VCE Biology Question Thread

[Sunset.T]

Hiya (wasn't sure what thread to ask this)
I'm currently in year 11 and i'm struggling with subjects for next year. I've been changing lots of my subjects and i was thinking of maybe doing 3/4 bio without doing units 1/2. A friend of mine doing 1/2 bio said that those units are really necessary for units 3/4. And i've mainly heard students at my school complaining that it's really hard and most people doing units 1/2 have decided to drop it.

I had a fairly brief look at the study design, i feel like perhaps i might be able to grasp all the concepts easily if i try but now i'm concerned it will be too difficult.
I had to do biology for the first semester of year 10 last year and i did pretty shitty in that class. However it may be due to me hating the teacher, not doing my work, sleeping in class and simply not being able to concentrate due to some other things.
I read something in the study design about evolution? i'd say it would be much more complicated than when i did evolution in year 10 but i pick up on those topics easily and if i try i generally pick up on a lot of concepts extremely quickly and i have a pretty good memory too.

Lmao i'm just struggling so much to decide. My health and human teacher told me that to some degree bio is similar to science side of PE, and i find the science side of PE incredibly easy. Lets just say i'm very good at learning things to do with body function and all that body related stuff. But i know Bio isn't just functioning of bodies and how they work, right?
What does it take to do well in bio? Is it really as hard as so many of the students at my school say it is?

[PhoenixxFire]

Personally I find bio very easy to do ok in. It's a subject with a large amount of students doing it though so to very well takes many hours of study. If you're just looking to do well (and not planning on getting 99.95) then you should be able to pick it up if you pay attention and do your work. There are some sections of 1/2 that you don't need to know for 3/4 (ie mitosis & meiosis). It may be worth asking any 1/2 bio teachers at your school if they have any resources that could help eg notes from throughout the year or asking 3/4 teachers what they think you should do over the holidays.

Edit: some parts of PE are relevant eg. Anaerobic/aerobic respiration. I haven't done PE but I would say the way that you learn the science part could be similar as both can be easily related to the world that you can see.

[rainbowsparkles15]

Hiya (wasn't sure what thread to ask this)
I'm currently in year 11 and i'm struggling with subjects for next year. I've been changing lots of my subjects and i was thinking of maybe doing 3/4 bio without doing units 1/2. A friend of mine doing 1/2 bio said that those units are really necessary for units 3/4. And i've mainly heard students at my school complaining that it's really hard and most people doing units 1/2 have decided to drop it.

I had a fairly brief look at the study design, i feel like perhaps i might be able to grasp all the concepts easily if i try but now i'm concerned it will be too difficult.
I had to do biology for the first semester of year 10 last year and i did pretty shitty in that class. However it may be due to me hating the teacher, not doing my work, sleeping in class and simply not being able to concentrate due to some other things.
I read something in the study design about evolution? i'd say it would be much more complicated than when i did evolution in year 10 but i pick up on those topics easily and if i try i generally pick up on a lot of concepts extremely quickly and i have a pretty good memory too.

Lmao i'm just struggling so much to decide. My health and human teacher told me that to some degree bio is similar to science side of PE, and i find the science side of PE incredibly easy. Lets just say i'm very good at learning things to do with body function and all that body related stuff. But i know Bio isn't just functioning of bodies and how they work, right?
What does it take to do well in bio? Is it really as hard as so many of the students at my school say it is?

No you'd be completely fine! I'm doing 3/4 in year 11 now and only did a semester long prep in year 10. The only absolutely essential thing you need to learn from 1/2 is the cell organelles and possibly enzymes, photosynthesis and cellular respiration though these are all taught again in 3/4. if you want to be there, you'll do well as the concepts are easy to pick up but if you don't put in the work, you can't just bludge it. Good luck!

[rainbowsparkles15]

Do vaccines result in the production of T memory cells?

I would have thought they didn't as the cell mediated response acts on cells infected by pathogens but I have a 2017 exam that states vaccines do produce T memory cells?

[LifeisaConstantStruggle]

I'm not very sure about this one, but it might be due to the fact that T helper cells are stimulated to produce cytokines, so T memory cells would subsequently be produced as well.

[PhoenixxFire]

Do vaccines result in the production of T memory cells?

I would have thought they didn't as the cell mediated response acts on cells infected by pathogens but I have a 2017 exam that states vaccines do produce T memory cells?

Not sure if you're talking about helper or cytotoxic T cells.
Tc memory cells would be produced if the vaccine contains an intracellular pathogen.
Th memory cells would be produced for both intracellular and extra cellular pathogens as when we are infected with a virus (or other intracellular pathogen) humoral immunity is activated because viral fragments end up in the extra cellular environment (eg when moving between host cells) and the same thing happens when given a vaccine.

[vox nihili]

They do produce T memory cells but the details of this are probably a little bit beyond VCE. Your safest bit in any vaccine question is to focus on the B-cell response, despite this being an oversimplified conceptualisation of the topic.

[Mr West]

regarding chromosomes, how does linkage effect crossing over?

[ezferns]

Feedback mechanisms and negative feedback diagrams aren't on the study design anymore right?

[PhoenixxFire]

regarding chromosomes, how does linkage effect crossing over?

The closer two genes are, the less likely they are to be seperated during crossing over - because there is less space in between them for a separation to occur.

Lets say two genes are located on the same chromosome and 1% of the chromosome is between them (ie they are very close) there is only a 1% chance of them being seperated assuming crossing over occurs at a random location. Whereas if two genes have 50% of the chromosome between them there is 50% chance of crossing over seperating them, again assuming the location is random

[PhoenixxFire]

Feedback mechanisms and negative feedback diagrams aren't on the study design anymore right?

They are not mentioned in the study design so they are not directly assessable however I would still know what positive/negative feedback mechanisms are as it is related to cell signalling and they could try and indirectly assess it.

[areeb008]

In cell signalling pathways, why is a hydrophobic pathyway longer lasting than a hydrophilic one?? Thanks in advance

[ezferns]

In cell signalling pathways, why is a hydrophobic pathyway longer lasting than a hydrophilic one?? Thanks in advance

Oh I know that this one cos I asked the other day
Hydrophobic molecules are broken down more slowly than hydrophilic molecules by cells and therefore the response lasts longer. Some exams talk about the reason being because steroids bind directly to a gene but I don't think this is the reason.

[LifeisaConstantStruggle]

You wouldn’t need to know the answer to this question for VCE biology.
I really like your reasoning Lifeisaconstantstruggle, but unfortunately it’s not quite correct.

The structural complexity of a molecule really makes little difference to how long the molecule will survive. If you take oxygen gas, as an example...it is an extremely simple structure, yet it is basically never degraded. So, unfortunately that line of thinking doesn’t hold up.

Peptide hormones have really short actions. Their influence is fleeting and they are rapidly degraded. Lipid hormones, however, remain active for a long period of time.

The reason for the difference has nothing to do with the molecules, but is actually all to do with the way cells deal with these hormones. Without going anywhere near the details, peptide hormones break down more quickly because that’s what cells do to them. Conversely, lipids stick around because that’s what cells do. These basically have to do with how long the hormone can stay bound to its receptor (which depends on the design of the receptor) and also whether there are many enzymes around to break them down.

What ezferns has said is quite the case here's the full response by vox

[vox nihili]

Oh I know that this one cos I asked the other day
Hydrophobic molecules are broken down more slowly than hydrophilic molecules by cells and therefore the response lasts longer. Some exams talk about the reason being because steroids bind directly to a gene but I don't think this is the reason.

The binding directly to the gene element tells you a little bit about why they don’t get broken down as quickly (because they’re still needed), but it doesn’t explain why the responses are different speeds.



Thanks Lifeisaconstantstruggle for quoting what I’d said previously handy not to have  explain things again and it can be hard scrolling through old messages!