The Student Room Group

Wrong topic list for UCAS end of years mocks

Basically we got given this topic list for Biology:

1.1 Carbohydrates
1.2 Lipids
1.3 proteins
1.5 Enzymes
2.5 Plant reproduction (including CP4)
3.1 Classification
3.2 Natural Selection
3.3 Biodiversity (including Diversity Index)
4.2 Cell transport mechanisms (including CP5)

(it was longer but i included relevant bits)

In the exam however 9 marks worth of content where about:

Enzymes practical (6 marks) and Standard Deviation (3 marks)
Is it just me thinking you don't need to revise that since it wasn't under any of the assessed bullet point and the other practicals are clearly emphasised ? Edexcel B spec btw

I felt like I was the only stupid person that didn't revise this part of spec.
This is the only test the teachers will use for Predicted Grades and I find it a bit unfair that they kind of induced us into thinking those things would not be assessed. Is it just me or should I talk to the bio teachers ?
And how should I bring it out as well I am a bit unsure ? Any advice/opinions welcome !
Reply 1
The enzymes practical was linked to enzymes topic though?
and standard deviation is just a topic that can come up related to any of the topics so its just something you need to know for any future exam.
I think it was nice of them to give you any guidance at all and i think by telling you about the exact practical and standard deviation topics they might as well just give you the exam questions haha... for future, just make sure you have a basic knowledge on everything and THEN focus on the given topics.
And at least you've been caught out now and not for your real exam!! It's all part of the learning curve
Reply 2
tbh i prefer not having any guidance at all and knowing I need to revise everything rather than someone saying you need to revise this and that and finally stuff not specified coming up. Why specify certain practicals if they are assessed only in multiple choice questions and not mentioning others when they are actually worth the most marks ? and they did specify diversity index so why not standard deviation when they were both worth 3 marks ?
Yh clearly I am not going to trust them ever again. I am coming out of Chem test and they said the paper would be a normal AS and they ended up giving us a mix of Edexcel and AQA questions that really do not look like an AS paper and where very difficult (like they didn't include any calculations or mechanisms) (we do AQA, idk why they felt the need to put Edexcel questions in there+ explicitly saying yesterday that all questions would be AQA style ??)
For the real exam I would've revised everything and started 3 months in advance surely. It's not really the same thing.


Original post by Blueowl04
The enzymes practical was linked to enzymes topic though?
and standard deviation is just a topic that can come up related to any of the topics so its just something you need to know for any future exam.
I think it was nice of them to give you any guidance at all and i think by telling you about the exact practical and standard deviation topics they might as well just give you the exam questions haha... for future, just make sure you have a basic knowledge on everything and THEN focus on the given topics.
And at least you've been caught out now and not for your real exam!! It's all part of the learning curve

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