How to approach and answer AQA A-level Biology Questions that need you to interpret Graphs- lots of AQA past paper questions
How to approach and answer A-level Biology Questions that need you to Analyse Figures, Tables and Images - lots of example past paper questions with the markschemes
Magical top tip: DO NOT LOOK at the question first - LOOK at the data first
This simple trick can transform how easily you will be able to answer graph questions
ALWAYS LOOK AT THE DATA FIRST
Look closely at the graph or table
Graphs - look very carefully at the axes - have they plotted rate or time, mass/volume or concentration ? Often students assume enzyme graphs have rate on the y axis - sometimes they don’t !
Table - is the IV in the first column ? What are the units of the DV ? Has a mean been calculated ? Is the data in each row consistent ?
are there range/SD bars on the graph ? remember this indicates the variation in the data that was used to calculate the mean
do the range bars or standard deviation bars overlap ?,
If the Standard deviations (+or- 2 SD overlap then the DIFFERENCE between the MEANS is due to chance - the differnce between the means is not statistically significant).
In a table what range is in the replicates when you compare to the mean ?
what trends can you observe ?
then think about what principle of biology is being shown by the the trends, for instance - enzymes and substrate concentration or mitosis and distance from the root tip
How would you explain the highest value, the lowest value, the point at which the line crosses the x axis, how would you explain the largest range, how would you change the method to reduce the spread in the data ?
Have a look at these 20 excellent recent graph interpretation AQA Questions
An old collection of OCR maths-heavy questions for extra practice
Y12 and Y13 AQA small group weekly class information
Improve your Exam Answers -Small changes that will get you more marks - UPDATED JAN 2023
How to change the language you use in A level Biology Answers, and get better grades
Language matters - look at these common mistakes and try not to repeat them
OCR A and OCR B June 2019 - Summer highlights - Great tips from the board
OCR A June 2019 summer highlights
Practising recall is so important for retention and learning. Try this quiz without books first !
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Tuesday night group tutoring topics and Y13 & Y12 OCR A and AQA small group information
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Liver and Excretion Questions and Glucose Homeostasis
Question pack, powerpoint and videos on the liver
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A-level Biology Questions by topic : Spirometer and Lung Volume Questions
A-level Biology Questions by topic : Spirometer and Lung Volume Questions - powerpoints and Videos
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Terrific pack of questions and markscheme
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Tuesday night group tutoring topics and Y13 & Y12 OCR A and AQA small group weekly class information
A-level Biology Questions by Topic: Magnification Calculations and Graticules
A-level Biology Questions by topic: Magnification Calculations and Graticules - how to do magnification questions
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A pack of resources including multiple-choice exam questions on magnification calculations and use of graticules. If you use the resources then hit ‘like’ at the bottom of this post!
First go through the Powerpoint and Video explanations …
Then try answering the questions below
Explanations:
Test your understanding:
Multiple-choice Quiz (auto-marking):
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A-level Biology: Practical and Experimental Design - Top Tips and Question Pack
Top Tips !
- Never write "amount" you mean mass, volume or concentration.
- Refer to "a control experiment" or "a variable that I will control (and then name the value and method of control)" but never to "a control variable"
- Independent variable is what you change.
- Dependent variable is what you actually measure in the experiment (not rate).
- Organisms vary from each other unless they are clones !
- When you suggest improvements think about improving the method rather than the equipment (e.g. control a variable that wasn't previously)
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Lots of requests for challenging experimental design questions - here is a huge pack of awesome questions that you will definitely find useful
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Top Tips !
Never write "amount" you mean mass, volume or concentration.
Refer to "a control experiment" or "a variable that I will control (and then name the value and method of control)" but never to "a control variable"
Independent variable is what you change.
Dependent variable is what you actually measure in the experiment (not rate).
Organisms vary from each other unless they are clones !
When you suggest improvements think about improving the method rather than the equipment (e.g. control a variable that wasn't previously)
Here is some advice on tables and graphs. And here on measurement and language.
Here are 13 pages of practical based questions in pdf form.
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Kidney Diseases, Dialysis and Transplant Questions - Questions by Topic
A-level Biology Questions on Kidney Dialysis and Transplants - useful powerpoints/animations and videos
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Kidney Disease Questions
OCR A/OCR B, Eduqas - excellent application questions on Kidney Diseases, Dialysis and Transplants
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Answering Questions with lots of Maths in Biology - Data Analysis Questions in the new OCR Biology A Specification - updated Feb 2018 with the latest handbook
Which maths skills you need to practise for the new specification A-level Biology - excellent resources from OCR - also applies to AQA and Eduqas, lots of great practice questions
The quantity of maths in the 2017 specification is a challenge to many students - so I put together a summary of all of the OCR A new spec questions with some element of data analysis.
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The quantity of maths in the 2017 specification is a challenge to many students - so I put together a summary of all of the OCR A new spec questions with some element of data analysis.
42 pages with markschemes - have a look at the pdf
Also have a look at this guidance on tables and graphs
And the mathematical skills for OCR guidebook
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Some of the Questions asked last year at UK Medical School admissions Interviews
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How would you answer these questions?
From Medical School interviews - some one to one and some were MMI.
How does stress affect people?
What would you do if a med friend asked you to sign him into a lesson while he was hungover?
What are some failings of NHS?
What would you do if your supervisor asked you to do a procedure you weren't comfortable with?
What would you do if a patient refused to let you take their blood pressurebecause you are a med student?
Give an example of a time when you weren't able to manage your time efficiently ?
Give an example of a time when you were the leader of a team, and what skills it required.
What would you bring to the medical school?
How would you want your friends to remember you after uni?
Ethical scenario: you are doing work experience shadowing doctors in a hospital, and you notice they are talking about sensitive issues concerning a patient, even though there is a sign on the wall behind them stating this is forbidden. what do you do?
What life experiences have you had that make you good doctor?
You are a flight attendant and the flight got cancelled, you forgot to inform one passenger because of personal issues, break them the news.
You prescribed a patient the wrong dosage of her normal prescription and shes asking why?
Example where your communications has had a positive effect on the situation.
Why is scientific research relevant in medicine ?
Examples of times where research has saved lives
3 options of different charities ; disabled children, elderly home, mentally ill, choose one to give money to.
Lots to think about !
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Understanding Aerobic Respiration - Powerpoints, Animations, lots of exam questions and answers
A guide to aerobic and anaerobic respiration for A level Biology with plenty of exam questions on respiration with markschemes, for AQA, OCR, Edexcel
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Plenty of you are starting respiration - lots of good resources out there - try some of these
stunning animations - (needs flash - if you use iOS then puffin browser is excellent) Glycolysis, Krebs, ETC
Terrific ATP powerpoint from Biological Science Review Extra
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How to Answer Hardy-Weinberg Questions - A-level Biology - with question pack
How to understand and answer Hardy-Weinberg Questions - A-level Biology. Remember to look out for questions where they give you a dominant phenotype frequency -for instance Huntingdons disease, where the frequency of the sufferers is 1 in 100000 - therefore q squared (recessive allele phenotype) is 99999 in 100000.
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Had a request for some Hardy Weinberg Questions.
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Remember to look out for questions where they give you a dominant phenotype frequency -for instance Huntingdons disease, where the frequency of the sufferers is 1 in 100000 - therefore q squared (recessive allele phenotype) is 99999 in 100000.
Also if they ask you to calculate allele frequency without HW - then all individuals in a population have 2 alleles of each gene. In a population of 600 rats there are 1200 alleles in total.
If 400 are AA, 100 are Aa, and 100 are aa then the frequency of a is (100+200)/1200 = 0.25.
Remember that the HW depends on some very unlikely assumptions !
Assumption 1: No Genetic Drift
Sexual reproduction recombines genetic information in a random pattern. In a small population, it is possible that few individuals carry an allele and simple chance could make them more or less successful in passing on that allele. This is known as genetic drift, and the Hardy-Weinberg assumes that it does not happen. In practical terms, a population at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium has to be large enough that the frequency of an allele is not impacted by random events.
Assumption 2: A Closed Population
Emigration and immigration -- that is, transfer of individuals into and out of a population -- can change the frequency of alleles. Emigrating individuals might take more of one allele out of a population, and immigrating individuals might come from a population with a different proportion of alleles. This is known as genetic flow, and it is common for most populations, with notable exceptions such as remote islands, deep caves or mountaintops. A population at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium is assumed to have no genetic flow, or to be a completely closed population.
Assumption 3: Mutations Don’t Happen
Mutations are errors that happen when DNA is being copied. They can be nonsense or neutral, they can be harmful to the organism or they can change the organism in a way that makes them better able to survive and reproduce. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium assumes that mutations don’t exist because they represent genetic change that is not due to the recombination of existing alleles.
Assumption 4: Random Mating Patterns
The Hardy-Weinberg principle assumes that every individual in a population has an equal chance of mating with every other individual, totally random mating. In a population at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, nobody gets to be picky. Random mating, also known as a panmictic population, almost never happens in real life.
Assumption 5: No Natural Selection
Natural selection is a pressure that favors one allele over another because the resulting trait, or phenotype, gives the individual an advantage. From a genetic standpoint, the only advantage that matters is one that helps the individual survive or reproduce more effectively. In a population at Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, there are assumed to be no evolutionary pressures.
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How to approach and answer A-level Biology Questions that need you to Analyse Figures, Tables and Images - lots of example past paper questions
How to approach and answer A-level Biology Questions that need you to Analyse Figures, Tables and Images - lots of example past paper questions with the markschemes
DO NOT LOOK at the question and then look at the data to answer the question.
Look closely at the graph or table
look very carefully at the axes - have they plotted mean or rate or time, mass/volume or concentration ?
can you see range bars ?
In a table what range is in the replicates when you compare to the mean ?
what trends can you observe ? then think about what principle of biology is being shown by the the trends.
How would you explain the highest value, the lowest value, the point at which the line crosses the x axis, how would you explain the largest range, how would you change the experiment to reduce the spread in the data ?
Once you have a coherent understanding of the trends - only then look at the question.
DO NOT LOOK at the question and then look at the data to answer the question.
ALWAYS LOOK AT THE DATA FIRST
Look closely at the graph or table
Graph look very carefully at the axes - have they plotted rate or time, mass/volume or concentration ? Often students assume enzyme graphs have rate on the y axis - sometimes they don’t !
Table - is the IV in the first column ? What are the units of the DV ? Has a mean been calculated ? Is the data in each row consistent ?
are there range/SD bars on the graph ? remember this indicates the variation in the data that was used to calculate the mean
do the range bars or standard deviation bars overlap ?
In a table what range is in the replicates when you compare to the mean ?
what trends can you observe ? then think about what principle of biology is being shown by the the trends.
How would you explain the highest value, the lowest value, the point at which the line crosses the x axis, how would you explain the largest range, how would you change the method to reduce the spread in the data ?
Once you have a coherent understanding of the trends - only then look at the question.
try this - about 20 questions with data and analysis
If you found it useful then please ❤️ (at the bottom of the page) and share, you can follow me on instagram - alevelbiologytutor
Tuesday night group tutoring topics and Y13 & Y12 OCR A and AQA small group weekly class information
Nitrogen Cycle - a quick guide to understanding the concept, and a pack of questions - for A-level Biology
How to understand the Nitrogen Cycle
Nitrogen Cycle : A few tips
Start with dead plants and animals or faeces.
Remember that decomposers are just heterotrophes respiring dead stuff and producing ammonia from the deamination of amino acids (the keto acid that remains following deamination is respired).
Ammonia then gets oxidised to nitrite and oxidised to nitrate by nitrifying bacteria - Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter , both aerobic chemoautotrophes.
Nitrates are actively transported into the roots, by a carrier protein which uses ATP from the mitochondria, then via the xylem to the leaves. In the leaves the nitrate is reduced to ammonia and then used to make (with carbon from photosynthesis) amino acids and nucleic acids and hence more plant !.
Growing a crop removes protein and nucleotides from a field (and sells it in Tesco !). To maintain fertility you need to make an input of nitrogen - this can be organic (dead things and faeces), which feed the decomposers. Or inorganic - made by joining nitrogen and hydrogen in the Haber process to make ammonia (applied to fields as ammonium nitrate), lightening also make nitrogen oxides - but is harder to arrange.
Rhizobium, a symbiotic bacteria, living in root nodules of legumes, benefits from an anaerobic environment, the legume makes Leghaemoglobin, a protein with a high affinity for oxygen which therefore prevents oxygen from poisoning the nitrogen reducing enzyme of the bacteria.
Rhizobia use sucrose from the plant for respiration. Rhizobia make ammonia (and hence amino acids) from nitrogen gas, the plants use these amino acids for growth. When legumes die, the nitrogen in the proteins of the dead plant is made available to other non-leguminous plants by decomposers.
Decomposers and nitrifying bacteria are aerobes so ploughing - which increases the availability of oxygen in the soil - will raise the concentration of nitrates and hence the ability of the plants to make more protein.,
Pseudomonas denitrificans is an anaerobe so thrives in waterlogged soil. Denitrification uses nitrate as an electron acceptor, the nitrate is reduced to Nitrogen gas, thus farmers drain fields to maintain fertility of the soil.
Nitrogen Cycle : A few tips
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Start with dead plants and animals or faeces.
Remember that decomposers are just heterotrophes respiring dead stuff and producing ammonia from the deamination of amino acids (the keto acid that remains following deamination is respired).
Ammonia then gets oxidised to nitrite and oxidised to nitrate by nitrifying bacteria - Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter , both aerobic chemoautotrophes.
Nitrates are actively transported into the roots, by a carrier protein which uses ATP from the mitochondria, then via the xylem to the leaves. In the leaves the nitrate is reduced to ammonia and then used to make (with carbon from photosynthesis) amino acids and nucleic acids and hence more plant !.
Growing a crop removes protein and nucleotides from a field (and sells it in Tesco !). To maintain fertility you need to make an input of nitrogen - this can be organic (dead things and faeces), which feed the decomposers. Or inorganic - made by joining nitrogen and hydrogen in the Haber process to make ammonia (applied to fields as ammonium nitrate), lightening also make nitrogen oxides - but is harder to arrange.
Rhizobium, a symbiotic bacteria, living in root nodules of legumes, benefits from an anaerobic environment, the legume makes Leghaemoglobin, a protein with a high affinity for oxygen which therefore prevents oxygen from poisoning the nitrogen reducing enzyme of the bacteria.
Rhizobia use sucrose from the plant for respiration. Rhizobia make ammonia (and hence amino acids) from nitrogen gas, the plants use these amino acids for growth. When legumes die, the nitrogen in the proteins of the dead plant is made available to other non-leguminous plants by decomposers.
Decomposers and nitrifying bacteria are aerobes so ploughing - which increases the availability of oxygen in the soil - will raise the concentration of nitrates and hence the ability of the plants to make more protein.,
Pseudomonas denitrificans is an anaerobe so thrives in waterlogged soil. Denitrification uses nitrate as an electron acceptor, the nitrate is reduced to Nitrogen gas, thus farmers drain fields to maintain fertility of the soil.
Here is a small pack of nitrogen cycle questions with markscheme
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Osmosis A-level Biology Past Paper Exam Questions
Pack of past paper questions on Osmosis and Water potential - I have tried to include one question of each type
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Kidney Questions with mark schemes -A level Biology Questions by topic
A level Biology Questions by topic - Kidney Questions with markschemes, useful for OCR, AQA, Eduqas
Here are lots of good questions on the kidney. I expect the kidney to appear frequently in the new style papers as they are very synoptic, give opportunities to require calculation and get students to analyse and explain data.
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Y13 & Y12 OCR A and AQA weekly Masterclass information
Going through past papers by topic often gives a useful insight into the thoughts of the examiners and how they see a topic and the emphasis they put on different parts of a specification. I have included all the markschemes and comments from the examiners reports. PDF below.
Here are lots of good questions on the kidney. I expect the kidney to appear frequently in the new style papers as they are very synoptic, give opportunities to require calculation and get students to analyse and explain data. If you use this then please like and share
How to do Tables and Graphs - terrific guidance from Exam Boards for A-level Biology
There is plenty of excellent guidance on how to plot graphs and draw tables in the OCR practical booklet ..... pdf
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Rather than being assessed seperately, practical skills are included in the theory paper. Like this OCR question from the sample paper
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There is plenty of excellent guidance on how to plot graphs and draw tables in the OCR practical booklet ..... pdf here
Precise but not accurate ? Language of Measurement - crucial for Biology Practical Exam Questions
Precision, control variables, independent variables ? Confusing for many students, however, particularly important now that this year practical skills are assessed in the exam paper.
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Precision, control variables, independent variables ? Confusing for many students, however, particularly important now that this year practical skills are assessed in the exam paper.
An extremely useful document is the Language of Measurement. Reading it is a great start to improving your approach to practical questions. Below are 3 pages.
Original PDF - is here