VCE Biology Question Thread

[katiesaliba]

So was the question what two macromolecules make up chromosomes? And then were you required to draw the polymers OR monomers of the stated biomacromolecules?

It asked what two biomacromolecules were present in chromosomes. And then it asked us to draw the monomers of each.

Yeah I did the same, hoping that was right!?!

Yay! The question was a tad ambiguous.

[Reus]

I wrote 'nucleic acid' and then in brackets (DNA). Dw, you would've aced the rest

Did you guys get 273 for the DNA sequence in that 90 amino acids question? Because 90x3 for amino acid codons and then the extra 3 nucleotides for the stop codon?

I AGREE 100% feels like NEAP.

I wrote 270 and 3 for a stop codon. Would that be correct?

[Fingerscrossed]

Yeah I did the same, hoping that was right!?!

I thought it was referring to the presence of introns in the original nucleic acid... 

[grannysmith]

I wrote 'nucleic acid' and then in brackets (DNA). Dw, you would've aced the rest

Did you guys get 273 for the DNA sequence in that 90 amino acids question? Because 90x3 for amino acid codons and then the extra 3 nucleotides for the stop codon?

I AGREE 100% feels like NEAP.

Yeah got the same. That q was slightly ambiguous.

[katiesaliba]

I wrote 270 and 3 for a stop codon. Would that be correct?

I feel like it should be. I wrote the same, but then stated that the total would be 273. However, I doubt markers would be so pedantic that they'd take off a mark if they didn't see 273, especially considering the difficulty of this exam!

[Aman476]

It asked for the number of CODING nucleotides in a polypeptide that was 90 monomer units long. Saying stop codon and start codon was at first tempting, but then on that logic why exclude the polyadenine tail, cap, introns and promoter sequence all which fall under the same category as start and stop codons. I said 270

I thought the hardest question was second last one, because I wanted to use the usual answer for allopatric speciation, but it seemed different since one species looked like it was BECOMING a new species. I still gave allopatric answer and said that the isolated population reintegrated and replaced the initial one- haha pretty certain that's wrong, it got too messy to read anyway haha

For last multiple choice (or second last) did everyone say that homo floriensis was social or that it was smimilar to neanderthal (I said social and tool makers - made fire, and cooperated to carry 250kg meat when they only weighed 16kg, but the thing in that answer where they passed on info has caused some doubt) I knew nothing about neanderthal, but they had big brains not small ones......??

[Fingerscrossed]

I thought the hardest question was second last one, because I wanted to use the usual answer for allopatric speciation, but it seemed different since one species looked like it was BECOMING a new species. I still gave allopatric answer and said that the isolated population reintegrated and replaced the initial one- haha pretty certain that's wrong, it got too messy to read anyway haha

I thought it would be due to a genetic bottleneck?

[Han123]

It asked for the number of CODING nucleotides in a polypeptide that was 90 monomer units long. Saying stop codon and start codon was at first tempting, but then on that logic why exclude the polyadenine tail, cap, introns and promoter sequence all which fall under the same category as start and stop codons. I said 270

I thought it asked for the number of nucleotides involved in the coding? :/

[Aman476]

yep that's a perfect answer, I saw three marks, then crossed out what i wrote about some members being more likely to reproduce than others - wish i had though to write genetic bottle neck, but the three marks made me think it wanted to see 'isolation', 'different selection pressures' and 'can't reproduce to have fertile and viable offspring' hahaa oh well, but well done for that, full marks on that question for you! haha

Haha on the last did you say that the pressure that caused the woolly mammoth to be extinct was geographically localised to europe so didnt affect elephant in asia aaha?

[katiesaliba]

It asked for the number of CODING nucleotides in a polypeptide that was 90 monomer units long. Saying stop codon and start codon was at first tempting, but then on that logic why exclude the polyadenine tail, cap, introns and promoter sequence all which fall under the same category as start and stop codons. I said 270

I thought the hardest question was second last one, because I wanted to use the usual answer for allopatric speciation, but it seemed different since one species looked like it was BECOMING a new species. I still gave allopatric answer and said that the isolated population reintegrated and replaced the initial one- haha pretty certain that's wrong, it got too messy to read anyway haha

For last multiple choice (or second last) did everyone say that homo floriensis was social or that it was smimilar to neanderthal (I said social and tool makers - made fire, and cooperated to carry 250kg meat when they only weighed 16kg, but the thing in that answer where they passed on info has caused some doubt) I knew nothing about neanderthal, but they had big brains not small ones......??

It was a natural selection question. I initially thought it was speciation too.

I picked that they were social, because neanderthals had bigger brains than humans so floriensis couldn't have diverged from them really.

I thought it asked for the number of nucleotides involved in the coding? :/

It did ask for the number of nucleotides involved in the coding!

[Fingerscrossed]

yep that's a perfect answer, I saw three marks, then crossed out what i wrote about some members being more likely to reproduce than others - wish i had though to write genetic bottle neck, but the three marks made me think it wanted to see 'isolation', 'different selection pressures' and 'can't reproduce to have fertile and viable offspring' hahaa oh well, but well done for that, full marks on that question for you! haha

Haha on the last did you say that the pressure that caused the woolly mammoth to be extinct was geographically localised to europe so didnt affect elephant in asia aaha?

Don't worry! I already know I lost a lot more marks... I think I mentioned that the Asian elephant was better suited to their environment - had a higher fitness, and for the Wooly mammoth there could have been an environmental change which selected against the population, but wasn't sure... 

[alondouek]

Hey all! Just wanted to give a massive congratulations to everyone who sat the biology exam today. It's been really good seeing you all help each other out with bio questions throughout the year, and I hope you guys have enjoyed the subject enough to carry biology forward into tertiary study.

If anyone has any questions about biomedical/life sciences, please feel free to PM me

[Aman476]

What questions stick out in people's minds as the hardest?
Maybe this will give us some closure if we see what the majority of people said haha?

[tsouls]

I thought the hardest question was second last one, because I wanted to use the usual answer for allopatric speciation, but it seemed different since one species looked like it was BECOMING a new species. I still gave allopatric answer and said that the isolated population reintegrated and replaced the initial one- haha pretty certain that's wrong, it got too messy to read anyway haha

I did not like this question at all! But I feel there could be more than one correct answer. Like allopatric  speciation could've occurred and just one group became extinct while the other survived and they were the new species. I took it as a natural selection question and basically just said there was variation, struggle for survival due to selection pressures and eventually a new species evolved. I have no idea if this was right!
But it's a relief to hear that I'm not the only one who found the exam very difficult!!

[Aman476]

I HATED the question about explaining how the inhibition of the ACTase  (or something like that) enzyme was a regulatory mechanism. I mean the easy part was saying the change in active site blah blah, but did everyone say the words i was so unsure of "negative feedback" I mean probably only one mark, but like since conc of product wasn't going down (just not increasing) i didn't want to say it.....but i gave in and said since it is consumed and not replaced as fast, it would decrease hence stimulus is dampened - negative feedback..........i think i had seen previous questions of enzyme inhibition being negative feedback in old exams, but idk....anyone else? haha