Biology paper?

DeVore

I've heard a lot of Hurupmhing about it but what exactly was the problem?

I've studied biology so I know the course reasonably well... what was wrong with the paper?

DeV.

damnyanks

Didnt do Biology myself but the general word is that none of the big sections that come up regularly came up.

This sort of thing seemed to happen with a few of the tests though.

I do Geography and for the god knows how many years France has always come up in the same section... except this year

After having some drunken talk with a some feller last night he said some other paper (cant remember which one) did the same thing. Being totally unpredictable


Of course you will get people saying that you should know the whole course and not study one specific topic or your screwed. Fine thats true for some subjects but for things like History you cant be expected to know teh whole course when its just about impossible to cover teh whole thing properly in the 2 years your given.

I did history and out of european history I wouldnt of been able to anwser questions on WW I + II and major events like that.

DRakE

The Bio paper was a stinker. MY favorite sections usch as Genetics weren't asked in the capacity i thought they would be (i thought there'd be more questions on it)

anyway, The paper just seemed to go badly from the moment i opened it

seamus

As Joe Reville(my former teacher, Biology expert, and big head in ASTI) said, the exam was designed to test what students didn't know, as opposed to what they did. One experiment came up, that students were asked analyse, about dissecting a frog. As we all know, experimentation on frogs is illegal in this country - they're a protected species. Aside from that, the analysis of an unseen experiment was never taught on the syllabus. Some Minister (I think it was the Minister for education) said, 'The experiment is completely humane - the frogs are released back into the wild once it's over'. Expect to see a pond full of dead frogs outside the Dept. of Education in the coming months . As well, as that, none of the normal topics came up - human reproduction, photosynthesis/Respiration, the senses, and plant reproduction didn't come up. Afair, these topics are pretty much all I did for my LC biology - there really isn't much else apart from animal classification and ecology, both of which are usually left out by many students. :rolleyes:

BKtje

unfortunately we had to hand up our papers (section 1 was done on the exam papers) so i cant write out the questions.

I would actually love to have another look at them. Are there any sites that stick em up by ne chance?

Qualm

I dont know if anybody really cares about this anymore (it seems like AGES ago that it happened) but I took a copy of the paper out of the exam hall after the exam was over, so that I could have a look at it with my Bio teacher. If it was wanted, I could get some (or all) of the questions up into this thread? Anybody who wants it, reply and ask pls.

I also have the address to write to the Dept. of Ed to complain about the paper. Me being lazy and generally not wanting to dredge up exams again, I haven't actually gotten round to writing to them yet, but I may, someday....

I agree with all that has been said above, I'm a pretty strong bio student and was hoping to get an A from the paper, I wasn't so sure that I would until I heard that large allowances are to be made in its correcting, so fingers crossed

Qualm

Forgot I had the address close to hand, here it is:

The Chief Examiner of Biology,
Leaving Cert. Honours,
Dept. of Education and Science,
Examinations Branch,
Athlone,
Co. Westmeath.

My friend rang up the department to complain and blew her top at the guy at the end of the phone, he said it would be more beneficial for students to write in and complain :rolleyes:

seamus

Originally posted by Qualm
My friend rang up the department to complain and blew her top at the guy at the end of the phone, he said it would be more beneficial for students to write in and complain :rolleyes:

Well, that's actually the truth tbh. A letter can be filed/recorded, and unlike a phone convo, the guy reading the letter might actually take some stuff into consideration, instead of just being pissed off with the amount of people ringing in and biting his head off.

If you'd post up some of the Q's that'd be cool, I for one would be ineterested to see what came up.

Qualm

I have the paper in my hand, it may take a while to actually post up, cos i was going to use the scanner, but it turns out its broken :P So just watch this space. . . .

Qualm

Eventually got the paper scanned, with no thanks to the crap scanner, and with thanks to Flamegrill, here it is:

Leaving Cert biology 2002.

flamegrill

Since my dearest Girl Friend forgot half the url - the files are availabe from http://dahomelands.net/leavingcert/

Sue your very welcome my dear

Qualm

*Scowl*

Thanks fer makin me look bad "dear" :P

*Glare*

seamus

n1 Qualm/flamey - how did you get that out anyway? Did you just not do the exam?

Anyway, that's not as bad as everyone made out.

Section 1 - Straightforward.

Q8 - I think that has come up pretty much every year in the same format. A given imo.

Q9 - A bit mix-and-match. Part (a) wouldn't be too easy unless it was on the course. It wasn't when I did it. The other 2 parts are a bit random.

Q10 - Given. Comes up every year. If you know your stuff it shouldn't be a huge prob.

Q11 - WTF? An entire question on dry weight?? Easy if you had even considered studying it, but I'd say very few did. FFS.

Q12 - Ugh. Would have been the kind of thing I avoided studying, but nevertheless, doable. Although the whole plant structure thing is a bit yuck. An entire question on it is a horror story.

Q13 - Ecology, yay. Ecology is simple, but apparently loads of teachers don't bother covering it. Capture/Recapture takes quite a bit of remembering, but it's easy marks if you can.

Q14 - Nitrogen Cycle.......OK, not always a favourite, but easier to remember than the photosynthesis cycle. Part (c) is a bit messed up though. From nitrogen cycle/symbiosis etc to virii?? A tad unfair/

Q15 -
(a) - Ugh. Never a fan of planty stuff as a whole. Transpiration could also have warranted more importance in that question though.
(b) - Yay. If you know your genetics you should have been laughing with that one.
(c) - Blood/Lymph....hmmm... I had always thought they never covered lymph enough, but they always seemed to ask hard questions on it. If you answered that, you were very sure of yourself.
(d) - Thyroxine is quite a big thing, and usually comes up somewhere. What was the problem with the frog thing? It requires a little thought, but it's not unfamiliar to the other experiments, just requires you to change a few words here and there.


All in all, yes, quite a tough paper, but for anyone who had pretty much all of the course covered, it should have been well doable. Considering you only have to do 4/7, there's plenty of room for picking and choosing. I think the abscence of any big questions on the human body, plus the biggie of respiration/photosynthesis probably threw everybody. As well, tbh, most of the question were a bit vague, and tended to cover a lot of small parts of the course as opposed to the biggies. If you did 4 questions you'll be fine.

And, don't worry, it will be marked appropriately, but I don't think it warrants any major investigation or amnesty.

Turner

Omg Fucus Vesiculosis and spirogyra still comming up... In fact im going into 3rd yr biology in college and Fucus still comes up in exams.
EVERYBODY SHOULD KNOW FUCUS!!!!!!!!!!

for those of you who dont check out
http://www.freakinfucus.co.uk/primers/prim_seastruct.htm

Lisa Lavish

I failed that paper so badly!!!!

Turner

Congrats...

fancy a few grinds

Lisa Lavish

NO!!!deres not a dam chance of me repeating 6th yr!!!

the real ego

put it this way, it was an exam of the stuff everyone leaves out coz it never comes up


every topic that usually comes up didnt


they better mark it easy

Originally posted by Chief---

fancy a few grinds

Yes! Im going into 6th year and I thought I was doing ok but htat paper has me shitting myself. :eek:

sceptre

Brother is laughing after getting an A in Biology.

On the other hand he won't get his first choice and will probably end up doing Biochem in Cork. Which will leave his options more open in any case.