Biology Exam Chat + Exam Copy + Answers (now)

[simpak]

Typical VCAA screw up on that question about OWLS.  It is clearly ambiguous.  At uni if you do bio, you will learn about different types lethal genotypes.

As long as you said one of either oo or OO dies, you will be fine.  If you said they both die, then you're going to lose marks.

And from quickly flicking through it, it looked like a pretty shit exam...

Hey I wanted to ask you, do you have the prac exam for Genes and Environmental?  Is it the same as Genetics and Evol because if not I suggest a swift swap?

[Russ]

However, I introduce another ambiguity into your problem - the question asks about horses dying at birth.  HERDA has reduced life expectancy but only OLWS says 'dies at birth'.

I applaud this level of trolling the VCE students

[simpak]

yes but in the previous question they imply that OLWS is not considered "lethal"

Previous question?  You mean HERDA not considered lethal?  That's what I'd say too, but it's still confusing.
So then you have the issue of them asking you which horses die solely of OLWS and which are phenotypically normal at both loci.  What controversy.

[Russ]

Lethal is dies prior to birth or is stillborn, it does not have to die at the embryonic stage, it can die at the foetal stage and still be carried to term.

[simpak]

Russ, Gleeson considers lethality to just be 'causes the death of organism' and hence says Huntington's is a recessive lethal...

[Truck]

This question stumped me sooooo hard. Grrrrrrrrrrr. I had the exact same problem doing it but I did what Panicmode did, hope I get some marks for it.

For the evidence for early hominin evolution thing, would Index Fossils / Trace Fossils be two ways? Haha not sure if I'll get any marks for that :/.

[simpak]

in WIKI oo is carried to term and die after a while

In question, oo dies at birth not after a while...
Argh I'm not denying you're using OLWS!  I'm saying some people might try to use HERDA in a dihybrid, ie, anyone homozygous recessive for either or both genes would die at birth but this is not the case because HERDA isn't a lethal in that sense.

[Drunk]

there are no words for this exam

[Panicmode]

I did one age, one relatedness.

[Truck]

probably not (maybe 1 depending on how intepret question)
 
you might get 1 for that
i didn't mention dating techniques really - as this can't determine relatedness?

Hmmm... yeah, well the way I read it, "Outline two types of evidence, other than DNA analysis, that can be used to determine the relatedness and age of early hominins"... Index Fossils can help determine the age, and I didn't think of comparative structures so also wrote Trace Fossils, I think that might be worth 1 out of 2 marks (my explanations were of how they related to age). But from looking through the SA I think this is the only bit I really fucked up, this question and 2 Multiple Choice Q's (funnily enough I fucked up the first MC question hahahahahaha, must be part of the 5% who got it wrong ).

What did you write for the why can't we use DNA Analysis on early hominins Q?

[Panicmode]

probably not (maybe 1 depending on how intepret question)
 
you might get 1 for that
i didn't mention dating techniques really - as this can't determine relatedness?

Hmmm... yeah, well the way I read it, "Outline two types of evidence, other than DNA analysis, that can be used to determine the relatedness and age of early hominins"... Index Fossils can help determine the age, and I didn't think of comparative structures so also wrote Trace Fossils, I think that might be worth 1 out of 2 marks (my explanations were of how they related to age). But from looking through the SA I think this is the only bit I really fucked up, this question and 2 Multiple Choice Q's (funnily enough I fucked up the first MC question hahahahahaha, must be part of the 5% who got it wrong ).

What did you write for the why can't we use DNA Analysis on early hominins Q?

No available samples as DNA had decomposed/degraded

[simpak]

1a?

I'm just going to let you know that 1a is actually the crappiest thing I have ever seen in my life, how mean.

Oh my god this discussion is so much more interesting than phonemic awareness, can't tear myself away.

[Truck]

probably not (maybe 1 depending on how intepret question)
 
you might get 1 for that
i didn't mention dating techniques really - as this can't determine relatedness?

Hmmm... yeah, well the way I read it, "Outline two types of evidence, other than DNA analysis, that can be used to determine the relatedness and age of early hominins"... Index Fossils can help determine the age, and I didn't think of comparative structures so also wrote Trace Fossils, I think that might be worth 1 out of 2 marks (my explanations were of how they related to age). But from looking through the SA I think this is the only bit I really fucked up, this question and 2 Multiple Choice Q's (funnily enough I fucked up the first MC question hahahahahaha, must be part of the 5% who got it wrong ).

What did you write for the why can't we use DNA Analysis on early hominins Q?

No available samples as DNA had decomposed/degraded

THAAANK GOD!

I was sitting in the exam (as I had left that question till last) thinking "Fuck, Fuck can this be as simple as it's just degraded? Surely not? Fuck fuck fuck" and then last 5 minutes I was like can't think of anything else, just gonna write this down! So relieved!

[Panicmode]

is it possible not all proteins were fully decomposed?

Probably not of early hominins... :S We are talking 1 million years.

[Drunk]

multiple choice was pretty tricky this year
and here I was hoping to get 25/25 haha..