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Edexcel Unit 4 Biology Core+Options! How was it?

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Yeah, I put the same for the NADH+H+ question. I put hypothalamus beacause the arrow didn't point exactly to the pituitary.

I think most people found it OK, I reckon about average.

Reply 21

Ubiquitous Resource

Im saying around 52ish for an A this paper as core was fairly basic with mainly describe the graph questions and the microbiology was surprisingly easy compared to the other papers.

Reply 22

AmitYiddo

I hope its 49 for an A lol

Reply 23

AmitYiddo

You know the 3 mark question, where we had to explain why less urine was produced if saline is drunk.....

What was the 3 marks for?

I talked about countercurrent multiplier effect.... dunno if thats right tho... many people wrote about ADH and all that.... i started off explaining that whole process then i put a line thru it and started again and i spoke about countercurrent....

if the countercurrent stuff is wrong, do you think they might give me credit for writing about ADH and all that? even though i crossed it out... i only put one line through it meaning you can still see it...!!!

What do you all think?

Reply 24

Medicine Man

grade boundaries have ranged from 43-53 out of 70 in the last few years.

Also, does anyone remeber getting 62.2% for something, 7.35ms^1 and 1.72 micrometres?

Reply 25

Medicine Man

AmitYiddo

For that question, I just wrote about how the saline increases the concentration of the blood/filtrate. Lower water potential. More water reabsorbed in PCT by osmosis. Less urine produced. It was only 3 marks. Didn't talk about ADh or the counter-current multiplier. :s-smilie:

Reply 26

Ubiquitous Resource

Medicine Man

grade boundaries have ranged from 43-53 out of 70 in the last few years.

Also, does anyone remeber getting 62.2% for something, 7.35ms^1 and 1.72 micrometres?

Don't remember 62.2% but yeah i got 7.35 but 1.75 when i read my graph so i think they will accept a suitable range 1.70+-5 or so.

Reply 27

v_balian

Ubiquitous Resource

Don't remember 62.2% but yeah i got 7.35 but 1.75 when i read my graph so i think they will accept a suitable range 1.70+-5 or so.

Yeah, that's exactly what I got. 1.75 and 7.35.

I think the 62.2% is referring to the percentage DIFFERENCE question. For that, I got 40something% as I did the difference/average of 2 results x 100. (3 marks)

Reply 28

Medicine Man

isn't % difference (the difference over the initial)*100?

You had to average it?

Reply 29

nirvathema

Oh damn, I completely forgot about the phrenic nerve. I only remembered the vagus nerve. Ah well.

For the 10 mark question, shouldn't we be able to score around 8/10 even without mentioning adrenaline? Because they know adrenaline is a much smaller part compared to insulin...I had one and a half pages for insulin, and a few lines on adrenaline about being produced in the adrenal glands and raising blood glucose levels (by breaking down glycogen into glucose?) and stuff. Not sure what else you can write.

Reply 30

Medicine Man

Actually just dawned on me - the % difference question was for microbiology so not everyone had that question.

Reply 31

QBC123

I pituatary for the first question! What about everyone else? It was really unclear/unfair IMO!

Reply 32

Medicine Man

I put pituitary too but I think it was hypothalamus. I'm not sure tbh.

Reply 33

bex2306

harriepoppy

I did option C, did anyone else find that this paper had overdosed on graph questions? I was a bit p***** off that someone who had revised very little could get away with a decent mark due to the number of "describe the graph" questions.

Other than that, i thought it was a really nice paper, although nobody in my class knew the nerves used in inspiration- I guessed phrenic and vagus. I was very pleased that the ten mark essay was on control of glucose, as I thought it might be; a question on the brain would have been awful for me. For the adrenaline part, I just rambled a bit about how it speeds up the heartrate, therefore increasing respiration and removing glucose from the blood.

Yeah I found there were too many graph questions. It was really annoyed when I came out. What does describing a graph show you know about the subject? Nothing. If it was explain why the graph does this then that would have been fine, but no. & I said the same nerves as you but nobody at college had a clue.

Reply 34

funneverends

wow, the % difference was in the paper C as well! on the % difference of males and females having osteoarthritis. btw for jiffy, yea i put apneustic and pneumotaxic centres!....and for some reason...i put sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves......i had "vagus nerve" in the back of my head...but i was like "wtf does that nerve do..."

oh and i think to calculate the % difference for option C is [(female - male)/female]x100. and i got 75%.

Reply 35

bex2306

For option C what percentage did you get for the osteoarthritis percentage difference question?

Reply 36

nirvathema

funneverends

OMG I put sympathetic and vagus nerve (a mix) because I completely forgot about the phrenic nerve! (which I think is correct)

I got 300% for that difference thing. It confused me for an entire five minutes

I got 75% at first, but I looked at the figures, and was like, wait that can't be right the difference is too huge...

Reply 37

shungun

i got 75% exactly!...well what was the reason for osteoarthritis?...i mistook osteoporosis!!!...anyway...i screwed up the nerves as well what were the answers?...

Reply 38

v_balian

QBC123

I pituatary for the first question! What about everyone else? It was really unclear/unfair IMO!

Yeah u've got a point, it was kinda vague.

But you should know that the pituitary gland is always diagrammatically shown as a "testicle-like" structure, and that the hypothalamus is located ABOVE it. The arrow was pointing to the space above the testicle-like structure.

Reply 39

Chardonae_Rowen

what are you lot tlking about expiratory and respiratory where did that come up? i put hypothalamus and forebrain/cerebrum and the other one was the cerebellum which was needed for coordination of movement (coz u can still move without it just not well) and then for posture.

the other one i put glucose although yes it was tricky, the acetylcholine one caught me out a bit didnt reli look at it

but it wasnt that easy i dont think the essay was gr8 - far, far, far too many graphs ive never seen that many in any unit 4 before and the velocity and size of an axon? never heard of that before!!!

basically for me question 3 and 4 were trying to trick you i.e. rate not volume increase - bet that caught a lot of people!!

in option A - what was the cell wall of the yeast i think i done that wrong lol but that section was ok!!! no beer of yoghurt but bread making a one liner in the book lol