Ah Biology 2009

NonaxD

Im worried about the essays tbh. My teacher told us one way of doing them then said that was wrong and told us another way but someone said thats not what they did last year! :confused:

How do you do they essays?

xx

Do you not have past papers? You basically just write every single point that comes to mind regarding the topic. Write in the form of bullet points rather than a structured, paragraphed essay. Structure gets you no marks and makes it harder for markers to find your points.

Reply 3

NonaxD

Thanks

I do have past papers but because my teacher had confused us all I was unsure of what to do :smile:

Thanks again :smile:

Reply 4

Iain-C

I'm quite weak on Physiology, Health and Exercuse, which optional unit are you guys doing? Animal behaviour looks RUBBISH.

Reply 5

BillyLiu

10

yosrush

Do you not have past papers? You basically just write every single point that comes to mind regarding the topic. Write in the form of bullet points rather than a structured, paragraphed essay. Structure gets you no marks and makes it harder for markers to find your points.

Personally I would just use subheadings, hypens and no waffling. "tl;dr" is the last thing you want your examiner to think :O

Another thing I find a bit odd is when you look at the marking scheme for essays you find points that doesn't seem to relate to the heading strongly. That really throws me.

Reply 6

Rheadrox

1

NonaxD

Im worried about the essays tbh. My teacher told us one way of doing them then said that was wrong and told us another way but someone said thats not what they did last year! :confused:

How do you do they essays?

xx

I thought that everyone received the scholar booklets for this subject? There's an example for every essay in there.
I normally do O.K, except for the 1st and 2nd question. the 1st question just has TOO MUCH to absorb, and that throws me off question 2, after that I regain confidence again, though :P

If you wanted, i could post here some essay questions for each topic? :smile:

Reply 7

Oogamy

13

Iain-C

I'm quite weak on Physiology, Health and Exercuse, which optional unit are you guys doing? Animal behaviour looks RUBBISH.

Physiology is pretty straightforward: all of the concepts are intuitive and already known to some extent. I find the summaries at the end of every topic in SCHOLAR to be helpful, although it has some minor omissions.

As for essays, consult the official marking instructions for each year: http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/2576.html. Marking is done on the basis of individual points and, unlike the SCHOLAR answers, are always relevant to the question. A mark is often available for briefly exemplifying points, which I normally add in at the end as an aside after checking the rest of the paper.

For me, the biggest problem will be the A/B-type data handling questions. They're awful!

What did you all get for your prelim?

Reply 8

Our prelim was ridiculous, some questions required up to about 4 separate KU points for one mark in section B... and the multiple choice was sneeky as hell. The essay, however, was a gift, everyone choice the one about animal relationships, managed 14/15 for that. Pretty sure I would have failed badly without revision, managed to scrape an A though at 73%.

All I've got to do now is re-learn the whole course, along with AH chem in the next couple of weeks as my memory is crap; it sticks for about 2 days, then EVERYTHING is gone.

Reply 9

Oogamy

13

yosrush

Our prelim was ridiculous, some questions required up to about 4 separate KU points for one mark in section B... and the multiple choice was sneeky as hell.

This year's P&N paper, presumably? Considering that, nice result.

Do any of you have conditionals relying on this year's biology?

Reply 10

Oogamy

This year's P&N paper, presumably? Considering that, nice result.

Do any of you have conditionals relying on this year's biology?

Yeah, our school's too lazy to make up their own... No conditions on biology or any other subject this year, managed to get an unconditional from dundee for dentistry. Doesn't mean I'm not going for gold this year :wink:

Reply 11

OP

Iain-C

I'm quite weak on Physiology, Health and Exercuse, which optional unit are you guys doing? Animal behaviour looks RUBBISH.

Hey! I'm doing the Physiology, Health and Exercise unit! I don't find that too bad, its the whole environments stuff that gets me!!

Reply 12

OP

Oogamy

This year's P&N paper, presumably? Considering that, nice result.

Do any of you have conditionals relying on this year's biology?

Yes, i need a C. Got an A in my Prelim, but that doesn't mean anything!

Reply 13

OP

Oogamy

Physiology is pretty straightforward: all of the concepts are intuitive and already known to some extent. I find the summaries at the end of every topic in SCHOLAR to be helpful, although it has some minor omissions.

As for essays, consult the official marking instructions for each year: http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/2576.html. Marking is done on the basis of individual points and, unlike the SCHOLAR answers, are always relevant to the question. A mark is often available for briefly exemplifying points, which I normally add in at the end as an aside after checking the rest of the paper.

For me, the biggest problem will be the A/B-type data handling questions. They're awful!

What did you all get for your prelim?

i agree, the data handling questions are crazy!!!! Got an A for my Prelim, but that doesn't mean anything, i could easily drop down!

Reply 14

saima14

i agree, the data handling questions are crazy!!!! Got an A for my Prelim, but that doesn't mean anything, i could easily drop down!

Unlikely to drop down from an A to a Fail though, and even if you did, you'd have a good chance of an appeal. Don't be silly :wink:

I tried all the past paper multichoice that I could get my hands on (2002-2008) and managed between 17/25 to 25/25 for each paper, realised I know jack all about the nitrogen cycle. :rolleyes:

Reply 15

OP

yosrush

Unlikely to drop down from an A to a Fail though, and even if you did, you'd have a good chance of an appeal. Don't be silly :wink:

I tried all the past paper multichoice that I could get my hands on (2002-2008) and managed between 17/25 to 25/25 for each paper, realised I know jack all about the nitrogen cycle. :rolleyes:

oh wow! thats good! 17/25 is amazing! I planned to do Biology 2day, but only did a bit of Physiology. What unit are doing again?

Reply 16