about excretion since there are so many questions that could be asked about it. i could be completely wrong tho!
looking at the advance info, i think there will be multiple questions on 'cycles within ecosystems' and 'human influences on the environment', since the topics intertwine with each other
what do you think?
looking at the advance info, i think there will be multiple questions on 'cycles within ecosystems' and 'human influences on the environment', since the topics intertwine with each other
what do you think?
So the paper one had a lot of animal physiology questions right? looking at the 2022 1b jan paper they had a lot of plant physiology questions. There could be a relation i not 100% sure and usually the 2b papers has a lot of "ecology and environment" and "Human influences on environment" questions but the thing is what if they do the same like they did in paper 1, the questions could be different from advanced info. and what if they focus on animal physiology ?
edit : i think they wouldn't completely focus on animal physiology becuase then both the papers would be same and yea as you said 'cycles within ecosystems' and 'human influences on the environment' questions would be more
(edited 1 year ago)
does anyone have an explanation to this spec point?
'2.76B understand how water is reabsorbed into the blood from the collecting duct' (topic of excretion)
i have seen videos and websites saying that water is reabsorbed in the proximal convoluted tubule, but the spec says it is reabsorbed in the collecting duct?
could anyone help me understand please?
'2.76B understand how water is reabsorbed into the blood from the collecting duct' (topic of excretion)
i have seen videos and websites saying that water is reabsorbed in the proximal convoluted tubule, but the spec says it is reabsorbed in the collecting duct?
could anyone help me understand please?
Original post by kbajj
does anyone have an explanation to this spec point?
'2.76B understand how water is reabsorbed into the blood from the collecting duct' (topic of excretion)
i have seen videos and websites saying that water is reabsorbed in the proximal convoluted tubule, but the spec says it is reabsorbed in the collecting duct?
could anyone help me understand please?
'2.76B understand how water is reabsorbed into the blood from the collecting duct' (topic of excretion)
i have seen videos and websites saying that water is reabsorbed in the proximal convoluted tubule, but the spec says it is reabsorbed in the collecting duct?
could anyone help me understand please?
So water is mainly absorbed in collecting duct , that's why when ADH is released the permeability increase when permeability increase more water is absorbed right? so yes it is the collecting duct and in the proximal convoluted tubule ( aka first coiled tubule ) glucose is reabsorbed
Original post by david.321
So the paper one had a lot of animal physiology questions right? looking at the 2022 1b jan paper they had a lot of plant physiology questions. There could be a relation i not 100% sure and usually the 2b papers has a lot of "ecology and environment" and "Human influences on environment" questions but the thing is what if they do the same like they did in paper 1, the questions could be different from advanced info. and what if they focus on animal physiology ?
yes paper 1 was filled with animal questions i was caught so off-guard!!
its quite difficult to predict because sometimes the questions they ask are just so unexpected, nobody knows how to answer them
for revision, are you focusing on plant or animal physiology more? I think i am going to make sure I have a decent understanding of both, just to be sure. i hope its easier than the first paper tho
Original post by david.321
So water is mainly absorbed in collecting duct , that's why when ADH is released the permeability increase when permeability increase more water is absorbed right? so yes it is the collecting duct and in the proximal convoluted tubule ( aka first coiled tubule ) glucose is reabsorbed
thank you so much!
Original post by kbajj
yes paper 1 was filled with animal questions i was caught so off-guard!!
its quite difficult to predict because sometimes the questions they ask are just so unexpected, nobody knows how to answer them
for revision, are you focusing on plant or animal physiology more? I think i am going to make sure I have a decent understanding of both, just to be sure. i hope its easier than the first paper tho
its quite difficult to predict because sometimes the questions they ask are just so unexpected, nobody knows how to answer them
for revision, are you focusing on plant or animal physiology more? I think i am going to make sure I have a decent understanding of both, just to be sure. i hope its easier than the first paper tho
Yea we can't exactly predict biology and they really made us worry with the paper 1 because the advanced info didn't really help
I was thinking about focusing on plant physiology more because I'm okay with animal physiology and I think they would ask more questions on plant physiology i m not 100% sure but yeah this is what i think
Let's hope this paper would be easier
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