Biology: Discussion, Questions & Potential Solutions

[Sine]

For 7b, would it not have been important to specify the founder's effect?

It's definitely okay to name the founder effect directly however that would be more the circumstances those populations were in. The important part of this question is actually explaining why there is low genetic diverstiy.

[Erutepa]

It's definitely okay to name the founder effect directly however that would be more the circumstances those populations were in. The important part of this question is actually explaining why there is low genetic diverstiy.

Sorry,
What I meant to say was, in addition to the provided response, would it not have been important (in order to satisfy full marks) to name the founders effect. It just seemed like they would have wanted you to mention that term in your answer.
Other than that I completly agree with all the other responses. Thanks guys!

[PhoenixxFire]

Sorry,
What I meant to say was, in addition to the provided response, would it not have been important (in order to satisfy full marks) to name the founders effect. It just seemed like they would have wanted you to mention that term in your answer.
Other than that I completely agree with all the other responses. Thanks guys!

Yeah I actually agree with you, Vox and I wrote slightly different answers for that question, but I'd completely forgotten about it until you brought it up haha. Given the question says reasons instead of reason, I think they wanted you to mention both. Will have to check with Vox in the morning though.

[peachxmh]

Hey guys, so this is a bit of a panicked question but I was wondering whether we were allowed to write outside of the border in the exam paper where it doesn't say that you can't write on it (in yellow highlight in the picture I attached below)? I wrote one sentence outside the bottom of the border and a couple words off the side so I'm really hoping you can LOL (should be good knowledge for next year anyway)

[gab.r_se]

What does everyone think this year A+ cutoff score is gonna be 
I hope it's gonna be lower than last year's score coz I thought this year's short-answer part was harder... (or maybe it was just me ;-;)

I agree. I am not confident in my answers at all. I think the cut off will be around the same as last years.

[vox nihili]

Overall thoughts about the exam

This was a fairly reasonable exam. As with 2017, there were some tricky questions that have again flagged a shifting emphasis of the course. Compared to the previous course, there were more questions than usual that expected you to take in information provided by VCAA and combine it with your own knowledge to work through an answer. These questions were more challenging than they were on the previous course, often requiring a nuanced understanding of the science.

The emphasis on the interpretation of science was also, once again, prominent. These questions will have been challenging to most students; however, they should not be. All of the interpretation of science questions were actually quite straightforward, but in my limited experience this has been a part of the course that biology teachers have struggled to teach in classrooms and consequently students have struggled in. Understanding these fundamentals of science is critical to doing good science in the future, so if you found these questions difficult please bear this in mind if you continue to study science in the future—understanding how scientific knowledge is generated by experiments is the single most important thing to understand about science!


I can't see any reason why the A+ cut-off would shift in either direction by a large amount, but trying to predict the cutoff is a mug's game.

Were there any questions all of you wanted to discuss?

How is a vesicle an organelle?

An organelle is just a discrete, functional component of a cell. A vesicle has always been accepted by VCAA as an organelle and most text books have presented it as such. Is there any particular reason you think a vesicle shouldn't be classed as an organelle? Happy to be corrected as always!

Sorry,
What I meant to say was, in addition to the provided response, would it not have been important (in order to satisfy full marks) to name the founders effect. It just seemed like they would have wanted you to mention that term in your answer.
Other than that I completly agree with all the other responses. Thanks guys!

Yeah I actually agree with you, Vox and I wrote slightly different answers for that question, but I'd completely forgotten about it until you brought it up haha. Given the question says reasons instead of reason, I think they wanted you to mention both. Will have to check with Vox in the morning though.

This is a good point you raise. The short answer is I'm not sure. In our answer, we've merely described the process by which variation occurs without naming the process. Given that it is a two mark question, they might have either expected founder effect [1] and an explanation of founder effect [2], alternatively (and I'd suggest less likely) they would go with a marking scheme for that question similar to ours.

Hey guys, so this is a bit of a panicked question but I was wondering whether we were allowed to write outside of the border in the exam paper where it doesn't say that you can't write on it (in yellow highlight in the picture I attached below)? I wrote one sentence outside the bottom of the border and a couple words off the side so I'm really hoping you can LOL (should be good knowledge for next year anyway)

You're really not supposed to but I think there might be recourse to look at the margins if they suspect something is written in them. I think the margins are a sort of "can be cut off" kind of think, not necessarily will be.
That said, this info is based on my year, which was the first year to use the margins—so they might have been a bit nicer back then.

[juliette3901]

As above, the request of copyrighted materials is banned on AN

[PhoenixxFire]

Hi guys was wondering if there was the 2018 exam copy so i can try remember my mc answers!

We can’t post a copy because it’s copyrighted.

[Friendsfvv]

I agree. I am not confident in my answers at all. I think the cut off will be around the same as last years.

Same here, I think the A+ cut off wouldn't fluctuate as such. it would probably differ by 1-2% max.

Does anyone have a copy of the exam?? I understand that you can't post it here, but is there another way that I can get a copy of it??
I was thinking of asking my biology teacher for another copy, but I wasn't sure if she would give it to me.. How does ATARNOTES get a copy of the exam? 

[K888]

Same here, I think the A+ cut off wouldn't fluctuate as such. it would probably differ by 1-2% max.

Does anyone have a copy of the exam?? I understand that you can't post it here, but is there another way that I can get a copy of it??
I was thinking of asking my biology teacher for another copy, but I wasn't sure if she would give it to me.. How does ATARNOTES get a copy of the exam? 

I would recommend speaking to your biology teacher.

[PhoenixxFire]

Does anyone have a copy of the exam?? I understand that you can't post it here, but is there another way that I can get a copy of it??
I was thinking of asking my biology teacher for another copy, but I wasn't sure if she would give it to me.. How does ATARNOTES get a copy of the exam? 

Your teacher should have a copy (or another bio teacher at your school). The exam supervisors normally have spares and most teachers grab a copy after the exam.

[bacteriophage]

anyone else say Salicylic acid for physical first line plant defense mechanisms?

[vox nihili]

anyone else say Salicylic acid for physical first line plant defense mechanisms?

You’ll probably know better than I do, but isn’t salicylic acid only produced by one species of plant?

How does it work? If it’s in the leaves and poisons pathogens it can’t be taken as an answer. If however it prevents entry of pathogens it can probably.

[Monkeymafia]

Would I recieve marks for the following:

Significance of BMP4 gene in terms of galapagos question:
- BMP4 codes for a bone growing protein that stimulates bone growth and thus, affects the size and shape of finch beaks
- the longer BMP4 is expressed, the greater the beak size (bigger beaks allowed for finches to crack open hard seeds)
- this allowed for rapid diversification of finches to fill all available ecological niches (adaptive radiation)

2 chemical plant defences:
- production of abscisic acid to shed infected leaves
- production of toxic chemicals (phytoalexins) to prevent pathogen growth

[vox nihili]

Would I recieve marks for the following:

Significance of BMP4 gene in terms of galapagos question:
- BMP4 codes for a bone growing protein that stimulates bone growth and thus, affects the size and shape of finch beaks
- the longer BMP4 is expressed, the greater the beak size (bigger beaks allowed for finches to crack open hard seeds)
- this allowed for rapid diversification of finches to fill all available ecological niches (adaptive radiation)

2 chemical plant defences:
- production of abscisic acid to shed infected leaves
- production of toxic chemicals (phytoalexins) to prevent pathogen growth

Your answer to the BMP4 question sounds great, so that should pick you up the marks yes...although the jump from the effect of BMP4 to how it causes adaptive radiation is a little abrupt.

I don't think you'd get a mark for phytoalexins, although it's borderline. The question asks about things that prevent pathogens from getting in. By the googling I've just done (I know next to nothing about plants), phytoalexins seem to kick in once an infection has already occurred.
Likewise for abscisic acid.
I think it's really a matter of how anal VCAA is about this. That neither of these is really on the VCE course could make it harder to pick up the marks but it's hard to say. The moral of the story here is that it's always safest to stick with the simple things. There are no extra marks for showing off extra knowledge unfortunately!