biol+4+trial+exam+feedback

You will find an overview of the class results below. More importantly I will highlight some areas for improvement, as well as those things that you did do well. Any queries about the trial exam can be posted below the results section or come and see me personally to go over it.

Overall there are good signs about where you are at but you are **ALL** still making careless errors.
 * General feedback**

The first six questions were done poorly. You must be clear on meiosis and mitosis. You also must be familiar with the different ways chromosomes/sister chromatids and homologous paris of chromosomes are drawn. On top of that you should know that one chromsome represents one DNA molecule (which is made up 2 polynucleotide strands that are complimentary to each other), less than half of you could show this for Q3!
 * Multiple choice section**

Some question were done very well, such as Q1 on pedigrees and Q2 on two gene inheritance. Question 5 also was well answered to some extent. As the year has gone, you have really improved you construction of answer. Many answers were well written, relevant and used terminology accurately. BUT there is room for improvement. You must use information given in your answers. The natural selection question (Q5) even stated this, yet some of you still wrote answers about variation, selection pressures that did not refer to the rats or warfarin. You MUST read the question and information given thoroughly! Another example is the karyotype question (Q3c). It clearly states for you to comment on chromosomal arrangement, chromosome number and amount fo genetic material. Yet, too many of you didn't mention these in your answer. Remember dot points are a good way to go, especially in this case. For example:
 * Short answer section**
 * chromosomal arrangement-part of chromosome pair 22 is now attached to chromosome pair 9 in the person with Philadelphia chromosome
 * chromosome number-still the same, there are still 46 bits of chromosome
 * amount of genetic material-still the same, there has been no loss or gain of chromosomes

Question 4a is also an example of where information wasn't read carefully and answers were not complete. You needed to mention both meiosis and mitosis in your answer. Try to be very specific in your answers, like meiosis still must occur in Female II (very few of you mentioned this) to produce an egg.

Interpretation of a phylogentic tree is an expected skill. Only one of you could interpret it accurately for Q3iii! OR you just didn't read the question carefully enough. There were no tricks here, very straight forward. "Which tree frogs...?" How you could write cricket frogs in your answer I will never know. The diagram shows three different types of tree frogs, one of these groups is the answer. Some of you also read the "millions of years ago" scale instead of the "immunological distance" scale when answering Q3i! Careless! At least that's what I think you did.

Here is the breakdown of the multiple choice section. The class average was 18/25. Hmmm... You WILL do better than this.
 * Class results**



Here is the breakdown for the short answer section. The class average was 34.9/50. This isn't too bad AND YES you will do better than this.