Secrets To Biol Success - Proven

[munto]

Hi all. I'll be your friendly Biol Mod.

Anyway for all of you having exams either on monday, or next year in '08 and beyond, here are some tried and prooven exam strategies that worked for me:

*develop acronyms for modes of evolution
I used VSSRIG for allopatric speciation (always is an exam question on this worth approx four marks, in the 06 U4 exam it was the final question on the paper)

*use your reading time
Yes children. All of it. Biology is unlike Chem and Physics. There are no calculations that need to be made on calculators so your reading time should be used to nut out the multiple choice as well as reading through the short answer and planning out answers. Spot the VISRIG question during this time. Also work out which questions look familiar from practice exams in the short answer - do these before other short answer questions that are harder, you will feel more comfortable with what is being asked of you.

*note. notes. notes. and more notes.
Make them. Throughout the year make notes. They don't have to be original and 100% free from plagerism, read the textbook or teacher's notes for key points and summarize these in you own points. Make the notes engageable, that meaning eliminate the dry shit, write them as if you are delivering a speech.

*DO NOT do every practice exam under timed conditions
I repeat: DO NOT DO ALL PRACTICE EXAMS UNDER TIMED CONDITIONS. Teachers will hate me for this. Time management is the key they say. Well doing prac exams under time creates undue stress, meaning you don't learn the answers to the questions and the theory correctly. Do your exams as slow as you need, allowing yourself to properly answer ALL questions (you may need to look at the answers, don't be ashamed of doing this, no one watches you like a hawk). This means that by the time you are doing your final practice exams and actual exam itself you know ways in which to correctly answer questions without worrying about time, things come to you quicker, thus actually maximising your time.

That is all for now. Will add more tips as I think of them.

munto.

[enwiabe]

And, you know, for credibility, this guy got 50 last year.

[emma04]

ok you are probably gonna think im really stupid but would u be able to tell me what each of the letters in VISRIG stands for

[munto]

it's actually VSSRIG. Oops on my behalf...

V-Variation (Genetic) within a population
S- Selecting Pressures : After the populations have been separated different            selecting pressures affect the animals
S- Survival: Only animals with traits that favour survival survive
R- Reproduction: Surviving Animals in the two populations reproduce
I- Inheritance: DNA is past down to offspring. Traits continue.
G- Generations: Over many generations the genetic mutations accumulate and the two populations become two distinct species as they can no longer breed with each other.

[emma04]

it's actually VSSRIG. Oops on my behalf...

V-Variation (Genetic) within a population
S- Selecting Pressures : After the populations have been separated different            selecting pressures affect the animals
S- Survival: Only animals with traits that favour survival survive
R- Reproduction: Surviving Animals in the two populations reproduce
I- Inheritance: DNA is past down to offspring. Traits continue.
G- Generations: Over many generations the genetic mutations accumulate and the two populations become two distinct species as they can no longer breed with each other.

thanks soooo much  

[astarael]

And, you know, for credibility, this guy got 50 last year.

lol for some extra credibility, can someone please correct the thread title?  it's "proven", not "prooven".

apart from that, very helpful advice, thank you!

[munto]

You're welcome emma (I assume that is your name)

They'll more often than not want that type of response for full marks. DNA and genetic inheritance must be talked about!

Also make a key point of the isolation into different niches with different selecting pressures, and don't forget to mention the inability to breed- this is key to defining two separate species

munto

[munto]

And, you know, for credibility, this guy got 50 last year.

lol for some extra credibility, can someone please correct the thread title?  it's "proven", not "prooven".

apart from that, very helpful advice, thank you!

No worries. And for future beneficial purposes i'll modify the thread title so that it is correct in it's spelling. Not that I care that much about it. But if it means the difference between people getting worried about it , i'll change it.

*Note: I'm not dyslexic. I can spell and do suprisingly well in English. ask enwiabe

[emma04]

once again thanks so much
i hope i get a question on this now lol

[munto]

yeah you are pretty much 100% guaranteed to get a question on speciation/evolution in the short answer question. so maybe practice them today, before the exam.

[enwiabe]

And here I thought you misspelt "prooven" because you were trying to accentuate the proven nature of it. And yes, this guy will probably get >45 in English as well. Bastard.

[itsme]

Good exam advice munto.

As far as planning time in the actual exam.

I was going to Take the 15 mins for reading (well everybody does that!)

approx 1 min per multiple choice.

and approx 1 hour for the short answer section. ( This year there are 9 SA questions, according to VCAAs examination cover)

What do you guys think? How are you planning your time, so that it doesn't runaway from you?

Any advice welcome
Thanx

[munto]

hmmm well as i said, nut out the MC in the reading time (not hard at all)

given that there are 9 SA there will be some really basic straightforward questions, so i'd put money on there being one of those match A with an explanation style of things, maybe for meiosis??

[shinny]

just following on from what he said, i did bio last yr (and  got less than him, but ill just say not much less =P) and yeh, hes dead on with the advice

after doing many practise exams, ull start to find the same questions repeating over and over again, and u DEFINITELY should prepare generic answers for these that would get full marks somewhere and memorise ur wording for them as it saves u ALOT of time during the exam. with the not doing exams under time conditions, i didnt do that either near the end because there are so many practise bio exams available since the course hasnt changed that much recently that its almost impossible to do every single one...so what i did was pretty much on the last day, do the multi choice, think about the short answer quetions in my head, and then read the solutions for about 25 (yes i had 25 spare). this saves ALOT of time and gives u a much greater exposure to the types of questions that will come up, and particularly if ur not too good at the application of theory, then just exposing urself to the sorts of questions that can come up is quite useful

[Voltman]

Currently, I am in Year 10 and I do biology. How much studying should I do for it? And, how about for year 11 and 12?

How much studying should I do, if I want to get perfect scores for my VCE (for biology)? And, will I have to use other sources apart for my Year 10 Biology textbook to attain a perfect score?