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Biology Paper 1 & 2 HL


kyriakosr21

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8 minutes ago, IBStudent1225 said:

Overall I think both papers were good, although the ratio of understanding to application and skills content was rather different from the OCC specimen papers, with the specimens being a lot more applications and skills based than the real paper. I found paper 1 to contain some very obvious questions, such as the one defining veins and arteries, the homologous/analogous structures one and the Krebs cycle, whilst others were a bit more misleading.

Paper 2 was also a challenging but overall good paper, again with a small unbalance between the ratio of understanding to application and skills content. The Section  B questions in my opinion were restricted to few topics, but were definitely doable. The data based question about diabetes was definitely one of the best data based questions, whilst the cladogram one was just a bit wired in terms of how it was set out. 

What did you answer for the cladogram question? I think I answered fins for fishes and lungs for the place between birds and mammals

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4 minutes ago, #teamnosleep said:

What did you answer for the cladogram question? I think I answered fins for fishes and lungs for the place between birds and mammals

I answered gils for fish and in between birds and mammals I wrote limbs, as some fish have been discovered to also have lungs! I just wanted to be safe but lungs will work for sure I think! 

Edited by IBStudent1225
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On 6.05.2016 at 3:29 AM, Bubbles said:

Hey!
I wrote about apoplastic and symplastic transport since it asked about replacement of water, but just to be safe I also wrote about suction and tension in the xylem which replaces water lost by mesophyll!

The paper was really weird though...

to be honest, I don't know any details about apoplastic and symplastic transport, I don't even say about mentioning the difference between those two :D. Was it in Oxford Study Guide or this was the info from other book or your teacher? But sure you will score a mark for this point, too. :)

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3 hours ago, IBStudent1225 said:

I answered gils for fish and in between birds and mammals I wrote limbs, as some fish have been discovered to also have lungs! I just wanted to be safe but lungs will work for sure I think! 

For that I put gills, pentadactyl limbs and mammary glands.. :P 

 

Also, for those questions that said state the mean value of… 

 

Were you supposed to consider the error bars? D:

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11 minutes ago, ShootingStar16 said:

For that I put gills, pentadactyl limbs and mammary glands.. :P 

 

Also, for those questions that said state the mean value of… 

 

Were you supposed to consider the error bars? D:

For the cladogram I put something silly like: Produces Ammonia (as waste), Warm Blooded, Hairs (as opposed to feathers)

For the mean value I didn't consider the error bars, because I was pretty sure that they represent uncertainty/standard deviation, not the mean.

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9 hours ago, ShootingStar16 said:

For that I put gills, pentadactyl limbs and mammary glands.. :P 

 

Also, for those questions that said state the mean value of… 

 

Were you supposed to consider the error bars? D:

I'm not quite sure. I didn't! *suddenrealizationofhorror* Did anyone else put error bars too?

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On 5 de mayo de 2016 at 7:24 PM, isaiguana said:

I also wrote the TZ0 paper. I think that the question you are referring to was meant to have you evaluate simply the effectiveness of embryonic stem cells, and possibly compare this to that of the umbilical cord stem cells. That's how I interpreted it, anyway.

I also answered 5a. I discussed the definition of an enzyme and how the active site works, mainly.

I did the tz0 papers too and I actually found them quite easy! For the data response questions, well, the data says many things so just look at the trends and read carefully what the text in the beggining says! It helps a lot.

Also, cladograms can be quite simple if you get them taught well (I thank my teacher for that) 

the only question I was quite worried about in paper 2 is in section B  q7 on plant transport. I would've done the nephron because I knew that well, but I wasn't confident on the proteins of the cell membrane, but I kinda regret it now.

In paper 1, I expect around 9 wrong answers out of 40 lol 

 

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https://www.change.org/p/international-bacc-ib-biology-sl-examination-2016?recruiter=25569273&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_page&utm_term=mob-xs-share_petition-no_msg&fb_ref=Default

whoever found the exam really difficult and tough to go along with the new core please sign this petition. Hopefully IB will lower the grade boundaries for the "new syllabus" subjects (physics, bio)

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1 hour ago, kyriakosr21 said:

https://www.change.org/p/international-bacc-ib-biology-sl-examination-2016?recruiter=25569273&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_page&utm_term=mob-xs-share_petition-no_msg&fb_ref=Default

whoever found the exam really difficult and tough to go along with the new core please sign this petition. Hopefully IB will lower the grade boundaries for the "new syllabus" subjects (physics, bio)

..... The bio paper was fine....  Everything that was tested in the exams is explicitly stated in the syllabus. It is not reasonable to launch a petition just because the exam was hard. Is it really the IB's fault that we didn't study properly?   

Edited by Guest
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3 minutes ago, Lovelife said:

..... The bio paper was fine....  Everything that was tested in the exams is explicitly stated in the syllabus. It is not reasonable to launch a petition just because the exam was hard. Is it really IB's fault that we didn't study properly?   

A lot of people has signed the petition though

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Just now, #teamnosleep said:

What did you answer for the effect on plant tissues in hypertonic solution?

Also, is prokaryotic DNA replication is almost the same as eukaryotic right?

I first defined what a hypertonic solution was (more concentration of solute outside than inside), and that because of this water moves out by osmosis and the solute diffuses inside (which I'm not sure happens 100% of the time). Following this, the vacuole decreases in size, reducing turgor pressure. I also drew a little diagram to visually show what happens. The cell wall doesn't shrink, just the inside contents. 

Prokaryotic DNA replication, from what I understand, is pretty much the same as Eukaryotic DNA replication.

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1 hour ago, kyriakosr21 said:

whoever found the exam really difficult and tough to go along with the new core please sign this petition. Hopefully IB will lower the grade boundaries for the "new syllabus" subjects (physics, bio)

I am sorry to say this but the exam did deal with topics explicitly stated in the Biology 2016 guide (https://qasmt.eq.edu.au/Curriculum_Documents/Group4/2016-2017/Biology-IB-Guide.pdf) and there is absolutely no need to be signing petitions for the examination. The IBDP is a Pre-Univeristy course, and therefore the level of it is high. I find the complaints moved on some questions unnecessary and sometimes ridicule. The examination does not have to necessarily comprise all topics, and if the examination board chose certain topics for Papers 1 and 2 there may be a reason for it. I can accept the idea that the OCC specimen papers were effectively different from the physical May 2016 examination, but the papers weren't that bad after all. Just because the physics students have had a challenging exam this does not mean that all the sciences should be signing petitions. I understand that the course is new and some students and teachers may have been daunted by the new materials, but I can say that in my school few and minimal complaints related to the structure of the paper were made. No one complained about the topics within the paper.

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@IBStudent1225 finally someone who said my exact point with concise explanation that i have raised in debate and discussion. You are amazing. 

IB should be hard, that's the summary. It is right students should voice out, but the truth is what the previous post has explained. Bio P1 and 2 are actually covered in the syllabus. 

If IB is so easy, what is the point of it? Therefore I think petition should be used when the paper is really OUT of the syllabus and completely misguiding students, very subjective but hope you will understand. 

If I use very offensive words, (sorry), rhe petition is just ridiculous and unreasonable. 

Edited by inriya
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41 minutes ago, inriya said:

If I use very offensive words, (sorry), rhe petition is just ridiculous and unreasonable. 

I completely agree with this! I feel like many students took advantage of the situation which occurred with Physics in order to perhaps push their luck in the Biology examinations. Truth is that as you've said:

 

42 minutes ago, inriya said:

Bio P1 and 2 are actually covered in the syllabus. 

 

and also:

42 minutes ago, inriya said:

If IB is so easy, what is the point of it? Therefore I think petition should be used when the paper is really OUT of the syllabus and completely misguiding students, very subjective but hope you will understand. 

 

I think that admitting that the level of preparation of candidates may have not been the best is one thing, but saying that the paper contained non-covered syllabus material is, as you rightly said ridiculous.

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13 hours ago, #teamnosleep said:

A lot of people has signed the petition though

A lot of people has signed the petition, but that does not mean that everyone has to sign it. I do not know if people really reflected on themselves before even signing for the petition on how much time and effort did they put in Biology. Yes, level of preparation may not be enough for a lot of people due to time, but it is their own fault too than blaming it on IB for giving an "unreasonable" (yet in syllabus) paper, which the questions are a bit tricky and require a more detail and in-depth answer from your observation and knowledge.

I may not get a good score in the end, but I am satisfied and confident that I am prepared for it because I really paid effort to Biology HL Paper 1,2 and 3 for 4 months.  This is why I am standing out to say, the petition is not reasonable at all.

Let me analysis on a difficult paper, paper 2. After so many practices on Paper 2, the contents on the exam were what I have expected. Q1a to j, 3 experimental data that are interconnected to each other. Then, Q2,3&4 will be testing your knowledge on different area. I must admit this year's paper is more focused on human physiology, but look carefully, it asks something related, aerobic respiration (chapter 2,8) , function of mitochondria (chapter 1), hormones (6), etc.... Last but not least, the essay questions, I did 5 and 6 so I do not know about 7. 5 asks about enzymes (chapter 2 and 8) and some more chapters. 6 asks you about the diagram of phospholipid bilayer (fluid mosaic model) (chapter 2) the function of liver (chapter 6 and 11 AHL) 

The paper 2 is quite a nice variety but more focused on Human Physiology, no doubt. If you think it is difficult, look at 2015 May paper that asks you about the outcome of Human Genome Project of 4 marks with some more scarier essay questions, that time they should have started a petition then for "giving out too tricky and non-mainstream essay questions". -_-

Sorry for being sarcastic here but I am not trying to insult or accuse anyone here (especially not to @#teamnosleep because I quoted from you), just speaking from my point of view and gut.

Edited by inriya
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