A2 Biology: Synoptic Essay

What is the essay?

The final question on Unit 5

It is worth 25 marks!

You will get a choice of two essay titles from which you must choose just one to write (if you try and hedge your bets and write two essays, then only the first one that you wrote will be marked).

No. 1 piece of advice!

Read the essay titles very, very carefully and make sure that you are actually answering the question that has been asked.

That might not seem like ground shattering advice, but it really is so very important to get this one correct. Anything that you write that is not directly related to the question will gain absolutely no credit.

Exercise 1 Here are some recent essay titles. In your own word, explain what the content of your essays should contain. What would you write about?

Q1. How cells and organisms carry out exchanges with their external environment to maintain their internal environment.

Q2. How nitrogen-containing substances are made available to and are used by living organisms

Q3. The membranes of different types of cells are involved in many different functions.

The Essay Plan

You must write an essay plan at the start of your essay

Your essay plan should include all the topic areas that you intend to include in your essay...

... and it should also indicate the order in which you are going to write about them. Do not cross out your essay plan. The examiner will read through this after marking your

essay and, if you ran out of time, may award marks for content that appears in the plan. A good approach is to try and think through every topic that you have covered at AS and

A2 level in the order that they appear in your text books. If you do this, then topics that you otherwise may not have thought of may come to light.

Exercise 2 How well do you know your syllabus? In the box below, try and list all 17 of the AS chapters in the correct order!

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The Essay Plan cont.

Here's another really good piece of advice! Write your essay plan at the very start of your exam.

The essay is the last question on your exam paper, but the essay plan is the first thing that you should complete. Then, as you do the rest of the paper, you can add to the plan as ideas pop into your head.

Exercise 3 In the box below, write an essay plan that indicates the main topic areas that should be covered and the order in which you intend to write about them.

A cycle is a biological pathway or process in which the end product of one cycle becomes the starting point for the next cycle. Write an essay about cycles in biology. (25 marks)

How is the essay marked? Your essay will be marked for its scientific accuracy. It will also be marked for your selection of relevant material from different parts of the specification and from the quality of your written communication. The maximum number of marks that can be awarded is

Scientific content 16

Breadth of knowledge 3

Relevance 3

Quality of written communication 3 So, you can see, by far the most important consideration when choosing your essay is the scientific content. It is far better to write an in depth essay about very few topics than to write a broad, but shallow essay.

Scientific Content

You will only be credited for material that is of an A level standard. You will gain very little, or no, credit for accurately written information that is of

GCSE standard. You will, however, gain extra credit for material that you have read about that is

beyond the syllabus. In fact, maximum marks can only be gained if such information is included.

Hint! When you include such detail in your essay, it is a good idea to prefix it by writing something like, "In a library book, I learnt that.....", or "When reading the Biological Sciences Review I found out that .....", or "I heard on the news that .....".

Exercise 4 For each of the following topics, can you think of one piece of information that you have learnt about and that is not covered in the Biology syllabus?

1. DNA 2. Ecological sampling techniques 3. How bacteria can affect the lives of humans

Exercise 5 A student has written the following as part of their synoptic essay. Indicate with a tick those sentences that will gain credit, and with a cross, those that will not.

Essay title: Carbon dioxide may affect organisms directly or indirectly. Describe

and explain these effects.

or Plants can make their own food. This is called photosynthesis.

The food that is made is called glucose.

Carbon dioxide is required to form glucose (the carbon atom becomes incorporated into the

glucose molecule).

Photosynthesis is a two stage process. The light dependent reactions result in the formation

of products that are used to fix carbon dioxide in the light-independent reactions.

ATP that is formed in the first stage is used to provide the energy for the conversion of

glycerate-3-phosphate into triose phosphate and to provide the phosphate for the

regeneration of RuBP

The NADH formed in the light reactions will supply the hydrogen atoms that are used to

reduce glycerate-3-phosphate to triose phosphate.

These reactions form part of the Calvin Cycle that fix carbon dioxide to form organic

molecules such as glucose.

Glucose is required to supply energy to the cells. This is done by aerobic and anaerobic

respiration.

Aerobic respiration occurs in the cytoplasm and in the mitochondria.

The first stage of aerobic respiration is called glycolysis and this results in the net gain of two

ATP (adenosine triphosphate) molecules.

Glucose is first activated by the addition of two phosphate groups from two ATP molecules

to form fructose 1,6 biphosphate.

This activated molecule has more free energy and is able to split by simple enzyme action to

form two molecules of triose phosphate.

Relevance

There are three marks awarded for relevance and these are awarded independently of the marks for scientific content. It is entirely possible to gain 3 for Relevance and just 2 marks for Scientific Content

There is only one real piece of advice here; make sure that everything that you write is clearly relevant to the title.

Breadth

In order to gain maximum marks for Breadth, you should give a balanced account making reference to most of the areas that might realistically be covered in an A-level course of study.

Essays should include material drawn from at least three different areas of the syllabus; this will usually mean three different modules.

If you run out of time, then the examiner may award marks for Breadth if topics appear in the essay plan. If you run out of time, it is a good idea to let the examiner know!

Make sure that your essay is balanced. If you are asked to write about the structure and function of proteins, then about half the essay should discuss their structure and the other half should discuss their function. Simples!

Quality of Written Communication

Your essay should be written in continuous prose

Only use diagrams if they convey more information than you can give in writing, this is unlikely; the examiners are looking for good prose accounts.

Only use diagrams if they convey more information than you can give in writing, this is unlikely; the examiners are looking for good prose accounts.

Do not waste time by repeating a diagram in words

Do not use side headings, lists, bullet point and the like. The examiners are looking for a well-structured essay that is written in continual prose.

Try and use appropriate scientific terminology throughout

Write an introduction – perhaps defining the terms used in the essay title or outlining what you are intending to write.

Write a conclusion – if you can think of nothing else summarise what you have written.

Write legibly, ensuring that your grammar, punctuation and spelling are correct.

And finally…..

Remember that plants exist! In an essay about gaseous exchange, don’t forget the plants! In an essay about hormones, don’t forget the plants! In an essay about natural selection, don’t forget the plants. In an essay about photosynthesis, er…

Exercise 6

Complete the following passage by crossing out the inappropriate words from the choices

given.

Essay Writing Top Tips

1. When attempting to answer the Unit 5 paper, the first thing that you should do is write

your essay plan / cry.

2. Essays should be written in continuous prose / the nude.

3. Do not cross out / get a selfie with your essay plan.

4. Essay plans should include the topic order / chocolate bar.

5. When writing a plan, it is a good idea to try and think of every chapter title in the order that they appear / be sneaky.

6. You will be awarded a maximum of 16/25 marks for Scientific Content / staying on

your chair.

7. A* essays will also include material that shows significant references to material that shows greater breadth or depth of study / paddling pool.

8. In order to gain maximum marks for Breadth, essays should include material drawn

from at least 3 / 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,003 different areas of the syllabus.

9. Do not waste your time with diagrams / Norwegians, unless they convey information

that could not easily be included in the written essay.

10. Try and include an introduction and a conclusion / handshake.

Exercise 7 These are the descriptors that are used to determine the marks awarded for an essay. Note that

it is only possible to attain an even number (0,2,4,6…) for the Scientific Content.

Use these descriptors to mark the following essay. How many marks do you think should be

awarded out of 25?

These symbols should be used to mark the essay

Scientific Content /16

Breadth /3

Relevance /3

Quality of written communication /3

Total /25

Unit 5 Synoptic Essays

You should write your essay in continuous prose. Your essay will be marked for its scientific accuracy. It will also be marked for your selection of relevant material from different parts of the specification and from the quality of your written communication. The maximum number of marks that can be awarded is

Scientific content 16

Breadth of knowledge 3

Relevance 3

Quality of written communication 3 Write an essay on one of the following topics (either A or B). Jan 03 A How bacteria affect human lives (25 marks)

Jan 03 B The biological importance of water (25 marks)

Jun 03 A The structure and functions of carbohydrates (25 marks)

Jun 03 B Cycles in biology (25 marks)

Jan 04 A How carbon dioxide gets from a respiring cell to the lumen of an alveolus in

the lungs (25 marks)

Jan 04 B How an amino acid gets from protein in a person’s food to becoming part of

a human protein in that person (25 marks)

Jun 04 A The transfer of energy between different organisms and between these

organisms and their environment (25 marks)

Jun 04 B Ways in which different species of organisms differ from each other

(25 marks)

Jan 05 A Negative feedback and its importance in biology (25 marks)

Jan 05 B Condensation and hydrolysis and their importance in biology (25 marks)

Jun 05 A Inorganic ions include those of sodium, phosphorus and hydrogen. Describe how these and other

inorganic ions are used in living organisms.(25 marks)

Jun 05 B Bacteria affect the lives of humans and other organisms in many ways. Apart from causing disease,

describe how bacteria may affect the lives of humans and other organisms. (25 marks)

Jun 06 A Polymers have different structures. They also have different functions. Describe how the structures

of different polymers are related to their functions. (25 marks)

Jun 06 B Describe how nitrogen-containing substances are taken into, and metabolised in, animals and

plants. (25 marks)

Jun 07 A Carbon dioxide in organisms and ecosystems (25 marks)

Jun 07 B Why offspring produced by the same parents are different in appearance

(25 marks)

Jun 08 A The importance of hydrogen bonds in living organisms (25 marks)

Jun 08 B How nitrogen-containing substances are made available to and are used by living

organisms (25 marks)

Jun 09 A The uses of water in living organisms (25 marks)

Jun 09 B The transfer of energy within and between organisms (25 marks)

Current Syllabus started in 2010

Jun 10 A Carbon dioxide may affect organisms directly or indirectly. Describe and

explain these effects. (25 marks)

Jun 10 B The causes of disease in humans (25 marks)

Jun 11 A Using DNA in science and technology (25 marks)

Jun 11 B A cycle is a biological pathway or process in which the end product of one

cycle becomes the starting point for the next cycle. Write an essay about cycles in

biology. (25 marks)

Jun 12 A The importance of shapes fitting together in cells and organisms.

(25 marks)

Jun 12 B How bacteria can affect the lives of humans and other organisms.

(25 marks)

Jun 13 A The membranes of different types of cells are involved in many different

functions. (25 marks)

Jun 13 B There are many different types of relationships and interactions between

organisms. (25 marks)

Jun 14 A How cells and organisms carry out exchanges with their external

environment to maintain their internal environment. (25 marks)

Jun 14 B How energy is transferred within and between organisms. (25 marks)