Biology - Thoughts?

Professional Griefer

Ok so, its finally done. I was so nervous before hand. Almost took the pass paper. But I took the honours one, and I'm very happy I did. I dunno about you guys, but it was easy enough I thought. I did every single question except 15 part b. Didn't know the heart experiment, winged it:D Anyways, I thought it was a nice paper.

What about all you guys?

tracert

It did seem to be easy, but that didn't help when I blanked most info for a good hour and a half. Even photosynthesis and food.

dyeti

I found it a bit tough. I was hoping for a low B/high C, but I think I got a low C

The experiments were rubbish, I only did the heart one, VERY half assed. The 2nd part to the Ecology question was just weird...

But at least boards.ie predicted SOMETHING right, a small bit on viruses came up Thanks

Mazda

really disappointed got 89% in the mock and really really wanted an A1 but not after that paper :rolleyes:

chaoticmess

Thanfully I learned the heart experiment really well (predictions are sometimes right!!) haha and the IAA one for the same reason.
I answered every question except 11... can't even remember what that was about haha!

It was okay... I think! I found myself pretty short on time though.... Normally you're able to answer every single thing on the paper with plenty of time spare and this time I left a question out and still short on time..... Was weird...

Anyway, so glad it's over! Was really worried beforehand and Biology is supposed to be my best subject!

BarnhallBull

It went fine for me, Biology's my favourite subject so i'd done a lot of work for it.

It wasn't a nice paper though, the old reliables that usually got near exclusivity in long questions (genetics, respiration, genetics) were either mixed with other aspects of the course or asked in a very unusual way. Experiments too, asking questions on 5 or 6 different experiments in question 8 was just sneaky, don't think that was very fair. Overall they seemed to be really trying to incorporate as many aspects of the course as possible to stop the people who just cover the 6 major topics getting an A1.

Anyone who got a high grade today will have earned it IMO

Sophsxxx

It was okay...i'd say high D/low C...the experiments were rough and I blanked on the genetics q. But hopefully it was ok!
My drawing of the male reproductive was terrible though...:o

cheesefiend

I thought it was ok. Question 8 was weird I'd say some people thought it was a bit scary maybe not though.

leg

I thought the paper wa tricky but manageable.
The pictures in the short questions were brutal though but the questions were alright.

The experiments were okay the predicted ones came up and q8 was easy if you knew your experiments. Q9 though was worded differently to normal and you didnt have to discuss using different concentrations and all that.

Long questions were all mixed up presumably to take away the predictibility and learning 4 sections for full marks. The ecology Q15 was weird. I did all the questions except for 15(b) thought that was hard.

Overall hopefully got the A

stainluss

I felt, even though it was more difficult than previous papers, (Section A in particular - %'s without punnet squares??) I hope that I got an A1..

Im going to look back over the paper when its up with my book and see how many marks I could I have lost in total (Hopefully not over 60:)) Im more confident because I did all of Section C.

Never did IAA so skipped it, but I liked the fact that 8 wasnt even an experiment Q, just general bits and bobs;)

Hope ye liked it too:D

Would we be marked much harder/easier depending on how people did?
Does this 'bell curve' thing have much impact on your grade?
I doubt it could that much for Biology

leg wrote: »

I thought the paper wa tricky but manageable.
The pictures in the short questions were brutal though but the questions were alright.

This reminds me, was that ribosomes or food thingys in the amoeba? (I said ribosomes, I dont even know if they have them..)

NufcNavan

Thought it was quite easy. Hopefully I got a B.

BarnhallBull

Marking schemes will be adjusted as necessary to ensure the required number of A's, B's etc.

As for the crosses... why didn't you use a punnet square? I did!

Captain-America

I thought it was easy enough. Very broad, nothing too specific asked.

Hadn't a feckin' clue was B was on the Amoeba.

stainluss

BarnhallBull wrote: »

Marking schemes will be adjusted as necessary to ensure the required number of A's, B's etc.

As for the crosses... why didn't you use a punnet square? I did!

I did in pencil at the end and rubbed it out, i think my guesses were good!

monaghanmissus

really happy with it

Captain-America

What percentages did people get actually?

Xtina!!

What came up on part (c) of the DNA replication long question??? Im worried because I cant remember what it was and I may have left it out???

chaoticmess

Captain-America wrote: »

What percentages did people get actually?

100, 50, 75 and 50?

Oh and as for the Amoeba, I said that B was "food vacuoles".
Because if you look carefully, there were little black dots inside the circles, and in my book it showed the same thing for food vacuoles.

Ribosomes are just tiny little dots, and waste particles are solid black shapes.
(That's just the diagram in my book though....!)

leg

chaoticmess wrote: »

100, 50, 75 and 50?

Same as what i got!

For the amoeba question the teacher said that they'll giving out about it at the marking conference because the diagram is so bad and multiple answers will be accpeted.

s0ur_cherry

What did people say for 10 (b) (iv), Each mRNA codon specifies one of three possible outcomes during protein synthesis. Name these three possible outcomes.

monaghanmissus

s0ur_cherry wrote: »

What did people say for 10 (b) (iv), Each mRNA codon specifies one of three possible outcomes during protein synthesis. Name these three possible outcomes.

start codon, stop codon and amino acid?

BarnhallBull

Monahanmissus has it right, start, stop or code is what I wrote, same thing

s0ur_cherry

yeah i said something like it starts coding, ends coding or attracts tRNA with amino acid... would that be right yeah?

theowen

s0ur_cherry wrote: »

What did people say for 10 (b) (iv), Each mRNA codon specifies one of three possible outcomes during protein synthesis. Name these three possible outcomes.

I think that'll be cancelled seeing as 99% of people were like this having seen it:eek::mad:

theowen

Xtina!! wrote: »

What came up on part (c) of the DNA replication long question??? Im worried because I cant remember what it was and I may have left it out???

:rolleyes: I don't think there was a part c? Maybe that was a different question actually. Check it online sure!

theowen

chaoticmess wrote: »

100, 50, 75 and 50?

Oh and as for the Amoeba, I said that B was "food vacuoles".
Because if you look carefully, there were little black dots inside the circles, and in my book it showed the same thing for food vacuoles.

Ribosomes are just tiny little dots, and waste particles are solid black shapes.
(That's just the diagram in my book though....!)

Those percentages were really easy if you had a clue about genetics.

Annoyed no actual genetic cross or any genetics sort of stuff didn't come up though. That's like 20 hours of study for nothing:cool:

s0ur_cherry

Xtina!! wrote: »

What came up on part (c) of the DNA replication long question??? Im worried because I cant remember what it was and I may have left it out???

There were 4 qs on differences between terms, think haploid and diploid, homozygous and heteozygous, genotype and phenotype and segregation and independent assortment.

BarnhallBull

theowen wrote: »

I think that'll be cancelled seeing as 99% of people were like this having seen it:eek::mad:

There have to be some questions that the majority found difficult in order to sort out the top students

chaoticmess

theowen wrote: »

I think that'll be cancelled seeing as 99% of people were like this having seen it:eek::mad:

haha, I was a bit confused. I wasn't sure what it was they were trying to ask, and then just had a guess and wrote: peptide, polypeptide or Protein depending on the length of the chain of amino acids.....

Now I can see that's NOT what they're looking for after I read what you had all put down...

chaoticmess

theowen wrote: »

Those percentages were really easy if you had a clue about genetics.

Annoyed no actual genetic cross or any genetics sort of stuff didn't come up though. That's like 20 hours of study for nothing:cool:

I had to double check mine as 50% came up twice lol. :P

Yeah I like the proper genetic crosses so was annoyed too! especially after apparantly, the guy who did the paper is really into genetics. :mad:

Mr Cawley

that sounds better actually, maybe you'll be right!

scherzo!

chaoticmess wrote: »

haha, I was a bit confused. I wasn't sure what it was they were trying to ask, and then just had a guess and wrote: peptide, polypeptide or Protein depending on the length of the chain of amino acids.....

Now I can see that's NOT what they're looking for after I read what you had all put down...

MY EXACT ANSWER HAHA! "Peptide, polypeptide, protein". Such a stab in the dark. I guess we tried our best though! I've been getting A's in Biology since 5th year and that question just made me sick. XD

Mwah

omg yessssss
my predictions i got came up lol
when i saw reflex and induced fit i was so happyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
wasnt the iaa on last year?

i loved the paper

tracert

Anybody know when the paper goes up? I seem to be in a blanky blank mode today and I can't even remember what question I want to ask about here, but there was a couple of weird (for me) ones, not mentioned yet.

Xtina!!

theowen wrote: »

:rolleyes: I don't think there was a part c? Maybe that was a different question actually. Check it online sure!

Haha okay thanks!!!:) I was worried there for a while, but obviously literally over nothing!:rolleyes:

Captain-America

Should be up by this evening.

chaoticmess

scherzo! wrote: »

MY EXACT ANSWER HAHA! "Peptide, polypeptide, protein". Such a stab in the dark. I guess we tried our best though! I've been getting A's in Biology since 5th year and that question just made me sick. XD

hahaha, same! If only a continuous assessment did exist! :rolleyes:
It was even more sickening that it wasn't that I didn't "know" the answer (about start and stop codons etc).... It's just that I didn't know that that's what they were looking for!

Stupid exam! :mad: haha!

ldxo15wus6fpgm

theowen wrote: »

I think that'll be cancelled seeing as 99% of people were like this having seen it:eek::mad:

I put down start codon, stop codon, and I didn't know what to put for the third so I just said codon. :pac:

theowen

s0ur_cherry wrote: »

There were 4 qs on differences between terms, think haploid and diploid, homozygous and heteozygous, genotype and phenotype and segregation and independent assortment.

That's the one. They were quite nice actually. Think I'll be leaving out that question as a whole though, couldn't do the mRNA one and another!

theowen

BarnhallBull wrote: »

There have to be some questions that the majority found difficult in order to sort out the top students

Indeed. I'd imagine it'd be only 3 marks anyway, one mark for every part.

IronGirl92

Mazda wrote: »

really disappointed got 89% in the mock and really really wanted an A1 but not after that paper :rolleyes:

Exact same situation here. Eh. Shall be repeating me thinks!

ceol18

i actually kinda enjoyed doing that paper? weird thing to say :P but yeh..!
was planning on avoiding genetic crosses like the plague and SO glad i was actually able to! i guessed the percents aha! but yeh i answered every single other question except the IAA experiment, it always kinda went over my head
i took a spare paper at the end so i could look over it, and this question is STILL bugging me:

it's q10, B part (iv): "each mRNA codon specifies one of three possible outcomes during protein synthesis. Name these three possible outcomes."..............WHAA???
other than that it was grand hope for a high B at least

ceol18

NEVERMIND! i should really read the full thread before i write things haha

lalee17

I found it kinda easy, only a few short questions threw me a bit.

Mr Cawley

If you write down a worng answer AND the correct answer, do ye think you'd get the marks for the right one?

Captain-America

Mr Cawley wrote: »

If you write down a worng answer AND the correct answer, do ye think you'd get the marks for the right one?

No, they cancel each other out I'm sure.

pathway33

Mr Cawley wrote: »

If you write down a worng answer AND the correct answer, do ye think you'd get the marks for the right one?

I guess if you crossed out the worng answer then you get the marks. If you didn't you wouldn't.

Behind you Joey

Jez I dunno bout you guys but I thought it was a well tricky paper, it reminded me of the French paper!

Was aiming for A1, but say I got B1..... Real disappointed with it. The long questions were so sly incorporating all aspects of that particular topic, especially Q.10. and Q.8 where they asked about up to 6 different papers was so sly.

What did ye all get for the percentages? And the mRNA question?

Xtina!!

s0ur_cherry wrote: »

There were 4 qs on differences between terms, think haploid and diploid, homozygous and heteozygous, genotype and phenotype and segregation and independent assortment.

Ahh yes I remember now, I definately did that so!:)

BarnhallBull

Wrong answer cancels a right one unfortunately.
Also, if they ask for 2 examples and you give 3, if 2 are right and 1 wrong then you only get the marks for 1 of the right answers.

Professional Griefer

Mr Cawley wrote: »

If you write down a worng answer AND the correct answer, do ye think you'd get the marks for the right one?

It depends. If the question wants 2 answers then no, but if it only requires one answer and you give a right and a wrong, they'll cancel each other out.