Biology Predictions/Thoughts (2 Viewers)

[reniiiblaseee]

Btw do hsc markers mark very harsh i had a look at the sample answers nesa give and they dont look very good but nesa seems to find them good enough for band 6

bro thats what pisses me off they give two lines for a sample answer and the criteria requires 10 things

 

[b4_youknow]

Btw do hsc markers mark very harsh i had a look at the sample answers nesa give and they dont look very good but nesa seems to find them good enough for band 6

usually sample answers are never to the standard they expect for the actual answers

 

[tywebb]

is the paper alr out?

in post #124

 

[Clai]

bruh i dont think scalings gonna be as bad as 2024 maybe we overestimated this paper there’s def questions that have caught ppl

wait rlly?? ik the epidemilogical study one but were there others?

 

[Trial&Error]

Btw do hsc markers mark very harsh i had a look at the sample answers nesa give and they dont look very good but nesa seems to find them good enough for band 6

The sample answers are not band 6. They even have somewhere on their website that the samples are not to be taken as full mark answers or something. Also I think they're quite harsh with longer questions like 5/6/7/8/9 marks. That final mark or 2 in those questions is generally really hard to get.

 

[reniiiblaseee]

wait rlly?? ik the epidemilogical study one but were there others?

i think some questions look easy on the surface level but might have a more complex marking criteria idk

im going based off my teacher bc last year he was worried abt the 2024 exam since it was easy and when we came out he said it was an alright paper, a bit tricky

 

[4l4l4l4l]

wait rlly?? ik the epidemilogical study one but were there others?

in general this exam was deinfitely harder than past exams. top students on the track for a state rank all found this exam the most conceptually unique. firstly, timing, all top students finished with less than 20 minutes left - some even less - just because of how much content was required to write for this exam. Also, this year, questions have potential for much harsher marking criteria. Though mcq was much much easier than past years - last few questions were nice and challeneging - so much nuance and areas to explore in stimulus provided that people didnt pick out on (mother and daughter for example and allele fixation for last question). definetly better alignment that last few years

 

[4l4l4l4l]

The sample answers are not band 6. They even have somewhere on their website that the samples are not to be taken as full mark answers or something. Also I think they're quite harsh with longer questions like 5/6/7/8/9 marks. That final mark or 2 in those questions is generally really hard to get.

YEP usually the rule of thumb for such subjects like bio, eco, chem etc - is that full mark responses almost always exceed lines given and most if not all band 6 students use all extra paper and even extra booklets most of the time. people who finished with an hour left clearly did not write enough.

 

[Clai]

in general this exam was deinfitely harder than past exams. top students on the track for a state rank all found this exam the most conceptually unique. firstly, timing, all top students finished with less than 20 minutes left - some even less - just because of how much content was required to write for this exam. Also, this year, questions have potential for much harsher marking criteria. Though mcq was much much easier than past years - last few questions were nice and challeneging - so much nuance and areas to explore in stimulus provided that people didnt pick out on (mother and daughter for example and allele fixation for last question). definetly better alignment that last few years

lol not a top student but i noticed i did struggle with timing towards the end (finished with 3 minutes left lol) and i am worried about the marking criteria too but it's great to know that there may be potential discreptancies between my confidence and mark

 

[Trial&Error]

YEP usually the rule of thumb for such subjects like bio, eco, chem etc - is that full mark responses almost always exceed lines given and most if not all band 6 students use all extra paper and even extra booklets most of the time. people who finished with an hour left clearly did not write enough.

I agree with you mostly BUT in the band 6 criteria for sciences it says to write "succinctly" and I've heard from various sources that if you just write too much and add excess info that's not really relevant to the topic and verb of the question, it can hinder you from progressing beyond band 5 to a band 6

 

[nini00]

in general this exam was deinfitely harder than past exams. top students on the track for a state rank all found this exam the most conceptually unique. firstly, timing, all top students finished with less than 20 minutes left - some even less - just because of how much content was required to write for this exam. Also, this year, questions have potential for much harsher marking criteria. Though mcq was much much easier than past years - last few questions were nice and challeneging - so much nuance and areas to explore in stimulus provided that people didnt pick out on (mother and daughter for example and allele fixation for last question). definetly better alignment that last few years

hey i was wondering what some of the things you wrote about for the last question were? i was lowk waffling and hoping for the best so i'm curious how you answered!

 

[4l4l4l4l]

I agree with you mostly BUT in the band 6 criteria for sciences it says to write "succinctly" and I've heard from various sources that if you just write too much and add excess info that's not really relevant to the topic and verb of the question, it can hinder you from progressing beyond band 5 to a band 6

Definitely true - but i think those that end up getting the highest of highest marks do both. Able to discuss a lot of relevant content while being succinct and answering the question. for example take a look at past eco state ranks - for short answers many wrote a whole page for a 4 marker

 

[nini00]

in general this exam was deinfitely harder than past exams. top students on the track for a state rank all found this exam the most conceptually unique. firstly, timing, all top students finished with less than 20 minutes left - some even less - just because of how much content was required to write for this exam. Also, this year, questions have potential for much harsher marking criteria. Though mcq was much much easier than past years - last few questions were nice and challeneging - so much nuance and areas to explore in stimulus provided that people didnt pick out on (mother and daughter for example and allele fixation for last question). definetly better alignment that last few years

HELP nvm i see that you're HSC 2024 (but if you have any suggestions on how you would approach that question?) but if anyone would care to share how they answered the last question pls do!!!

 

[Trial&Error]

I agree with you mostly BUT in the band 6 criteria for sciences it says to write "succinctly" and I've heard from various sources that if you just write too much and add excess info that's not really relevant to the topic and verb of the question, it can hinder you from progressing beyond band 5 to a band 6

I think that's also what made this exam a bit "iffy" cause some questions I was unsure if they even wanted me to talk about certain topics and others I didn't know what else to include for the mark allocation to make sense.

I think we're definitely underestimating this exam. I think it might align better than last yr.

 

[Clai]

I walked out of that exam feeling okay and now I feel a bit nervous reading over all this lol. Hopefully the MC carries. I'm going to step out before I get too nervous. Might read over all these a bit later. Good luck to you all!

 

[4l4l4l4l]

hey i was wondering what some of the things you wrote about for the last question were? i was lowk waffling and hoping for the best so i'm curious how you answered!

Yep - so for the gene flow question the way i saw the marks distributed was - firstly a mark for providing an acceptable definition of some sort for gene flow. Another mark would be linking gene flow to allele frequency - essentially i just created a causal link between alleles moving in and out of population to the allele frequency - specific to each population. So in population 1 gene flow has a greater effect and population 2 less effect. Then since its an evaluate question i just went into how this could positively or negative impact gene pool genetic diveristy. Also a very interesting aspect was the allele fixation in the graph so i mentioned the idea that population 1 had stagnanted and reached fixation so changes would be more pronounced - smth along those lines

 

[Trial&Error]

Yep - so for the gene flow question the way i saw the marks distributed was - firstly a mark for providing an acceptable definition of some sort for gene flow. Another mark would be linking gene flow to allele frequency - essentially i just created a causal link between alleles moving in and out of population to the allele frequency - specific to each population. So in population 1 gene flow has a greater effect and population 2 less effect. Then since its an evaluate question i just went into how this could positively or negative impact gene pool genetic diveristy. Also a very interesting aspect was the allele fixation in the graph so i mentioned the idea that population 1 had stagnanted and reached fixation so changes would be more pronounced - smth along those lines

Um if possible could you also explain the epidemiological study question and what you think we had to include please. I didn't specify independent and dependent variables but I did talk about controls for validity...

 

[nini00]

Yep - so for the gene flow question the way i saw the marks distributed was - firstly a mark for providing an acceptable definition of some sort for gene flow. Another mark would be linking gene flow to allele frequency - essentially i just created a causal link between alleles moving in and out of population to the allele frequency - specific to each population. So in population 1 gene flow has a greater effect and population 2 less effect. Then since its an evaluate question i just went into how this could positively or negative impact gene pool genetic diveristy. Also a very interesting aspect was the allele fixation in the graph so i mentioned the idea that population 1 had stagnanted and reached fixation so changes would be more pronounced - smth along those lines

ohh okay thanks!

 

[hm...mmmm]

Yep - so for the gene flow question the way i saw the marks distributed was - firstly a mark for providing an acceptable definition of some sort for gene flow. Another mark would be linking gene flow to allele frequency - essentially i just created a causal link between alleles moving in and out of population to the allele frequency - specific to each population. So in population 1 gene flow has a greater effect and population 2 less effect. Then since its an evaluate question i just went into how this could positively or negative impact gene pool genetic diveristy. Also a very interesting aspect was the allele fixation in the graph so i mentioned the idea that population 1 had stagnanted and reached fixation so changes would be more pronounced - smth along those lines

Wdym abt allele fixation I didn't talk about that

 

[nini00]

also does anyone know if the posted MCQ solutions from Aya's(?) enhance education account are reliable? lowk stressing or does anyone have any other link to potential answers