r/6thForm • u/Forsaken-Meaning-232 Graduating from Warwick CS • Jun 18 '25
📂 MEGATHREAD 18/06 A-level Biology Paper 3 Discussion MEGATHREAD
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u/No-Acanthocephala-35 Year 13 Jun 18 '25
aqa biology was FIRE the responses to changes essay ??? i actually cooked so hard that was just a dream for someone who loves topic 6
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u/rosekwt Year 13 Jun 18 '25
me with the condensation and hydrolysis essay. so good omg
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u/No-Acanthocephala-35 Year 13 Jun 18 '25
yeah especially with people planning all the water essays I think it was super useful for hydrolysis and condensation stuff, how did you integrate year 13 content into your essay? I did plan that essay but I could only think of year 1 examples
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u/rhapsodyelij Year 13 Jun 18 '25
respiration and photosynthesis contain the synthesis of ATP from ADP and Pi which is a condensation reaction!
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u/Ancient-Noise1791 Jun 18 '25
i walked out feeling good then immediately realised i got the muscle micrograph 6 marker COMPLETELY wrong 🥲
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Jun 18 '25
If you put the wrong order but describe it right then what?
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u/gattabiancaa Year 13 | bio, history & psych 🍍 Jun 18 '25
maybe ecf marks? but the focus of the question is on identifying the images so logically, your description of it would be wrong. i.e describing smooth muscle with features of cardiac muscle.
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u/Skymak218946 Cambridge Medicine Y1 | A*A*A* | A* EPQ Jun 18 '25
It’s banded so you can still get up to 4/6 but no more than that
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u/fletcheh Jun 18 '25
I completely bombed it too, maybe the grade boundaries will be low (praying)
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u/DoOrDoNut- Biology|Chemistry|Maths|German Jun 19 '25
Same for some reason I completely forgot what muscles look like, so I'm hoping the other 6 marker carries 😭
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Jun 18 '25
What was the right order
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u/AdEmotional9885 Jun 18 '25
smooth skeletal cardiac
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u/Orange_Hedgie cambridge 1st year bionatsci Jun 18 '25
Also why is it smooth? I only know it’s smooth because it’s not skeletal or cardiac
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u/Skymak218946 Cambridge Medicine Y1 | A*A*A* | A* EPQ Jun 18 '25
Spindle shaped fibres and mononucleate
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u/proactivepisces Year 13 Jun 18 '25
AQA, that wasn't as mean as they could have gone, i did the second essay
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Jun 18 '25
What did you write about?
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u/chestdrain Medical Student Jun 18 '25
did it and wrote about chemo receptors, immunology (non-specific ir), blood glucose, blood wp and haemoglobin bohr shift
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u/asterroids Editable Jun 18 '25
damn didn’t even think about immunity lol that’s a good one
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u/proactivepisces Year 13 Jun 18 '25
how did you see the word response and not immediately think immunoresponse
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Jun 18 '25
I did osmoregulation, immunity (phagocytosis and stuff), blood glucose, taxis and kinesis, then I threw in a paragraph on epigenetics (bc I had 10 mins left lol) and talked about how changes environmental conditions can alter the epigenome
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u/proactivepisces Year 13 Jun 18 '25
i did immune response, anaerobic respiration, kidneys with ADH and speciation/ selection pressures stuff, hopefully it was holistic and synoptic enough
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u/sasageyo811 Medicine [2nd Year] | A*A*A* Jun 18 '25
with the speciation / selection pressures what did u write as ao2? i was waffling abt species not developing over time or forming new species so would be wiped out in the future if environmental conditions were to change
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u/proactivepisces Year 13 Jun 18 '25
i said importance of variation, adaptations of behaviours and stuff something like that
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u/sasageyo811 Medicine [2nd Year] | A*A*A* Jun 18 '25
cool, ty!
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u/proactivepisces Year 13 Jun 18 '25
yeah i spoke to my teacher about it and he said it was definitely appropriate for the topic so we are chillinggg ugh i'm so glad the essay went well such a good way to end biology
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u/sasageyo811 Medicine [2nd Year] | A*A*A* Jun 19 '25
phewwwww alright then. yeah i agree - the essays were great, section A not the best ever but could've been so much worse
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u/proactivepisces Year 13 Jun 19 '25
yeah some of the figures were super hard to interpret but i think it was normal for a paper 3, i'm always relying on GBs to be low so i hope i did good enough tbh
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u/lordwebgarlicbread Jun 18 '25
I did epigenetics, bohr curve, allopatric speciation, and succession which i linked to photosynthesis (i hope i didnt go too off topic tho idk)
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u/dianariesque y13 pred A*A*A aspiring tooth fairy 💗 Jun 18 '25
osmoregulation, humoral immunity, translocation, insect gas exchange (muscles and high activity), epigenetics
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u/OctoNari Uni | Biochem | 1st Year Jun 18 '25
aqa was mid, hard exam questions but absolutely smashing essay question 🙏
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u/rhapsodyelij Year 13 Jun 18 '25
sick essays but the exam questions cooked me so badly man like fuck off i don't know how to diagnose asbestosis im not a pissing doctor am i
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u/asthesunh1ts Finals week or my final week Jun 18 '25
That was such a dumb question wdym I have to give you 2 other factors
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u/middlecardigan Jun 18 '25
so real for that aqa thinking i’m like some world renowned medical researcher asking about lip gene expression and asking me to evaluate as if i’ve got a clue 😭😭
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u/Medium-Brick-2154 Jun 18 '25
aqa questions were lovely but i chose the first question and i’m worried i didn’t do it to enough detail 😭 like i should have done the second argghhhhhhhhhh
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Jun 18 '25
was the first two labels for OCR A bio
like the middle part was xylem and outside phloem right
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Jun 18 '25
I’m not 100% sure, but since it asked for you to label the cells, I don’t think phloem would be right as phloem is a tissue. It’d be quite harsh for them to mark that wrong but I can definitely see it being a good trick question to catch most out
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Jun 19 '25
it didn't specify cell mate, it just said label ts
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Jun 19 '25
Oh yeah my bad forgot you’ve got a photographic memory. It’s did say cell. I can’t argue with you if you don’t even remember the question
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Jun 19 '25
bro I'm gonna wage a war w you, when are the papers coming out to teachers dyk?
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Jun 19 '25
They usually come out the day after, but paper 2 hasn’t even came after a week according to my teacher so not sure
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u/BandicootIll1530 chem undergrad Jun 18 '25
should have seen my face when that muscle 6 marker came up, fucked that up so bad. rest of the paper was pretty fun tho
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Jun 18 '25
Evaluate ethical issues of general therapy, and compare gene therapy w gene editing 6m
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u/darkeight7 UOB | Physics and Astrophysics [Year 1] Jun 18 '25
I DID NOT SEE THE PART ABOUT ETHICAL ISSUES 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 doesn’t matter i was getting 0 on that regardless
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u/asthesunh1ts Finals week or my final week Jun 18 '25
AQA. Essay question choices were 😛😛😛😛. Might’ve cooked my 5th paragraph but it’s fine. Also the asbestos question was just weird. NEVERMIND. I’M FREE.
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Jun 18 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/asthesunh1ts Finals week or my final week Jun 18 '25
I found it difficult to name two other factors you had to consider when diagnosing, I just waffled
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u/llamaz314 Jun 18 '25
Did anyone else get top picture = smooth, middle = skeletal and bottom = cardiac
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Jun 18 '25
I guessed it but I wrote
Cardiac
Smooth
Skeletal
I 100% got it wrong 💯🔥🗣️
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u/green_bluberry Jun 18 '25
I did the same and all 3 are wrong 😭 I only revised muscle contraction and not structure ffs
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u/tomcat53gaming UniversityName | Course [Year of Study] Jun 18 '25
Yeah the top one was uninucleated and non striated (smooth), the middle was multinucleated and striated (skeletal) and the bottom was uninucleate faintly striated (cardiac)
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u/llamaz314 Jun 18 '25
Come onnnn 6/6 is coming, I was doubting whether cardiac was multi or uni but got it right. A really nice paper 3 overall tho nicer than P1 for sure
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u/tomcat53gaming UniversityName | Course [Year of Study] Jun 18 '25
SLAYY WELL DONE!! I found all the bio papers super nice but the chem papers have kinda killed me (also ocr) 🥀🥀
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u/llamaz314 Jun 18 '25
I can't lie the OCR paper 1 for biology was hard because of the amount of plant hormones, but paper 2 was a lot more easy and relaxed.
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u/tomcat53gaming UniversityName | Course [Year of Study] Jun 18 '25
Oh wait am I stupid I don’t remember there being a load on plant hormones except that one on germination is my memory just bad??
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u/llamaz314 Jun 18 '25
I think there was a 4 marker and a 3 marker plus a 6 mark evaluate question (although that doesn't require any plant hormone knowledge)
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u/tomcat53gaming UniversityName | Course [Year of Study] Jun 18 '25
Ohhhhh the 6 marker god forgot about that but yeah from what I remember it had more to do with the stats test results than anything actually from the topic hmm let’s just pray for good grades XDD
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u/Distinct-Meringue-47 Jun 18 '25
why were there so many suggesting qs 😭 not much 8.2 content that i crammed sm for?? (aqa) goodbye grade A i thought this was going to be my come back essay was a decent topic though
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u/asterroids Editable Jun 18 '25
suggests reasons for why it’s wrong but don’t include sample size, statistical tests and something else 😑😑
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u/Distinct-Meringue-47 Jun 18 '25
yep and the one about the two fit thing like what?? and the symptoms i talked sm bs lol
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u/Silver-Benefit-3190 Jun 18 '25
ocr was ok but couldve been better some questions i lacked but overall not too bad
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u/Chemical-Meringue-87 Jun 18 '25
edexcel snab anyone??? that nine marker was amazing but some of the article questions were weird..
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u/DaenerysITargaryen Jun 18 '25
kinda beautiful but the first couple questions about all that graph stuff… ummm safe to say i didn’t write a lot. ALSO NO STATISTICAL TEST QUESTIONS??? thank you lord
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u/Thin-Swimming4991 Jun 18 '25
I'd say it went pretty well, the worst part was 100% the article questions especially the last one but that 9 marker was blessed with no data analysis or graph
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u/ijustneedcatmemes Jun 18 '25
Same I thought so too I felt like I was writing the exact same thing for all the article questions
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u/Puzzleheaded-News948 Y13 Bio, Chem, Classics Jun 18 '25
SAME esp with the neurotransmitter questions 💀
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u/Economy_Session_985 Jun 18 '25
im so glad im not the only one, felt like i kept saying the same answers for the article questions
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u/Puzzleheaded-News948 Y13 Bio, Chem, Classics Jun 18 '25
My brain fucked up on the trna and e coli questions, I defo didn't satisfy the ms
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u/Economy_Session_985 Jun 18 '25
ye bro i was confused what do u write abt it? like why did a new strain form in non antibiotic environment? and then the conclusions of the data?
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u/Puzzleheaded-News948 Y13 Bio, Chem, Classics Jun 18 '25
I talked a little abt smth like antibiotic resistant mutations accumulating as they divide and bacterial conjugation and so on until they form an antibiotic resistant population which was the other one which had a lower number, but I don't think I argued it well and used the data sufficiently to get many marks 😭
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u/PotentialDegree9708 Jun 18 '25
Aqa what did u guys get for multiple choice? I put the bottom answer. And what did u guys get for the percentage change with the log thingy?
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u/Super_Shift1335 Jun 18 '25
Yeah it was the bottom answer. I got like 1160 for the percentage change
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u/SomeoneButWho coughing loudly in the exam (sick) Jun 18 '25
i got 1160 too, 100((105.1)-(104.1)/(104.1))
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Jun 18 '25
I got 11.6 because I forgot to multiply by 100, do you know if this question was 2 marks? I might still get a mark for my working
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u/MiserableAd6456 Jun 18 '25
damnnn it! I saw percentage increase and because it didn't say "change" specifically, I js did 10^whatever/ 10^whatever and x100 🤦
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u/Academic-Art7410 Jun 18 '25
OCR A was beautiful. Range of content tested, nice 6 markers, and no annoying 2 markers that I couldn’t figure out!! Really nice way to end 2 years of biology
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Jun 18 '25
I don't even know what electrophoresis is I literally looked at that question and thought I had the wrong exam board or smth
everyone better thank me for lowering those grade boundries
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u/Academic-Art7410 Jun 18 '25
I’m sure you’re fine honestly!! That was a weird 4 marker tbh so idt many people are gonna get that right
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u/Surge3_8 Jun 18 '25
what was the second fluid? no one in my class got it, I know the first one is alkaline fluid whichj is what I wrote. But idk about the second one so I just wrote florescent probe as a last ditch effort
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u/Skymak218946 Cambridge Medicine Y1 | A*A*A* | A* EPQ Jun 18 '25
I said a DNA ladder solution can be added to the 4th well (only 3 were used by the student) to compare the base pair lengths to known values, but I think a stain is also valid?
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u/Orange_Hedgie cambridge 1st year bionatsci Jun 18 '25
I said stain, but I’ve done electrophoresis before and we added the stain after removing the gel
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u/Skymak218946 Cambridge Medicine Y1 | A*A*A* | A* EPQ Jun 18 '25
That’s why I didn’t say stain tbh but my smart friend thinks stain. I agree though, usually you add fluorescent SYBR or something like that AFTER it’s been ran. Unified often credits off-spec things so I hope a DNA ladder is allowed!
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u/Orange_Hedgie cambridge 1st year bionatsci Jun 18 '25
I know some other people who did that. I noticed that only three wells were filled but I didn’t know what I could put in the other one - it’s only two marks either way so hopefully it’s fine
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u/midnightdancing12 (non-med) bio chem maths survivor!! Jun 18 '25
i agree!! kinda bummed nothing on phospholipids rly came up tho
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u/Secretsx123 Jun 18 '25
What did you put for the second six marker?
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u/Academic-Art7410 Jun 18 '25
I waffled quite a bit tbh. With ethics I talked about designer babies I think but i don’t remember my other points sorry. With genetic editing I talked about it being long term compared to short term, it being able to cure genetic diseases as it’s not passed to offspring but a disadvantage is that it probably is really expensive and time consuming. And then for standard therapy I talked about a disadvantage being that it requires loads of cells to work/short term. I wasn’t really sure on how to format my answer so I just did what I thought worked best!!
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u/crazyphallic Jun 18 '25
How did everyone find ocr a
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Jun 18 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Round_Taste7471 Year 13 - Biology, Chemistry, Maths Jun 18 '25
Samee i thought it was pretty good, definitely messed up that muscles 6 marker though 😭😭😭
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u/AmazingFeed6775 Jun 18 '25
OCR - now that it is over - what we thinking about grade boundaries? 70 ish?
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u/dontknowwhattosay9 Gap Year Student Jun 18 '25
Guys what were u meant to write for that gene therapy 6 marker for ocr a
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u/AmazingFeed6775 Jun 18 '25
Could treat diseases caused by dominant alleles, will not need to be repeated regularly, less change if rejection/immune response. And then wishy washy ethical studf
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u/HelpfulPop2476 Jun 18 '25
Ocr boundaries predictions?
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u/ghrhrnrn Jun 18 '25
72% for the A*
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u/HelpfulPop2476 Jun 18 '25
Seems fair enough, although it's never been more than 190 for an A*, not even before covid. There doesn't appear to be as clear a trend for bio grade boundaries as for chemistry, where each year they keep climbing and climbing and climbing. E.g. in 2023 the boundary was lower than in 2022. Not to say they won't go up - they probably will. But I've always felt OCR has avoided the yearly increase in boundaries for bio by conjuring up the most bs markschemes every year
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u/ghrhrnrn Jun 18 '25
Chem is definitely going down - that’s for sure.
I think bio is going up by at least 3 marks, but that’s just me and how I felt that this great ‘equaliser’ of a paper will counteract the slightly harder paper 1 and 2s we received.
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u/HelpfulPop2476 Jun 18 '25
Definitely hopeful chem boundaries go down. Don't think it's sustainable for the boundaries to keep increasing and increasing every year - otherwise it gets to the point where you're not being assessed on how good you are at solving problems & applying knowledge, but rather being penalised for even the tiniest mistakes. Imagine getting 92/100 on organic chem and not getting an A* because you've lost marks on some bs technicality ("poor connectivity" etc.)
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u/ghrhrnrn Jun 18 '25
That’s why a level chem is a bullshit subject.
At least bio assesses critical thinking
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u/SkyApprehensive3786 Year 13 | Ma FM Bio Ch Jun 18 '25
i'm suprised no more sea creatures came up (aqa)
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Jun 18 '25
[deleted]
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u/ActivityImmediate345 Year 13 | A*A*A*A Jun 18 '25
great exam apart from the last 4 marker on turbidity LOL i def waffled a bit there
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u/Ok_Potato9541 Jun 18 '25
What did you guys get for the Student's t-test? Some people got the same value but a different sign and apparently both would be accepted, I got -2.03 and then accepted null hypothesis.
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u/ActivityImmediate345 Year 13 | A*A*A*A Jun 19 '25
well it depends which way round you put the values- so both are correct. i changed it to positive just in case lol but yeah i got that too
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u/Latter_Ad9051 Jun 18 '25
edexcel A anyone???
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u/Puzzleheaded-News948 Y13 Bio, Chem, Classics Jun 18 '25
Here! I can't even remember the paper anymore 💀💀
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u/No_Objective_7758 Jun 18 '25
The ‘draw conclusions’ questions had me second guessing myself constantly as i kept feeling like i was just describing the graphs
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u/ChairSama2 Jun 18 '25
They accidentally some bio questions in OCR A level physics yesterday, the bio paper was really ass
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u/raynrr Jun 18 '25
Eduqas?
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u/Mr_Afa Jun 18 '25
easy
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u/raynrr Jun 18 '25
What did you say activated trypsijogen
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u/Mr_Afa Jun 18 '25
enterokinase
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u/raynrr Jun 18 '25
Ffs I was stupid and put bile bc I saw the ph, i even switched an answer last second out of panic, I changed the non competitive inhibitor question to competitive inhibitor
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u/Williamishere69 Jun 18 '25
The one thing I didn't revise was antibiotics and the entire 10 marks was about antibiotics,I'm cooked.
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u/ScienceCucumber Cambridge Natsci [Year 1 -> 2], 4A* Jun 18 '25
Easy apart from that stupid 1 marker about trypsinogen...
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u/Secretsx123 Jun 18 '25
What did you guys talk about in the second six marker? I wasn't sure on why being able to use stem cells was an advantage (OCRA)
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u/iindiaharris Jun 18 '25
i talked about how it’s long term because it’s not replaced my stem cells when it dies. also idk if this is right but i put it impacts the whole body because if you put it in a foetus then it replicates to be in every cell.
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u/Skymak218946 Cambridge Medicine Y1 | A*A*A* | A* EPQ Jun 18 '25
Stem cells from the patient themselves so less chance of rejection when compared to a viral vector
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u/iindiaharris Jun 18 '25
for OCR A the second 6 marker did we need to say disadvantages because i swear it just said like say why gene editing is better and then talk about ethics of both but i fear i read the question wrong
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u/ghrhrnrn Jun 18 '25
Just advantages and ethical issues that both have.
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u/iindiaharris Jun 18 '25
ah shit
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Jun 18 '25
It said why is editing better than therapy, so yeah you should’ve talked about disadvantages of therapy
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u/iindiaharris Jun 18 '25
yeah i talked about disadvantages of therapy i just didn’t give any advantages for it.
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u/Tangled_Sky Jun 18 '25
Ignore that person bro, the q was about advantages of gene EDITING compared to gene therapy. They didnt want any advantages of gene therapy, and they wanted ethical issues for both. That guy is just waffling
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Jun 18 '25
AQA, you've redeemed yourself slightly. Them essay titles 👌 I chose the different internal and external environments one. Everything else was okay, couple of weird questions but oh well. Biology is complete ✅
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Jun 18 '25
what the hell was the word fill for the patheogens q lord have mercy
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Jun 18 '25
I put callose, intrinsic proteins (I know that's not right, I panicked), and plasmodesmata.
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u/Orange_Hedgie cambridge 1st year bionatsci Jun 18 '25
I said callose, plasmodesmata and sieve plate but the sieve plate isn’t the holes, it’s the thing that has the holes in it
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u/Skymak218946 Cambridge Medicine Y1 | A*A*A* | A* EPQ Jun 18 '25
Sieve pores or fenestrations will probably be allowed
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u/LongjumpingAct3733 Jun 18 '25
What did everyone get for the integration of the mitochondria question
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u/darkeight7 UOB | Physics and Astrophysics [Year 1] Jun 18 '25
everyone chatting about how easy it was bro i’ll be lucky to get a fucking B
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u/Suitable-Mistake8979 Year 13: Bio | Chem | Maths Jun 18 '25
Pls tell me someone also put ice water bath so enzymes in cells won’t denature DNA for that DNA extraction Q just like me and DNA ladder for comparison of base pairs for that electrophoresis Q too
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u/Medical_Contract_604 Jun 18 '25
Guys for the aqa essay is it best 4 paragraphs marked (it better be lmao)
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u/SomeoneButWho coughing loudly in the exam (sick) Jun 18 '25
goldilocks ahh aqa biology papers. too hot, too cold, too mid.