This free quiz has all 20 multiple choice questions from Section A of the OCR AS Biology A Breadth in Biology paper (H020/01), June 2022. It marks itself, so you get your score as soon as you finish.
What the multiple choice section covers
Osmosis in plant tissue (2.1.5)
Inorganic ions, cofactors and bonds in biological molecules (2.1.2, 2.1.4)
DNA, mutation, restriction enzymes and protein synthesis (2.1.3)
Measuring biodiversity and international conservation agreements (4.2.1)
Statistical tests, precision and accuracy (1.1.3, 1.1.4)
Surface area to volume ratio, Fick's law and the cardiac cycle (3.1.1, 3.1.2)
Plant transport and plant adaptations to habitat (3.1.3)
Pathogens, blood clotting, immunity and features shared by unicellular organisms (4.1.1, 2.1.1)
How to use it
Section A is worth 20 of the 70 marks in 1 hour 30 minutes, so allow about 25 minutes for it. Examiners advise reading graph axes carefully and reading all of the options before committing to an answer.
Where students lost marks on this paper (from the OCR examiners' report and mark scheme)
These points cover the whole paper, not just the multiple choice section. Each is followed by wording that gained marks.
Use the figure you are given: Many candidates described quaternary structure in general terms, such as 'more than one chain', instead of using the insulin figure.
✔ Gains credit: using the figure to state that insulin has two polypeptide chains, joined by disulfide bonds between cysteine residues on the separate chains.
Oncotic pressure and plasma proteins: Very few candidates understood oncotic pressure; most described it as blood or hydrostatic pressure and did not mention plasma proteins or water potential.
✔ Gains credit: plasma proteins are too large to leave the capillary, so blood has a lower water potential than tissue fluid and water moves into the capillary by osmosis.
Molecules diffuse, not solutions: Many candidates said the sucrose solution moved or diffused into the Visking tubing.
✔ Gains credit: sucrose molecules diffuse down their concentration gradient into the tubing, lowering its water potential so water enters by osmosis.
Precise wording for cohesion and adhesion: Answers often lacked precision, not saying that water molecules stick together or to xylem walls, and some wrote that 'water is soluble'.
✔ Gains credit: cohesion between water molecules (hydrogen bonding) lets a column be pulled up the xylem, adhesion of water molecules to xylem vessel walls, and water acting as a solvent for transported ions or sucrose.
Light or electron micrograph: A high proportion of candidates thought a photomicrograph of a stem section came from an electron microscope and claimed organelles were visible.
✔ Gains credit: a light microscope, because magnification and resolution are low and whole cells or tissues are visible but not organelles.
Levels of biodiversity: Some candidates defined 'species' and 'habitat' rather than levels of biodiversity, named species richness or evenness as a level, or wrote 'the number of species in a population'.
✔ Gains credit: habitat biodiversity as the range of habitats in an area, and species biodiversity as the number of species and their evenness in a community.
Small populations lose alleles: Most candidates explained why cheetah numbers fell rather than the genetics, and some thought a polymorphic locus was an allele giving a selective advantage.
✔ Gains credit: a very small population has a small gene pool with fewer alleles, inbreeding keeps the same alleles, and only rare mutations can introduce new ones.
Keep practising
Try the multiple choice sections of the June 2022 Biological Processes paper and June 2022 Biological Diversity paper, or practise by topic with the Cell Structure, Biological Molecules, Transport in Animals, Communicable Diseases quizzes. You can also browse all our OCR A Level Biology quizzes. Our OCR A masterclasses (Year 12 on Wednesdays at 5.15pm, Year 13 on Tuesdays at 6.30pm) work through real exam questions on one topic each week.
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