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March 29, 2024, 12:20:24 pm

Author Topic: VCE Biology Question Thread  (Read 3571151 times)  Share 

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peachxmh

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10695 on: September 28, 2018, 03:03:20 pm »
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Are you sure that you've written out the question properly? Your ratio of 12C:14C in the first part of the question looks wrong.

Yep, I copied and pasted it from the 2011 NEAP U4 exam - could it be an error in the question itself? The suggested solution is:

C - 0.125 is one eighth of 1. To reduce the initial amount of 14C to this fraction requires three half-lives 3 x 5500 years = 16 500 years
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vox nihili

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10696 on: September 28, 2018, 03:05:44 pm »
+1
Yep, I copied and pasted it from the 2011 NEAP U4 exam - could it be an error in the question itself? The suggested solution is:

C - 0.125 is one eighth of 1. To reduce the initial amount of 14C to this fraction requires three half-lives 3 x 5500 years = 16 500 years

Yep there's an error in their question in that case. In the first line it should say one 14C to every 10 billion 12C.
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peachxmh

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10697 on: September 28, 2018, 03:09:42 pm »
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Yep there's an error in their question in that case. In the first line it should say one 14C to every 10 billion 12C.

How would you work it out then? I don't really understand how they went from 1/8th to multiplying by 3 in the suggested solutions ahaha
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PhoenixxFire

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10698 on: September 28, 2018, 03:22:24 pm »
+4
How would you work it out then? I don't really understand how they went from 1/8th to multiplying by 3 in the suggested solutions ahaha
In each half life the amount of 14C decreases by half.
So after one half life you have .5
After two you have .25
After 3 you have .125
(It’s half the remaining amount, not half the original)

So then you know it takes three half lives. Each half life is 5500 years. 3 X 5500 = 16500
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Abi21

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10699 on: September 28, 2018, 04:50:48 pm »
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Hi,
So I'm doing 3/4 biology practise exams. I've done about 10 so far and I'm getting between 67%-75% constantly. I've been told that my scores will improve with the more that I do but they're not improving. Is this because I don't know the content well enough or should I keep doing practise exams and wait for the improvements to come along? I always fix up my mistake and correct the practise exams.

PhoenixxFire

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10700 on: September 28, 2018, 05:03:01 pm »
+4
Hi,
So I'm doing 3/4 biology practise exams. I've done about 10 so far and I'm getting between 67%-75% constantly. I've been told that my scores will improve with the more that I do but they're not improving. Is this because I don't know the content well enough or should I keep doing practise exams and wait for the improvements to come along? I always fix up my mistake and correct the practise exams.
It depends on why you're getting questions wrong. Are you just writing the wrong thing? (like interpreting the question wrong, not giving enough information etc.) or do you not know the answer? If you haven't already then go back through them and keep track of what you're getting wrong - Are they all questions on the same topic/s? (My teacher gave us a table with each dot point of the study design printed into a different row and we put a mark next to the relevant part when we got a question on it wrong - it becomes obvious pretty quickly what you're messing up).

Potentially might be worth going back and redoing the same practice exams - see if your mark changes. If it doesn't then you need to change something (and if it does then great because you've learnt something since the first time you did it).

If you're getting 3/4 (or maybe 2) mark questions wrong then try writing out a few different full mark answers for it rather than just editing it to have a full mark answer. Writing out several different full mark answers (just worded differently or whatever) will force you to really think about it rather than just being like 'yeah i reckon I know that' and moving on. It'll make it way easier for you to remember it and find a way to easily answer it in future.

So yeah I reckon either:
-Keep a record of what you're getting wrong, if it's in the same areas then go over your notes/make summaries/etc for that area.
-Redo practice exams you've already done and see if your mark changes (or just redo all the questions you got wrong if you don't have time)
-Write out full mark answers in several different ways to help you remember it.
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Abi21

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10701 on: September 28, 2018, 05:09:28 pm »
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It depends on why you're getting questions wrong. Are you just writing the wrong thing? (like interpreting the question wrong, not giving enough information etc.) or do you not know the answer? If you haven't already then go back through them and keep track of what you're getting wrong - Are they all questions on the same topic/s? (My teacher gave us a table with each dot point of the study design printed into a different row and we put a mark next to the relevant part when we got a question on it wrong - it becomes obvious pretty quickly what you're messing up).

Potentially might be worth going back and redoing the same practice exams - see if your mark changes. If it doesn't then you need to change something (and if it does then great because you've learnt something since the first time you did it).

If you're getting 3/4 (or maybe 2) mark questions wrong then try writing out a few different full mark answers for it rather than just editing it to have a full mark answer. Writing out several different full mark answers (just worded differently or whatever) will force you to really think about it rather than just being like 'yeah i reckon I know that' and moving on. It'll make it way easier for you to remember it and find a way to easily answer it in future.

So yeah I reckon either:
-Keep a record of what you're getting wrong, if it's in the same areas then go over your notes/make summaries/etc for that area.
-Redo practice exams you've already done and see if your mark changes (or just redo all the questions you got wrong if you don't have time)
-Write out full mark answers in several different ways to help you remember it.
It depends on why you're getting questions wrong. Are you just writing the wrong thing? (like interpreting the question wrong, not giving enough information etc.) or do you not know the answer? If you haven't already then go back through them and keep track of what you're getting wrong - Are they all questions on the same topic/s? (My teacher gave us a table with each dot point of the study design printed into a different row and we put a mark next to the relevant part when we got a question on it wrong - it becomes obvious pretty quickly what you're messing up).

Potentially might be worth going back and redoing the same practice exams - see if your mark changes. If it doesn't then you need to change something (and if it does then great because you've learnt something since the first time you did it).

If you're getting 3/4 (or maybe 2) mark questions wrong then try writing out a few different full mark answers for it rather than just editing it to have a full mark answer. Writing out several different full mark answers (just worded differently or whatever) will force you to really think about it rather than just being like 'yeah i reckon I know that' and moving on. It'll make it way easier for you to remember it and find a way to easily answer it in future.

So yeah I reckon either:
-Keep a record of what you're getting wrong, if it's in the same areas then go over your notes/make summaries/etc for that area.
-Redo practice exams you've already done and see if your mark changes (or just redo all the questions you got wrong if you don't have time)
-Write out full mark answers in several different ways to help you remember it.

I lose quite a few careless mistakes but it happens every time and has happened on every sac and I can't seem to help it. With the short answer questions, I always lose a mark here or there because I miss one idea/point. I also forget to answer the question in context to the scenario presented. Thanks heaps for the suggestions, I'll give it a shot!!

PhoenixxFire

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10702 on: September 28, 2018, 05:14:19 pm »
+5
With the careless mistakes, grab a highlighter and as you go through highlight the important bits of the questions/things that you need to mention, it should help you quickly pick out the important bits amongst all the meaningless stuff that VCAA likes to put into questions. Also something I always did was reread the question after having answered it to make sure that I actually covered everything that I needed to.
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randomnobody69420

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10703 on: September 28, 2018, 11:39:25 pm »
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I need help with this question

Excavations at a fossil site uncovered a layer of ancient fl ood debris. The layer consisted of stones and sand,
mixed with fossilised plant and animal remains. The debris had been deposited in a rocky river valley and then
covered with fi ne sandy sediment which was dated to approximately 10 million years ago.
In this situation it is true that
A. the fossils are less than 10 million years old.
B. the rocks of the valley walls are younger than the fossils.
C. the plants and animals lived in the same habitat.
D. the stones mixed with the fossils cannot be younger than the fossils

The answer is D but I don't know how you can reach that conclusion.

LifeisaConstantStruggle

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10704 on: September 29, 2018, 12:38:49 am »
+1
I need help with this question

Excavations at a fossil site uncovered a layer of ancient fl ood debris. The layer consisted of stones and sand,
mixed with fossilised plant and animal remains. The debris had been deposited in a rocky river valley and then
covered with fi ne sandy sediment which was dated to approximately 10 million years ago.
In this situation it is true that
A. the fossils are less than 10 million years old.
B. the rocks of the valley walls are younger than the fossils.
C. the plants and animals lived in the same habitat.
D. the stones mixed with the fossils cannot be younger than the fossils

The answer is D but I don't know how you can reach that conclusion.

Simple, just imagine a dinosaur that fell into and died between a valley, and then sand comes and cover it, which then sediments into stone. So which one, the dinosaur or the stone do you think would be older? Remember than sand -> stone.
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missile

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10705 on: September 29, 2018, 09:28:12 pm »
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When is it ideal to finish up doing practice exams? I want to finish somewhat early, but I'm not sure how early is too early where you'd start to lose your mojo. If it means anything I'm currently intending to leave a couple of the company papers on the current design to do last, maybe on the weekend before the exam. I'm just not sure if that's the best way to pace myself.
Thanks
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Sine

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10706 on: September 29, 2018, 09:44:16 pm »
+2
When is it ideal to finish up doing practice exams? I want to finish somewhat early, but I'm not sure how early is too early where you'd start to lose your mojo. If it means anything I'm currently intending to leave a couple of the company papers on the current design to do last, maybe on the weekend before the exam. I'm just not sure if that's the best way to pace myself.
Thanks
I would probably be doing them up till a couple of days from the exam - from memory my Bio exam was on Friday and I think I did my last exam on Wednesday (and that was the most recent vcaa one at the time). The are quite long exams too so I wouldn't be doing one the day before.

PopcornTime

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10707 on: September 30, 2018, 10:49:51 am »
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How much detail about the nervous system should we know for the exam? Some of the old exams have action potentials, firing off, motor, sensory neutrons, etc, but we haven't covered that at school.

Thanks.

PhoenixxFire

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10708 on: September 30, 2018, 10:52:15 am »
+1
How much detail about the nervous system should we know for the exam? Some of the old exams have action potentials, firing off, motor, sensory neutrons, etc, but we haven't covered that at school.

Thanks.
It's not in the study design anymore, you don't need to know any of that.
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PopcornTime

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Re: VCE Biology Question Thread
« Reply #10709 on: September 30, 2018, 11:38:22 am »
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What should we know about aneuploid, polyploidy and tetraploidy for the exam?