Can you get scientific content marks for your plan? Every essay I've done I just lost marks for not enough breadth of content. In my plan I included homeostasis (CO2/temp/blood pressure), endotherms and ectotherms, nervous system (stimuli and response, reflexes, Pacinian corpuscles) plant response (transpiration - closing the stomata, geo and phototropisms) insect response (taxis and kinesis), evolution and adaptation, and antibiotic resistance. But I ended up going on for ages about negative feedback and homeostatic systems even though I knew it was completely irrelevant, I just felt like it wouldn't be complete without an explanation.
In the end all I managed to talk about was a huge amount on why temperature and BP need to be controlled (enzyme denaturation, optimal temp, high BP can cause an aneurysm, low BP can cause tissue death and can be fatal etc), natural selection in response to intraspecific competition for resources and adaptation to the conditions of the environment, and migration to areas with more favourable conditions. I mentioned that different species are adapted for different conditions, specifically thermophiles, and that whales have been migrating in response to climate change (although I didn't get that paragraph finished). I'm hoping this is enough for the marks for beyond A level content, but I don't know. I spent nearly an hour on that essay and didn't get as much done as I'd have liked
Also wondering if you can lose marks for irrelevant content (as opposed to just not getting any).
Overall I think it was an alright paper, but I missed quite a few questions. They weren't particularly hard, I just couldn't remember a lot of stuff so I missed most of the muscles question, I missed the oestrous cycle stuff (although I don't think there was much on that? Only remember a question about LH?) and didn't do the ratio question because I didn't know which number to divide by which. Also missed the tumour surpressor one and possibly more on the DNA stuff? Can't remember all the questions. Ugh.
Hope the boundaries are low.