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March 29, 2024, 04:32:15 am

Author Topic: VCE Biology Question Thread  (Read 3570766 times)  Share 

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strawberryfadoodle

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13020 on: September 28, 2020, 03:00:24 pm »
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Some pictures from past VCAA bio exams are under copyright restrictions and I can't see them. Does anyone happen to know where I can find these pictures?

strawberryfadoodle

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13021 on: September 28, 2020, 03:05:07 pm »
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Are there any threads on here that list the questions from past VCAA exams that are no longer relevant to this year's study design?

Chocolatepistachio

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13022 on: September 28, 2020, 03:46:11 pm »
+3
No I don’t think there is but if you are familiar with your study design you should be able to identify if a question is irrelevant

Harrycc3000

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13023 on: September 28, 2020, 04:31:36 pm »
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Hi guys,
Can anyone explain the difference between the social and ethical implications? They kind of seem similar to me and I haven't seen anything that has definite definitions or explanations for them.



Thanks
VCE 2020: Biology [50]
VCE 2021: Mathematical Methods [44], Specialist Mathematics [43], Psychology [45], Chemistry [45], English Language [49]
ATAR: 99.90
UCAT: 3240 (99th)
2022-2024: UoM Bachelor of Science Majoring in Data Science (Planning on going into DDS)

Chocolatepistachio

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13024 on: September 28, 2020, 05:08:00 pm »
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Ethical issues relates to what is morally right or wrong

Social implications is more about its effect on society as a whole

homeworkisapotato

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13025 on: September 28, 2020, 06:32:05 pm »
+2
Adding onto chocolatepistachio, social implications also revolves around the economy. For example, genetically modified crops being distributed throughout the world may cancel out the need for normal crops, widening the gap between poor countries which thrive on their agriculture, and the richer countries which will grow the GM crops. Also, biotech companies may charge farmers very expensive seeds every year for harvest, which the farmers may not be able to pay.

Ethical issues refer to things like humans playing 'God' by changing the natural way of organisms, and in tests like genetic screening who has access to the data, the baby itself has not given consent, etc.
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homeworkisapotato

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13026 on: September 28, 2020, 07:29:08 pm »
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Hey everyone! I've been doing exams and I'm averaging about late 80's to early 90's so I've been dedicating some time to honing my weaknesses. Even though I get the answers right in the practice questions, for some reason I get them wrong in the exams and I feel as though my practice isn't really helping and I'm just plateauing. I'm slowly losing motivation because I cannot see a clear improvement. Any advice?
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Harrycc3000

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13027 on: September 28, 2020, 08:02:04 pm »
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Hey everyone! I've been doing exams and I'm averaging about late 80's to early 90's so I've been dedicating some time to honing my weaknesses. Even though I get the answers right in the practice questions, for some reason I get them wrong in the exams and I feel as though my practice isn't really helping and I'm just plateauing. I'm slowly losing motivation because I cannot see a clear improvement. Any advice?
tbh i'm in the exact same position lol. Its a bit frustrating but I think its important not to focus on the score of your practice exams and mostly use them as a way to improve the way you approach questions or just as you said hone in on your weakness and fill in knowledge gaps. Also I think some company papers have some dodgy questions so even if you get those answers wrong I wouldn't  worry about it too much. I've personally started tracking how I get my answers wrong to try and improve my strategy for the exams, so I kind of put in all my lost marks into four categories (Stupid mistakes, Didn't know that bit of the content, didn't elaborate on the right things and misinterpreted the questions) to see what I need to focus on doing more in the subsequent practice exams I do (focus more on what the question is asking for for interpretation, underlying key words for stupid mistakes, focusing on what's going to be relevant for the answer for elaboration etc.). I'm thinking that going thru more practice exams with that mentality might help and improve my approach to exams and it might help yours. Yeah anyway im in the same boat as you and just trying to find ways to get over that plateau lol.
VCE 2020: Biology [50]
VCE 2021: Mathematical Methods [44], Specialist Mathematics [43], Psychology [45], Chemistry [45], English Language [49]
ATAR: 99.90
UCAT: 3240 (99th)
2022-2024: UoM Bachelor of Science Majoring in Data Science (Planning on going into DDS)

homeworkisapotato

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13028 on: September 28, 2020, 08:16:43 pm »
+1
Thank you Harry for your lengthy and detailed response! You're absolutely right that we shouldn't fixate on our scores and should use them as a basis for improvement!

I also have this exam tracker which I note the number of marks I lose in each topic and why I lose them. I usually get the questions wrong because silly mistakes or I misinterpreted the questions because the company exam wording is sometimes really weird. Practice questions are just not helping for some reason so do you all think that just doing more practice exams will help? The thing is because of lockdown, I can't print any exams and I have to look at them on my computer while answering questions. Is that going to severely impact me for the final exam?
« Last Edit: September 28, 2020, 08:18:27 pm by homeworkisapotato »
2020: Biology [43]
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Harrycc3000

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13029 on: September 28, 2020, 08:36:55 pm »
+5
Thank you Harry for your lengthy and detailed response! You're absolutely right that we shouldn't fixate on our scores and should use them as a basis for improvement!

I also have this exam tracker which I note the number of marks I lose in each topic and why I lose them. I usually get the questions wrong because silly mistakes or I misinterpreted the questions because the company exam wording is sometimes really weird. Practice questions are just not helping for some reason so do you all think that just doing more practice exams will help? The thing is because of lockdown, I can't print any exams and I have to look at them on my computer while answering questions. Is that going to severely impact me for the final exam?
For the printing thing I don't think it has that much of an impact because you're still doing the questions and thinking through the concepts and answering all the questions. I'm lucky enough to have a printer and a lot of ink but the only benefit I can think of is that the printed exams limit the amount of space you have so you appropriately concise. In terms of any other methods in improving I honestly don't think there is much more to do because at this point most people basically know all the content and how the specific processes work so there's not much to do in the way of that and as you've said a lot of the mistakes aren't because you're misunderstanding the biological processes but moreso what the exams wording is trying to tell you and I guess your interpretation. For my first sac at my school (was SAC 2 so was on responding to antigens and stuff) I remember that everyone was trying to alpha each other by like talking about concepts that were prob more advanced than vcaa covered and were thinking that by knowing like some weird concept they had an advantage over everyone. In the end though, the sac only covered the relevant vcaa content and a lot of people didn't score that well (including me) A+ cut off was like 80%, so I guess thats whats made me think about how the bio test prep is moreso about understanding the questions and what the examiners want than knowing all the extra bio content in the world (theres so much we don't know lol) One extra thing I'm doing though is flashcards which is pretty useful but a lot of my friends aren't doing them so I guess its based on your preference. Some of my flashcards are some mistakes I make on exams so I don't do them again lol and I find those kind of useful.
VCE 2020: Biology [50]
VCE 2021: Mathematical Methods [44], Specialist Mathematics [43], Psychology [45], Chemistry [45], English Language [49]
ATAR: 99.90
UCAT: 3240 (99th)
2022-2024: UoM Bachelor of Science Majoring in Data Science (Planning on going into DDS)

homeworkisapotato

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13030 on: September 28, 2020, 09:07:36 pm »
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Thank you so much Harrycc3000! I guess it's just spamming practice exams and learning my mistakes until the exam day then!
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Coolgalbornin03Lo

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13031 on: September 29, 2020, 04:28:58 pm »
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Can introns be translated if they are kept after post transcriptional modification? What happens to them then?
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Chocolatepistachio

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13032 on: September 29, 2020, 04:40:51 pm »
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No I don’t think so introns are removed in post transcriptional modification 

WhatisaMeMe

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13033 on: September 29, 2020, 04:44:45 pm »
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Can introns be translated if they are kept after post transcriptional modification? What happens to them then?
Hey
-Introns cannot be translated as they don't code for any information for amino acids (they are not complementary to any anticodons of amino acid carrying tRNA) thus are spliced out.
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p0kem0n21

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #13034 on: September 29, 2020, 05:11:51 pm »
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Do we need to remember the names and types of tools developed by humans over time (e.g. 'Mousterian' technology), or can we just have a general sense of how these tools have become more advanced over time?