VCE Biology Exam Discussion and Solutions

[Ahmad_A_1999]

Same for me! I was finishing significantly early in trial exams but finished seconds before time was up today. I think it was largely because only like 5% of the MCQ were ones you could skim-read and know the definite answer, whereas I was used to it being more like 30-40% or something in trial exams.

Also a lot of the short answer questions had long and detailed premises that you had to read fully to make sure you weren't going to make a wrong assumption, e.g. the runner/ramet one where the questions were straightforward and quite simple but you had to read and digest so much text.

I feel like the style of this exam made it more advantageous to know extension stuff and general knowledge of the world (e.g. the sterilization stuff) I feel like this was one of those exams where doing 150 practice exams wouldn't have been significantly more advantageous than doing like 15. Like, you could've done 150 practice exams (not that I did this many) and still struggled. Am I the only one that feels this way?

Yes! There was so much they left out, apoptosis, photosynthesis, signal transduction, allergic response, etc. A lot of my answers were iffy

How did everyone answer the 3 mark question asking how amino acids were joined?

For the cockroach controls:
-Same diet/ amount of food
-Same amount of exercise (though I'm not sure how this could be tested!)

For the same gene but different proteins:
-Alternative exon splicing but not sure how to get 3 marks out of this?

For the STR multiple choice (Q39):
-D, Individual 4's parents are 1&2

Multiple choice 40:
-Think I chose the transgenic option, D, but quite unsure!

6 mark extinction:
-Not very big population so unlikely to cause mass extinction
-Evidence they coexisted (wombat mammal or something)
-Evidence that they had died out tens of thousands of years earlier so First Australians didn't cause extinction

Type of immune system:
Innate
 

For the amino acid question I just talked about the whole translation process and made sure to mention that they join in a condensation polymerisation reaction and the amino acids are joined by peptide links

[Ahmad_A_1999]

Did anyone talk about translation for this question??

Yeah I was thinking of doing this too hahahaha, but I didn't because I was scared that the amino group and carboxyl group stuff was too much for bio

[Hydroxyl]

Hey all! Managed to snag a copy of the exam: seems like a toughie! Congrats on finishing it!


I only did get the first 14 pages of the exam before I got caught aha, the teacher needed to go to a meeting and let me take pictures but it was too late.

Viewable here:

https://ibb.co/bVwqdG
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https://ibb.co/dUq5Cb
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https://ibb.co/j3wOyG
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https://ibb.co/kRaiyG
https://ibb.co/id8QCb
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https://ibb.co/cy11kw

[James Holgate]

Ha yeah same just started talking chemistry on the “describe how amino acids bond” question!

For multiple choice I had individual 4 being child of 1 & 2
And for the last one I can’t remember the answer I chose but I remember specifically choosing NOT transgenic, because the dsRNA didnt enter the plants genome, it just entered the cell, and bound to viral RNA that also entered the cell..........I could be completely wrong thats just how I interpreted the question 🤷🏽‍♂️

[TRA0023]

For MCQ 40, I didn't choose the transgenic option because the stem said something about the genes not being altered? 

[Zaljc]

For the last question, I don’t think it’s transgenic because the questions specifically said; “it doesn’t alter the DNA of the plant”

Transgenic is when genetic material is inserted to the actual DNA of the organism, right?

I chose B because I thought the spray initiates changes that does effect translation of the viral gene because it said “the dsRNA silences a gene FROM the virus” not the plant

God, this is making me so anxious

[James Holgate]

Ahh good to see some other non-transgenic answers!

Also I had NO IDEA on MC q24 about multiple sclerosis and what they would find in tissue...I think I guessed Th cells in the spinal fluid
What did you guys put?

[PhoenixxFire]

I didn't like any of the answers I didn't choose D because it said it wasn't transgenic. I didn't choose C because it said the virus affected mulitple plant species.

Not sure on A/B I chose A because B said that it bound to viral RNA presenting translation but the stem said something about the RNA breaking down...but then A made no sense to me so now I'm thinking it's B

[PhoenixxFire]

Ahh good to see some other non-transgenic answers!

Also I had NO IDEA on MC q24 about multiple sclerosis and what they would find in tissue...I think I guessed Th cells in the spinal fluid
What did you guys put?

I picked the Th cell one too, not because I thought it was right but because I though the others were wrong

[neenah]

I think I got the answer with individual one as well but there was another option that had me thinking and I was so confused man. As for the trials, pfft I would literally finish multiple choice in like 30-40 minutes and have so much time left for short answer! I think its because this was the actual exam that I would read the question a few times and look at every single option and analyse it rather then being quick, because I wanted to make sure my answer was as accurate as possible. Also in short answers,my friends kind of confused me in the genetic screening question. Apparently i cant say an ethical implication is the decision of termination/abortion of the baby as it is a NEWBORN baby so the baby is already born. Are they reading to deep into the question or is this what most people thought of the question?

[Ahmad_A_1999]

Also in short answers,my friends kind of confused me in the genetic screening question. Apparently i cant say an ethical implication is the decision of termination/abortion of the baby as it is a NEWBORN baby so the baby is already born. Are they reading to deep into the question or is this what most people thought of the question?

OMG I freaked about this in the exam too hahaha, I was going to say the abortion stuff, but I think your friends are right in saying it is a newborn and you can't say that, I don't know, could be wrong though.

[PhoenixxFire]

I word-vomited all this Chemistry 3/4 stuff cus I had no idea what the 3 marks were for.
- Condensation reaction where amine group of amino acid joined with carboxyl group of another amino acid.
- H2O molecule removed
- Resulting bond is peptide bond which is a covalent bond
Woohoo I said exact same thing.
I don't remember it being 3 marks but I explained in detail what the process entailed.

I wrote about that and I don't do chem

[PhoenixxFire]

What did people say for that majorly stuffed up one about MS and the bacteria?

which question was this?

[TRA0023]

I think I got the answer with individual one as well but there was another option that had me thinking and I was so confused man. As for the trials, pfft I would literally finish multiple choice in like 30-40 minutes and have so much time left for short answer! I think its because this was the actual exam that I would read the question a few times and look at every single option and analyse it rather then being quick, because I wanted to make sure my answer was as accurate as possible. Also in short answers,my friends kind of confused me in the genetic screening question. Apparently i cant say an ethical implication is the decision of termination/abortion of the baby as it is a NEWBORN baby so the baby is already born. Are they reading to deep into the question or is this what most people thought of the question?

Not too sure about abortion, as it is indeed a newborn...

I said privacy of the information obtained (insurance company, future employer etc.) and the baby not consenting to the test? violation of bodily autonomy? idk... i kinda winged the second one.

[JaeSunRyoo]

which question was this?

I think they might be talking about the "Hygiene" approach question concerning the MS context. The question was like "What can you understand/infer from this block of text?" The answer I put down was something like being exposed to this bacterial infection will help against MS or something, time to look at the screenshots that have been put up...