VCE Biology practice exams and worked solutions

What the course asks of you

Cells and membranes

Transport across membranes, and why a cell's surface area to volume ratio limits it.

Enzymes and energy

Enzyme behaviour, photosynthesis and respiration as connected processes.

DNA and genetics

From gene to protein, inheritance patterns, and reading a pedigree.

Immunity and evolution

How the body responds to a pathogen, and how populations change over time.

Sample questions

Written for this site, in the style of the exam. Answer first, then see the model response and what the marks were for.

1. Question 1

   1 mark

   A cell is placed in a solution with a higher solute concentration than its cytoplasm. What will happen?
   A. Water moves into the cell and it swellsB. Water moves out of the cell and it shrinksC. Solute moves into the cell by osmosisD. No net movement occurs
   Check answer

2. Question 2

   3 marks

   Explain how an increase in temperature above the optimum reduces the rate of an enzyme-catalysed reaction.
   Show the model answer

3. Question 3

   4 marks

   A man with blood type AB and a woman with blood type O have a child. a. State the possible blood types of the child. b. Explain why the child cannot have blood type AB or type O.
   Show the model answer

4. Question 4

   3 marks

   Distinguish between the roles of B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes in the adaptive immune response.
   Show the model answer

What the Biology exam is testing

Biology looks like the most memorisable of the sciences and is marked as the least. The content is large but the marks are for reasoning with it.

The command word decides the answer

Identify wants a name. Describe wants features. Explain wants a mechanism. Justify wants a position defended against an alternative. Answering a different verb than the one asked is the commonest way to write a good paragraph worth one mark.

Long questions are scaffolded

A multi-part question usually builds: the later parts assume the earlier ones. Getting part a wrong and carrying it forward is often still credited, but skipping it is not.

Data questions want the data

Where a graph or table is given, an answer that does not refer to it — a trend, a value, a comparison — is answering from memory and is marked as such.

Terminology is precise, not decorative

The exam distinguishes between terms that everyday speech treats as interchangeable. Using the loose word where the precise one exists costs the mark.

Where Biology marks are actually lost

In writing everything known about a topic instead of the thing asked. A four-mark question has four creditable points in it; a page containing them plus six others is not marked more generously, and it costs the time the next question needed.

In explanations that stop one step short. "The enzyme stops working" is a result; "the enzyme's active site changes shape so the substrate no longer binds" is a mechanism. The marks are almost always in the second sentence.

And in data questions answered without touching the data. If a graph is provided, quote from it.

Common questions

Is VCE Biology mostly memorisation?

There is a lot to know, but the marks are for using it. Most questions give you a situation, a graph or an experiment and ask what follows — which is reasoning, not recall, and cannot be prepared for by rereading notes.

How long should an explanation answer be?

As long as the marks. Four marks means four creditable points; more sentences do not earn more, and the time belongs to the next question.

What is the difference between describe and explain?

Describe sets out what happens. Explain says why or how it happens. Almost every student who loses marks on explanation questions has written a good description.