As part of VCE Biology, students undergo several assessments to determine their Study Scores.
For Unit 1 and Unit 2 of VCE Biology, students are assessed by their schools and these internal assessments do not count towards the final Study Score for the subject. Your school may decide to give you a grade for these, but remember that it won't have any effect on the score you'll be given at the end of Year 12.
In Year 12, students will do two pieces of school-assessed coursework and an end-of-year examination. The coursework counts for 50% of the overall Study Score with the Unit 3 coursework weighted at 20% and the Unit 4 coursework weighted at 30%.
The remaining 50% is on your exam, making it a hugely important part of VCE Biology and something every student should take seriously as half of your Study Score will be decided on your performance in exam conditions on a single day.
Don't let that startle you, though, as we're here to explain the format of the exam, what's on it, and how you can best prepare for it.
What's On The VCE Biology Exam?
Every student doing the VCE Biology course should have read the Study Design at least once. While this is quite a long document and hardly the most exciting thing to read, it does outline everything you need to know for VCE Biology and lots of other useful information for students.
You can find the Study Design on the VCAA website alongside lots of other useful resources for VCE Biology students.
In the Study Design, you'll see that the VCE Biology course is split into 4 units with Unit 1 and Unit 2 being taught in Year 11 and Unit 3 and Unit 4 being part of Year 12.
For the exam, it's only Units 3 and 4 that we'll be looking at.
Unit 3: How do cells maintain life?
The cell is a hugely important concept in biology and Unit 3 of VCE Biology focuses heavily on it and its relationship with nucleic acids and proteins.
Within each unit of VCE Biology, there are Areas of Study that students will focus on and while all the other units have three, Unit 3 only has two Areas of Study.
Area of Study 1: What is the role of nucleic acids and proteins in maintaining life?
The goal for this area of study is for students to be able to analyse the relationship between nucleic acids and proteins and also evaluate the tools and techniques that can be used to manipulate DNA.
Students will learn about nucleic acids, how proteins are synthesised, the structure of DNA, and the main forms of RNA. They'll also study concepts such as the structure of genes, gene regulation, amino acids in polypeptide chains, and proteins' roles in an organism's proteome.
VCE Biology students will also be expected to know about DNA manipulation techniques and their applications including the use of enzymes, how CRISPR-Cas9 can edit an organism's genome, polymerase chain reactions, using recombinant plasmids as vectors to transform bacterial cells, and the use of genetically modified and transgenic organisms in agriculture.
Area of Study 2: How are biochemical pathways regulated?
The goal of this Area of Study is to teach students how to analyse the structure and regulation of biochemical pathways in photosynthesis and cellular respiration.
They'll need to know about the general structure of biochemical pathways in both photosynthesis and cellular respiration, the role enzymes and coenzymes play in these, and the factors that can impact them such as temperature, pH, concentration, etc.
They'll also study photosynthesis more specifically as an example of biochemical pathways focusing on the inputs, outputs, and locations of light-dependent and light-independent stages of photosynthesis. They'll also look at which factors affect the rate of photosynthesis including light, water, temperature, and carbon dioxide concentration.
The last main part of the Area of Study 2 is cellular respiration as an example of biochemical pathways. Students will need to know about the Krebs Cycle, the electron transport chain, anaerobic fermentation in animals and yeasts, and the factors affecting cellular respiration.
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Unit 4: How does life change and respond to challenges?
All life on Earth is regularly changing and under threat. As part of Unit 4, students focus on the human immune system and how its various components interact to develop immunity to pathogens.
Much like Unit 1 and Unit 2, Unit 4 has 3 Areas of Study.
Area of Study 1: How do organisms respond to pathogens?
This Area of Study will have students focusing on how animals and plants respond to antigens, the different cells involved in an inflammatory response, and how an immune response is initiated.
They'll also see how immunity is acquired, the role the lymphatic system plays, how the adaptive immune response works, and the difference between natural and artificial immunity.
As part of Area of Study 1, VCE Biology students will also learn about disease challenges and strategies, with a particular focus on the impact Europeans had on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples concerning pathogens. They'll also study strategies used to control the spread of pathogens, vaccination programs, and immunotherapy strategies used particularly in treating autoimmune diseases and cancers.
Area of Study 2: How are species related over time?
The second Area of Study looks at genetic changes in populations over time, how species change, and how we can determine how related various species are.
Students will focus on what causes changes in gene pools through things like environmental selection pressures, mutations, selective breeding, and bacterial resistance, for example.
They'll also study how species have changed over time, particularly through the fossil record and the role isolation can play.
To determine the relatedness of species, they'll study homologous and vestigial structures and molecular homology.
Area of Study 3: How is scientific inquiry used to investigate cellular processes and/or biological change?
The last Area of Study for Unit 4 focuses on scientific investigation and how it works. Students will learn about designing and conducting scientific investigations with a focus on cellular processes and how life responds to challenges, basically, the topics from the previous Areas of Study.
They'll look at designing investigations, the significance of various concepts, the scientific method, techniques for generating primary data, accuracy and precision in measurements, and ethical and safety concerns present in these kinds of scientific investigations.
They'll also study how science communication works, its conventions, and how key findings are presented.
Of course, this all may seem like a lot when it's presented here in one article, but remember that you'll have the entire year to study these things as well as all the time you spend revising. VCE Biology isn't necessarily difficult if you put the work in, but it's not necessarily easy, either.
How Long Is the VCE Biology Exam?
The VCE Biology end-of-year external assessment lasts nearly 3 hours. Students are given 15 minutes of reading time before 2 hours and 30 minutes of writing time.
The exam itself is divided into two main sections labelled Section A and Section B.
Section A
Section A includes 40 multiple-choice questions worth one mark each for a total of 40 marks. Though there are only two main sections to the exam, because of the question types and the weighting of the marks available, you won't want to divide your time equally between the two sections.
Section B
Section B includes both short-answer and extended-answer questions including questions with multiple parts.
This section can change each year, which is why it's so important to do past VCE Biology papers and practice papers so you're familiar with the commonly-recurring structures.
Every question in Section B should be attempted as there are no "optional" questions.
Section B is worth 80 marks so logically, you'll want to allocate roughly twice as much time to answering Section B questions as they're worth twice as much as the questions in Section A.
Of course, you can be flexible with the amount of time allocated in each section if you can maximise the number of marks you can get by spending more than the ideal amount of time on a section.
Get Help Studying for the VCE Biology Exam
To do well in your VCE Biology exam, you'll want to have a comprehensive and effective revision program.
This is easier said than done so don't forget that if you need additional help with tricky topics or preparing for the exam, you can always work with a private VCE Biology tutor, especially one that specialised in VCE Biology and the current exam format.
There are private biology tutors for all budgets and levels and while you tend to get what you pay for, you'll find that most tutors are an excellent investment, especially when it comes to getting the best Study Score you can from your VCE Biology assessments.
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