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General Thoughts: Biology (4 Viewers)

bigbirdbanana

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gg.. textbooks are contradicting each other =/
who knows which answer is correct then.. I was confident with my answer of C.. but seeing posts it could go either way.
This. Macquarie doesn't even mention anything about the fossil record. I had C but i didn't realise at the time that they were probably insinuating that there are many fossils showing this rapid change, when there aren't. I just think it was a stupid question because this wasn't even looked at in the dot point. UGH.
 

sandshoes23

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That exam was a lot harder then I expected. It was so much harder then the past papers I practiced and my trial exam too. I hope we all got scaled up because it was too hard haha! But seriously, technology Y?! Am I the only one who didn't know that it was a data logger?! Wtf man I don't remember needing to learn any of that shizz! And if bio is the eaasiest science, then I'm fucked for chemistry next week :/
 

pacman911

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I would still stick with C for Q20 as it the most unambigous option. I think you guys are reading too much into it. Option A is too open, the paucity of the fossil record leaves it open to intepretation, not explicity suggesting pertinence with the idea of punctuated equilibrium. Transitional forms suggest RAPID change, darwins theory of graduality suggests, slow, gradual change, where such transitonal fossils would not be in the record. This is because the change occurs so slowly (think the development of homosapiens).

So, C would be the BETTER answer, which is the exact principle on which the HSC multiple choice is based on.
 

premiumcbc

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What did people write for " There is a non-infectious disease among patients in aged-care home. Outline how features of an epidemiological study can determine the cause of this disease "? By features did it mean requirements that make an epidemiological study valid? eg control group, period of time, analyse cause and effect relationships etc
 

Riproot

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What did people write for " There is a non-infectious disease among patients in aged-care home. Outline how features of an epidemiological study can determine the cause of this disease "? By features did it mean requirements that make an epidemiological study valid? eg control group, period of time, analyse cause and effect relationships etc
Surveying and shit.
Just the regular steps, but not in order and not all needed.
 

gaugau1

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Omg the epidmiology question really stuffed me up. Hopefully I will get atleast a 2 for that.
 

darkccc

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I would still stick with C for Q20 as it the most unambigous option. I think you guys are reading too much into it. Option A is too open, the paucity of the fossil record leaves it open to intepretation, not explicity suggesting pertinence with the idea of punctuated equilibrium. Transitional forms suggest RAPID change, darwins theory of graduality suggests, slow, gradual change, where such transitonal fossils would not be in the record. This is because the change occurs so slowly (think the development of homosapiens).

So, C would be the BETTER answer, which is the exact principle on which the HSC multiple choice is based on.
Yes, I would think it would be the better answer, but as noted in the excel book, the time period for the rapid change is too short for any fossils to be created, hence, there won't be a complete set of fossils as according to gradualism. This, I think, is precisely the reason why punctuated equilibrium was proposed. I chose A as my answer, so i might be biased... but the excel book does agree with me....
 

Graham Arnold

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lol at all the debate on this site lol this paper wasnt even that hard compared to 2010..
 

Riproot

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Riproot, you just contradicted yourself, you GUESSED one of two. Also, i don't think i'm smarter than the exam writers and thus trusted in that they wouldn't put two answers that are right. I knew it was cytotoxic cells (which for purposes of the hsc, are the same as killer), but i also believed the board wouldn't give two right answers. It was my choice to trust the board more than myself, and if it was an extended response, only the absolutely mad would disagree with given information.
I didn't guess. I picked one, because the sheet says to pick one and I thought "Hey, they're both the same I can't go wrong." But in reality I guessed/BS majority of the MC and the paper in general. I could've not done the Biology course and probably gotten maybe 5 marks lower. Was more of a skills-type exam that any competent chemistry student could've BS their way through (apart from option) :(
Yes, but the board says "Pick the most correct answer" "most correct" "most". See what I'm getting at here? They never claim to have fully correct answers they just ask students to pick what they deem the "most" correct. In this case there was an understanding that both of the cells were the same (HS level bio) hence, both were most correct.

daaang.... I see where u r coming from... cmon srsly I spent less than 10 seconds on that question, all i saw was "rapid periods of change" and I selected it LOL
Sames. :/

I can understand peoples choice of cytotoxic t cells as it seems like a more specific form of killer t cells (therefore is most correct rather then a contradiction as you put it). I myself thought there was some subtle difference between the two and decided to stick with killer t cells as that's what I was taught in class
Also in the back of my mind i was wondering if it was a mistake on their part as it has happened numerous times before..
This.

Tbh, no one from my school even knew this skills section existed! We were given a copy of the syllabus for each module and i thought that was all we had to know :S I'm really annoyed about the data logger thing, because we never used, or even discussed it! It's just frustrating when you spend so much time studying what you think is the whole course, only to be assessed on something else.
It's on the website and in many notes on here.
You should've known.
I made a point of getting my teacher for both chem and bio to print the skills section for us. :) (actually, maybe my bio teacher did it herself due to the whole "Australian scientist" thing in there)

I went through the same thought process as you during the exam but i decided C because lack of evidence is not evidence.
Sames! This is exactly what my thoughts were!

Indeed, but there is absolutely no evidence that shows rapid change in the fossil record, so even though lack of evidence doesn't really equate to evidence, it was the "most" correct answer (gotta hate that :\ )
There actually is evidence (That fish/crab/skeleton thingy)

Something was wrong with our papers and we had to wait 20mins for them to photocopy a faxed version of the exam. Did anybody else have a major change on the exam????
annoying sitting in a room for 3 and a half hours and then an hour later sitting economics.
My friend had to wait 30 minutes because the old ladies wouldn't organise his stuff properly and he had economics too and he's first in both.

So ridiculous! Found it really hard - bad wording, really specific, tested such a small amount of the syllabus. 7marker for Biotech wasn't even in syllabus (DNA extraction, NOT enzyme).
What was q28 a? About gene expression in skin stem cells is linked to the maintenance of health after the skin is borken?
Ugh worst exam ever.
BOS is investigating into how they messed up q8 btw - cytotoxic and killer T cells are largely the same thing '-.- 2 answers.
Skin is part of the first line of defence. So healing = good.

That exam was a lot harder then I expected. It was so much harder then the past papers I practiced and my trial exam too. I hope we all got scaled up because it was too hard haha! But seriously, technology Y?! Am I the only one who didn't know that it was a data logger?! Wtf man I don't remember needing to learn any of that shizz! And if bio is the eaasiest science, then I'm fucked for chemistry next week :/
Been over this. Skills section.
 

Riproot

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Omg the epidmiology question really stuffed me up. Hopefully I will get atleast a 2 for that.
Me too. :/

Yes, I would think it would be the better answer, but as noted in the excel book, the time period for the rapid change is too short for any fossils to be created, hence, there won't be a complete set of fossils as according to gradualism. This, I think, is precisely the reason why punctuated equilibrium was proposed. I chose A as my answer, so i might be biased... but the excel book does agree with me....
Yeah, but excel is shit.
Get uni books/internets/notes from others.

lol at all the debate on this site lol this paper wasnt even that hard compared to 2010..
Said the guy with red rep.
Btw, it was a lot harder. Under exam conditions I finished the 2010 paper with 2 hours to spare and got 96%.
This paper had me til the last minute and I got around 80-87%.
Go away.
 

Graham Arnold

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Said the guy with red rep.
Btw, it was a lot harder. Under exam conditions I finished the 2010 paper with 2 hours to spare and got 96%.
This paper had me til the last minute and I got around 80-87%.
Go away.
Yes sir because the more rep you have the cooler you are. Nice work getting 40% for the ext 2 paper this year you must be so proud.. maybe if you spent less time on this forum and more time doing school work you wouldnt have found this exam hard
 

Riproot

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Yes sir because the more rep you have the cooler you are. Nice work getting 40% for the ext 2 paper this year you must be so proud.. maybe if you spent less time on this forum and more time doing school work you wouldnt have found this exam hard
Maybe, but I really don't give a shit. :)
 

CalumGemmell

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I'm pretty much the same as everyone else, anywhere between 80-88 raw, depending on how many they deduct from the communication 7 marker for non logical progression of ideas. Enough for a band 6?
 

justforart

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i had (D) for Q.6 also, and what was Q.1? I agree that it relied on skills rather than memory. Some questions i was unsure of what they were asking like the 7 marker on impact of society.
 

zangy

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What was the correct answer for question 10? i put down b? and what did everyone write for the antibiotics extended response? ibsed a lot.
 

justforart

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i also did human story, not many did by the sound of it. How did you find it? (if you did it) also answers for the viral infectious disease treated with vaccine???
 
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OmmU

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What was the correct answer for question 10? i put down b? and what did everyone write for the antibiotics extended response? ibsed a lot.
D

Crossing over doesn't occur in asexual reproduction.

" antibiotics extended response? ibsed a " I think a lot of people did. They will regret putting that one in. IMHO it was such a broad question you could have talked about anything, I think that question will be subjectively marked like an english paper. I read the question like 5 times trying to determine the criteria for the full marks but I was stumped.
 
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thevedettebuff

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Re: 2011 HSC Biology Paper

I thought 4 would be C not A, as it was asking for chromosomes not dna (dna consists of all of A as well as proteins from a quick search on the internet).
Additionally question 20 i thought was A as the idea of punctuated equilibrium was developed to make up for the lack of transitional fossils.
Also for question 1, while the DNA coding for specific proteins is universal among organisms they dont all have identical proteins to each other, plants have chloroplasts where as animals dont. Thus i concluded it was B (biochemistry)

Please correct me if my thinking was wrong :\
Yea same, I got C for Q4 too. But how come Q6 isn't B??? =/
 
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