AS AQA Biology Unit 2 Revision Group

Scroll to see replies

yeah it was odd but i happened to watch planet earth from a month back and attenburgh guy said as water temp increases the oxygen content decreases so i guess fish have to compensate for it by sending more water through gills.

That is a bit counter-intuitive though. As temperature increases, the more of something can be dissolved in water. It strikes me that the examiners are testing more and more on things that aren't in the specification, in this case relying on you just knowing that oxygen content decreases (a chemistry thing, not biology). And the first question about hierarchies. Luckily I had done enough past papers to know the answer, but to expect a very specific definition for a word that is mentioned just once in the textbook (that I could find) is very sneaky, especially when they are telling you more and more not to just learn past mark schemes. Don't get me wrong, I think it is a good move, but they are doing some funny things with it I am not quite so sure of.

Reply 201

mohammedbux

Original post by Aunty Amber

I think they just run out of questions, biology gets a lot of stick for being mostly about memory but i think they took the general knowledge and application one step too far!

Reply 202

Ge0gGeek97

Original post by mohammedbux

I think they just run out of questions, biology gets a lot of stick for being mostly about memory but i think they took the general knowledge and application one step too far!

I wrote that the temperature increases the water molecules kinetic energy so they move more rapidly, causing more collisions with the gas exchange surface :frown:

Reply 203

AlexsNan

Original post by Aunty Amber

It was definitely an odd paper (coming from a re-sitter), some really good questions, and some which didn't quite seem to fit in with the specification. I guess they were trying to make us think outside the box a bit.

With regards to the chimps, we were told that the amount of time since 2 species shared a common ancestor was directly proportional to the separation temp. Were were given the separation temp, and told that humans orang-utans (I think) share a common ancestor 20 million years ago. From this we can work out how many years relate to a 1 degree decrease in separation temp. I think this came out at about 3.5? Anyway, you just times this by the separation temp for humans and chimps, and out pops your answer; about 9.7 if memory serves.

Also, what did people think of the question about rate of flow of water over a fish's gills increasing with water temp. Was it just me who found it a bit odd?

This was a maths question, it said "temp was proportional to age"
I put temp=k x age, and then just did some algebra to work out k.

Reply 204

Aunty Amber

Original post by AlexsNan

This was a maths question, it said "temp was proportional to age"
I put temp=k x age, and then just did some algebra to work out k.

I know, that's what I did isn't it? In a more wordy way...

And in response to whoever said about taking the general knowledge thing too far, I am definitely in agreement! If that were to come in ANYWHERE, I would expect it to be the unit 5 paper, but even then it would be pushing it. It is a borderline chemistry/physics principal that you wouldn't expect Biology students to necessarily know. I didn't, and I do chemistry AND physics! (OK, maybe I should have known, but still...)

Reply 205

JM17

I'm getting increasingly angry that so far all of my exams have been related to 30% of the specifications and mostly application - I certainly hope the Unit 4/5 exams aren't the same. I have wasted a few days of valuable A2 revision revising the ins and outs of plants, mitosis etc and it is nowhere to be found. AQA are having a laugh.

(Coming from a re-sit applicant)

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 206

Aunty Amber

Original post by JM17

I can understand why they are moving towards application questions, because they test if you actually understand the principals of the course content. The problem is application questions draw in knowledge from a very wide variety of topics, and can be very subjective. (Cough, cough, the 'offering the nicotine vaccinations on the NHS' question) A lot of them seem to belong in ISA question papers instead of stupid questions asking why MRR is not suitable for studying a HUMAN population (where do you what me to start!?)

The examiners are focussing so much on trying to move away from they exams they set previously, they seem to have lost sight of the actual objective; learning facts! (at least, that is how I have been taught to see it). Not that I am saying we should be parrots, with no understanding of what we are saying, but we should be given credit for the knowledge we have worked so hard to gain, and not whether my poor little Asperger's brain can work out what you are thinking (the is YOU Mr Examiner...). And I am in no way pulling a sympathy card there, just pointing out that I feel that in a way they are actually discriminating against some of us.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 207

Velkoz

Original post by JM17

Lol
I don't know if you know but unit 4 is basically how science work paper apart from the last q
Unit 5 is synoptic and hsw with an essay
It ain't gonna get any better :frown:

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 208

daveperry

Although the paper was a lot harder than the first, which wasn't a surprise, I felt that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. The revision documents on this thread and a couple of others really helped me. Question 9 was a gift though, it really didn't require much Biology at all, it was mostly just common sense, especially the very last part.

There were a few odd ones though, like the millions of years separation. We were given Gorilla, right? So I just divided the given number of years by the separation number for Gorilla, then multiplied it by the Orang-utan number, or whatever it was. If that makes sense to anyone, did you do the same? I think I got something like 9.71million years.

AQA make me ill

anyone any idea on grade boundaries? I thought it was a very weird paper, like it was hard but doable and enjoyable but still really different from all others. hoping this means it's lower grade boundaries!
it was my first go at this exam and It found it okay but my best friend did it as a resit student and worked really hard revising but said it went awful! there was a LOT of unit 1 in there!
hoping I get an A for veterinary applications!!! 🙏

Reply 211

jessiebon

What did people put for the seal question about why rate of blood flow to body organs decreases during a long dive?

Reply 212

Ge0gGeek97

I rushed this question, but I put that blood flow is prioritised to the lungs as this is the gas exchange surface, so oxygen needs to be carried by the haemoglobin to replenish the oxygen supply in the respiring tissues to keep the seal alive. Blood flow to the brain is also high to keep the seal alive, but low to the other organs as they are not important. I said that the heart has decreased blood flow to keep blood pressure low and decrease the amount of contractions to save energy, but that bits probably wrong

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 213

k3marty

Original post by HannahRudd-19

I wrote that the temperature increases the water molecules kinetic energy so they move more rapidly, causing more collisions with the gas exchange surface :frown:

same

Reply 214

JM17

Original post by Velkoz

Lol
I don't know if you know but unit 4 is basically how science work paper apart from the last q
Unit 5 is synoptic and hsw with an essay
It ain't gonna get any better :frown:

Posted from TSR Mobile

I have enjoyed my A2 studies in Biology much better than these units.

How science works paper? There are plenty of opportunities for them to question facts based on the BIOL4 Specification, the only aspect of Unit 5 that is specific to synoptic terminology is the essay.

It sounds like there more than just the examiners who are falling short of remembering that each exam is actually specific to the content of that specification.