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AQA BIOL5: The synoptic essay

AQA A2 Biology:
Writing the Synoptic
Essay
by

Dr Robert Mitchell

CT Publications

Copyright © Dr Robert Mitchell 2010 www.ctpublications.co.uk 0800 040 7901

Dr Robert Mitchell

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-907769-02-3
First published in May 2010 by

CT Publications

Copyright © Dr Robert Mitchell 2010
The right of Robert Mitchell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright and Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher at the address below.

Published in 2010 by
CT Publications*
40 Higher Bridge Street
Bolton
Greater Manchester
BL1 2HA
Edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
*CT Publications is owned by Chemistry Tutorials located at the same address.

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AQA BIOL5: The synoptic essay

CONTENTS
1. Be aware of the task you face ............................................................................ 6
What is Synoptic? ........................................................................................... 6
Will I have to learn everything? ........................................................................ 6
A Synoptic Carbon Atom .................................................................................. 6
Which Content is Synoptic? .............................................................................. 8
How to use the16:3:3:3 Rule ............................................................................... 9
Content ......................................................................................................... 9
Breadth ......................................................................................................... 9
Relevance ...................................................................................................... 9
Quality........................................................................................................... 9
2. Scanning a title for clues for effective planning .................................................... 10
3. Planning to gain marks ..................................................................................... 10
The 50-50 split, examples of these include: ......................................................... 10
The Short and Sweet type, examples are ............................................................ 11
4. Organising the perfect essay ............................................................................. 12
Structure ........................................................................................................ 12
Is it balanced? ................................................................................................. 12
Is there a natural organisation? ......................................................................... 12
5. What to do if you’re stuck ................................................................................. 13
6. Timing ........................................................................................................... 13
Fleshing out the plan in the last few minutes ....................................................... 13
7. Choosing the right essay for you ....................................................................... 14
Clues in the title............................................................................................... 14
Trigger words to be wary of in my opinion ........................................................... 14
8. Putting it all together ....................................................................................... 15
APPENDIX 1: AQA’s Published Generic Mark Scheme ............................................... 17
APPENDIX 2: AQA’s Essay Title List ....................................................................... 20

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APPENDIX 3: Suggested essay titles to prepare ...................................................... 22
Essay 01: The different ways in which organisms use inorganic ions .......................... 23
Essay 02: DNA and the transmission of information ................................................. 25
Essay 03: The part played by enzymes in the functioning of different cells, tissues and organs ............................................................................................................... 27
Essay 04: The part played by the movement of substances across cell membranes in the functioning of different organs and organ systems ................................................... 29
Essay 05: Movements inside cells .......................................................................... 31
Essay 06: Energy transfers which take place inside living organisms .......................... 33
Essay 07: How the structure of proteins is related to their function ........................... 35
Essay 08: Transfers through ecosystems ................................................................ 37
Essay 09: Why offspring produced by the same parents are different in appearance ... 39
Essay 10: Carbon dioxide in organisms and ecosystems ........................................... 41
Essay 11: Cells are easy to distinguish by their shape. How are the shapes of cells related to their function ....................................................................................... 43
Essay 12: Lipids in health and disease ................................................................... 45
Essay 13: Genes and diversity .............................................................................. 47
Essay 14: The physiological impact of lifestyle on health .......................................... 49
Essay 15: The impact of human activities on the diversity of plants and animals ......... 51
Essay 16 Receptors and their role in coordination .................................................... 53
Essay 17: The pathways of synthesis of carbohydrates from carbon dioxide ............... 55
Essay 18: Proteins such as insulin, such as insulin, FSH or an anti-influenza antibody are made in cells that are remote from their target tissues. Describe how one of these is synthesised and exerts an effect elsewhere. ........................................................... 57
Essay 19: Perform a critical analysis of the methods used to collect biological data ..... 59
Essay 20: Mean temperatures are rising in many parts of the world. the rising temperatures may result in physiological and ecological effects on living organisms.
Describe and explain these effects ......................................................................... 61

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AQA BIOL5: The synoptic essay

1. BE AWARE OF THE TASK YOU FACE
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You are expected to construct an essay of between 700 and 1100 words covering a diverse range of synoptic content from the entire A-level specification.
Your essay is assessed on a scale (see Appendix 1) marked for content (16 points), breadth (3 points), relevance (3 points) and quality of language (3 points). You will have to select an essay from a choice of 2 titles.

WHAT IS SYNOPTIC?
Syn-op-tic
[Si-nop-tik] Pertaining or constituting a synopsis; affording or taking a general view of the principal parts of a subject.

This definition comes from www.dictionary.com and gives a reasonably good sense of the meaning. Essentially at A-level it can be assumed to mean a focus on key underlying concepts in the subject that are reflected throughout at all levels. So for example in biology, all organisms use ATP to release energy for processes and use proteins as enzymes to control specific reactions. In this context these concepts are deemed to be synoptic and will be covered frequently in questions.

WILL I HAVE TO LEARN EVERYTHING?
Simply put … NO! Synoptic questions and essays are not about the regurgitation of every last fine piece of detail, but focus on a DRAWING TOGETHER OF KEY SYNOPTIC
ELEMENTS. In this book I have identified these elements and provide a process you can easily follow to internalise and consolidate them.

A SYNOPTIC CARBON ATOM
As a tool to illustrate synoptic thinking I want you to consider a carbon atom, say floating in the air in a CO2 molecule soaking up infra-red rays in the 1700 cm-1 region from the Earth and thereby doing its bit for global warming. Let’s follow the fate of this atom and see how many key synoptic elements we can identify (these are highlighted in bold for you).
The infra-red rays strike the molecule giving it kinetic energy to excite it and make it move more rapidly. This allows it to come into close proximity to a leaf of a dandelion plant. Here it diffuses through the open stomata down a concentration gradient into the air spaces between the mesophyll cells and enters the palisade cell where it diffuses through the plasma membrane and through the cytoplasm and on into the stroma of an organelle called the chloroplast. Here it is combined to a 5-carbon sugar,
RuBP, broken down to glycerate-3-phosphate and then gets reduced by hydrogen ions and electrons by a reduced NADP coenzyme molecule. Now as an atom in triose phosphate, the carbon atom then undergoes a condensation reaction to form glucose, a monosaccharide. The glucose it then joined to a fructose to form the

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disaccharide sucrose which is actively transported into the phloem vessels though a specific channel protein using energy from the hydrolysis of ATP to provide energy to push it against a concentration gradient. This lowers water potential allowing water to enter the phloem by osmosis creating a hydrostatic pressure that forces the solution of sugar towards the roots of the dandelion. There it becomes hydrolysed to glucose by enzymes and condensed into a cellulose polysaccharide molecule and assimilated into the cell wall of a root hair cell. In doing so, the carbon atom is incorporated as part of the plants biomass and forms a small part of the productivity for the ecosystem.
Presently, the dandelion’s roots are consumed by a primary consumer such as a sheep. The sheep swallows the cellulose and the saprobiotic microorganisms in its digestive system release enzymes which catalyse the hydrolysis of the cellulose into β-glucose. The glucose is absorbed through a sodium-glucose co-transporter protein through a specific channel protein against a concentration gradient where it passes into the sheep’s blood, lowering its water potential prompting the release of the protein hormone insulin. The insulin and the synoptic carbon atom inside the glucose molecule are then transported though the blood inside the cardiovascular system, down a pressure gradient caused by the contraction of the ventricles in the sheep’s heart. Upon entering a capillary leading into an organ, in this case, the liver, the hydrostatic pressure forces the glucose, insulin and other small molecules into the tissues through the formation of a tissue fluid. The insulin hormone binds to a specific complementary receptor on the plasma membrane which opens a specific glucose channel allowing the glucose to enter the hepatocyte by facilitated diffusion across the hydrophobic phospholipid barrier.
Inside the hepatocyte, the glucose becomes phosphorylated by ATP and undergoes glycolysis, being oxidised by dehydrogenase enzymes to pyruvate. This diffuses into the matrix of a mitochondrion, an organelle, where it undergoes decarboxylation forming CO2 (with our synoptic carbon atom) which diffuses out though the lipid bilayer and ultimately out of the cell and through the endothelial cells into the lumen of a capillary. Upon dissolving in the water of the blood plasma producing HCO3- ions and, it diffuses into a red blood cell where it binds to a Fe2+ ion on a haemoglobin protein molecule, unloading oxygen in the process at the exchange surface. The red blood cell is then transported by the beating of the heart to the lungs where the CO 2 molecule diffuses off the haemoglobin (as oxygen loads in its place) and through the one cell thick epithelium tissue of the alveoli into the air in the lungs. Relaxation of the intercostal muscle’s actin and myosin protein filaments and the arching of the diaphragm move the rib cage down and in, decreasing the volume of the thorax and increasing the pressure in the lungs to higher than atmospheric. This creates a pressure gradient that forces the CO2 molecule back though the respiratory system and back out into the atmosphere.
Now consider this; we have just written a short synoptic essay! It was about seven hundred or so words covering many synoptic elements. This essay could have been a response to the title ...
Describe the processes by which a carbon atom is transferred between organisms, and between organisms and their environment.

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The content covered at least three kingdoms (plants, animals and microorganisms), drawing on content from all four modules (e.g. osmosis and carbohydrate and digestion, module 1), photosynthesis and respiration (module 4) and oxygen dissociation and gas exchange (module 2). In the following sections I will describe the precise nature of the synoptic elements covered, and others, and show you a process to follow in order to start to learn them.

WHICH CONTENT IS SYNOPTIC?
Biomolecules
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Movements

A list of biological molecules containing different chemical elements
Structure and importance of specific molecules
Roles and specific examples of specific molecules

Enzymes
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Activation energy
Generic examples
Plant specific
Animal specific

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Structure of DNA
Nature of the genetic code
Replication
Transcription
Translation
Mutations
Roles in differentiation
Roles in intra- and inter-specific variation Transfers of genes
(horizontal/vertical/sexual)

Cells
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ATP
Heat
Light
Chemical
Photosynthesis
Aerobic respiration
Anaerobic respiration

Adaptations
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Xerophytes
Behavioural
Physiological n(haemoglobin etc)
Anatomical
Gas exchange and cell shapes
Natural selection
Speciation

Diversity
Plants
Animals

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Microbes
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Diffusion
Osmosis
Active transport
Endocytosis
Exocytosis
Phagocytosis
Hydrostatic pressure
Muscle contraction

Energy

Genetic code
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Beneficial roles
Harmful roles

Gas exchange

Interspecific and intraspecific variations Continuous/discontinuous
Diversity index
Stabilisation of food webs
Survival

Coordination/communication

 Features of gas exchange
 Surface area to volume ratio good for gas bad for H2O loss

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Hormonal
Nervous
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Dr Robert Mitchell

HOW TO USE THE16:3:3:3 RULE
The examiners are looking for the following breakdown:
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16 Content marks drawn from either specification content or a-level equivalent knowledge. 3 Breadth marks based on either 3 different modules content or 3 different kingdoms of examples.
3 Relevance marks – assume you have them in the bag but lose one each time you make an error.
3 Quality of communication – learn how to use capital letters, full stops and commas appropriately.

CONTENT
The content you include should span at least 5 areas in some detail with two key points and a specific example. So if I was being asked for an importance of ATP, I would state that … its hydrolysis by ATPase releases energy that can be used for specific processes, for example provides energy for the active transport of mineral ions against a concentration gradient in a root hair cell of a plant.
Notice just how many key terms there were in that sentence. These identify it as being high quality for the marker. I could have said … ATP is used for active transport of ions in a plant … technically the same point but with a much lower quality.

BREADTH
These should be the easiest to gain, just make sure you use examples from at least 3 modules or kingdoms. Remember that most of the examples are animal, fewer plant and hardly any fungi and bacteria … and most of my students struggle to identify the other kingdom, let alone give examples from it.
But you can collect generic information … by that I mean processes that are common to all living organisms. For example all organisms have a phospholipid bilayer for a membrane that is embedded with channel proteins. So if you were doing an essay on proteins and had very few bacteria examples you could source the membrane channels as an example and illustrate with a bacterial example. E.g. Protein molecules can act as channel proteins which provide a route by which hydrophilic species can pass through the cell membrane. A bacteria such E. Coli in the stomach of a mammal would use these channels to absorb nutrition such as ions like Na+, from the host.

RELEVANCE
Essentially the only advice here is to keep to the point. In an essay on role of nucleic acids for example, talking about the job of the proteins they code for is off-topic and will
LOSE you marks. Also common errors like saying DNA is made from polypeptide strands or that DNA is a protein will lose you these marks. STICK TO THE POINT.

QUALITY
I should not have to say much here, but quality goes beyond physical sentence construction. Think about the message you are conveying. Lead the reader through a

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logical sequence. Essays that flit about pointlessly and are incoherent are a nightmare to mark. Plants one minute … animals …plants ….fungi…animals…plant…animal…damn it makes my ears bleed to mark them.
Get an overview of what you are going to write… and use it as a template. Remember the PPPPPP rule … Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance!

2. SCANNING A TITLE FOR CLUES FOR EFFECTIVE PLANNING
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Use a head NOT heart approach. Do not be drawn into a title you like if it not broad enough to gain easy marks. Many essays quickly dry up. For example
“negative feedback in living organisms” is actually quite limited, even if you feel you can do a reasonable job from that modules content.
Essays of the 50-50 type are much more open as they allow a two-pronged attack of the title (see below).
Look for any words that allow an expansion of content. For example “living organisms” allows you to draw on animals, plants, bacteria, fungi or protoctist examples. 3. PLANNING TO GAIN MARKS
Plan according to the title, carve it up into about 8 by 2 units, or 4 by 4, and then get started! Previously I showed you broadly how to aim to gain marks with the 16:3:3:3 rule, and now we’ll look at the planning stage. Take a look at any synoptic essay title and you’ll notice that they fall into two main categories.

THE 50-50 SPLIT, EXAMPLES OF THESE INCLUDE:
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The structure and functions of carbohydrates.
The causes of variation and its biological importance.
The rising temperatures may result in physiological and ecological effects on living organisms. Cells are easy to distinguish by their shape. How are the shapes of cells related to their function?

See how each essay can be carved up into a simple split – something and something or a relation to its/their whatever… etc
Let’s try to carve up the first title, the Structure and functions of carbohydrates. On a piece of paper, split the page in two vertically and at the top on the left put structure and on the right, function. Now split the page into eighths so your paper is a grid of 16 boxes. NOTICE its 16 boxes! And earlier we saw that we needed 16 content points.
Now in your plan you could fill the boxes in the functions and relate structure to them.
For example:

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[on right] cellulose cell walls provide strength and support & [on left] long unbranched/polysaccharide/hydrogen bonds/microfibrils
[on right] component of DNA/RNA nucleotides & [on left] monosaccharide/5Carbon sugar distinguishes DNA from RNA.
[on right] energy storage molecule in plants (starch) & [on left] branched, large amounts of glucose in small volume/easily hydroysed/insoluble.

This process can be repeated until as many of the boxes as possible are filled. Once you have collected something to say on each of the 8 pairs, you can structure and begin the essay. THE SHORT AND SWEET TYPE, EXAMPLES ARE
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Movements inside cells
Negative feedback in living organisms.
Transfers through ecosystems.
Cycles in biology.

Notice how these can be recognised by a process in/through/between something. At first glance these seem quite daunting, too wide (or too narrow depending how unprepared you are!) I like these as they provide a wide canvas to prepare a plan on.
Let’s take say “Cycles in Biology” Our biology has been studied at a wide number of levels – molecular – cellular – organs – systems – organisms – populations – communities – biotic – abiotic – environmental. Notice there are nine levels here, so aiming for 2 cycles in each would fill our 8×2=16 grid nicely and allow us to start the essay. So, I would move along each level and find a cyclical change. Some levels I may struggle to find any so I would miss it and try to find an extra one elsewhere.
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Molecular – [ATP to ADP and Pi and back] [NAD + 2H + + 2e- forming reduced
NAD and back]
Cellular – [The cell cycle] [Krebs] [Calvin]
Systems -[breathing cycle] [cardiac cycle]
Organisms – [life cycle] [menstrual cycle]
Populations – [lag-log-stationary-death-repeat]
Communities – [predator prey]
Abiotic -[night-day] [Seasons]
Environment [Nitrogen] [Carbon cycle] [Energy]

Notice how the simple act of dividing up the essay has broken it down a much easily digestible task and we automatically build in breadth!
The key to the above types of essay is to find that hook, that point that allows you to carve up the roast so as to lever the topic open to gain the breath. There are trigger words in the titles that allow this
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Living organisms – find examples from animal – plant – fungus – bacteria – protoctist – generic
Biology – use the levels I used in the example above
Cells – use examples from eukaryotic plant and animals as well as prokaryotic
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So in summary I have shown you how to quickly make a broad plan, an outline for the framework of the essay that uses the title itself to pries open the lid to reveal contents – the meat of the essay.

4. ORGANISING THE PERFECT ESSAY
In the last section I described how to carve up the essay using clues within the title so it became easier to handle and more defined. Now I want to look at developing that theme so that we can add detail and produce an essay that flows and has structure instead of a random series of unconnected sentences.

STRUCTURE
If you have done what I suggested then you will have a piece of paper on which you plan is outlined, but it will be carved up into a series of boxes. It may be that you were unable to find examples to enter for some boxes – that’s ok because often more things occur as we proceed with the development of the essay. Now take an objective look at the grid and assess the following:

IS IT BALANCED?
1. By that I mean are there whole sections with nothing in them – if this is the case you must try to think of content to fill them.
2. Try not to keep adding more examples into boxes – your focus MUST be on putting something … anything in as many boxes as possible. Once you have made a point, you will not get any more by using more examples. Common errors include giving about 10 examples of enzymes on a protein importance essay – enzymes are after all, only ONE role of a protein.
3. If you struggle to find specific content, then try to use generic things from biology, like cells, membranes, ATP, proteins, enzymes, respiration, competition, need for nutrition, variation, etc to force specific examples. E.g. if I needed a role of a protein in a fungi I can always use a generic example of, say the enzyme
ATPase which will hydrolyse ATP to ADP and Pi releasing energy for active transport for mineral ions into a hyphae of a saprobiotic fungus.

IS THERE A NATURAL ORGANISATION?
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Essays often split into broad sub-categories like Animal, Plants etc or
Physiological and Ecological effects. Try to find sub-categories to give your essay flow – imagine it a little like blocks stuck together – the animal block then the plant block then the other organism block.
Once you identify the sub-categories and have enough boxes filled I suggest you finalise the content and start to write.
Use the information from one of your boxes at a time and try to develop it into the following elements. Try to expand the simple statements in the boxes like
NAD into … 2 key points … at least 2 specific examples from the specification where appropriate. So if I was doing Cycles in Biology, and I was in the molecular box, I might say something like ” … co-enzymes are molecules that work with dehydrogenase enzymes [key point 1]to transfer hydrogen ions and electrons from a substrate during respiration [key point 2] for example NAD accepts 2e and 2H+ from glucose during glycolysis in an animal cell during aerobic

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respiration [specific example 1] and NADP accepts 2e- and 2H+ during the light dependent reaction in the thylakoid of a chloroplast in a palisade cell during photosynthesis [specific example 2]. Both of these get re-oxidised when the electrons are passed down an electron transport chain [the cycle bit]“
Always, always, always link the content back to the title of the essay. Avoid falling into the trap of just regurgitating lists of flow charts of content. So if I was doing an essay on “DNA and the transmission of information” I would not just discuss the key points of DNA replication or mitosis, I would link them back to the title first to show the examiner I understood the context. For example, I would put them in a context like ... “The genetic information encoded in DNA must be transmitted to genetically identical daughter cells when mitosis takes place for growth or repair. To ensure this takes place, the semi-conservative replication of
DNA takes place in late interphase of the cell cycle. The enzyme helicase ...” and then I could include the detail of replication and mitosis safe in the knowledge the context had been made clear.

5. WHAT TO DO IF YOU’RE STUCK
This is a nightmare, you’ve gotten half way through and you lose the plot a little and dry up! What can you do? Here are a few tips to re-open the essay:
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Force yourself to think outside the box, try to come up with any relevant thread you can.
Add extra if you dry up by asking yourself … WHY? or SO WHAT? or TO DO
WHAT? These are great openers!
Go back and add detail, a few words here and there can increase content marks.
Avoid sweeping statements like … fur is important to animals … say precisely
WHY it is IMPORTANT (if offers a means of camouflage and protection from predators for example) and ask yourself what is the CONSEQUENCE of NOT having it?
Avoid going in to deep – keep to BREADTH NOT DEPTH.
Back up every statement with an appropriate example from the syllabus … don’t be shy of using a GCSE example, as its better than nothing.
Avoid lengthy openers or conclusions – these essays are NOT English essays, every word is there for one reason … to gain marks.

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6. TIMING
If you have 16 boxes and about 35 minutes of writing with 10 minutes planning time it follows you spend about 2 minutes per box. Remember this – BREADTH NOT DEPTH in these essays, go for lots of examples that skate the surface of your biology in a connected way – this is that they are looking for – not loads of fine detail about one or two things!

FLESHING OUT THE PLAN IN THE LAST FEW MINUTES
It may seem odd to discuss adding flesh to the bones of the plan at the end, but it is
VITAL. The examiners WILL CREDIT content that is clearly described in the plan, but only if it has not been included. This is why we did not spend ages planning. Now … IN

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THE LAST 5 MINUTES … we go back and add as much clarity and detail to the plan as possible, as these extra marks could be the make or break of our essay.

7. CHOOSING THE RIGHT ESSAY FOR YOU
Let’s be clear about what you will face. The essay comes off the back of a big paper and about 10 marks of data handling. You will then face the “open” titles that I’ve included here and you will have about 45 minutes to write your opus. That’s not easy. So now you are faced with a choice of TWO titles. Pick the wrong one and there is not enough time to go back and correct your mistake. So I want to focus on how to choose the right essay for you – and choose the one with the greatest mark potential. That should be your only criteria. It is important that you are not swayed by personal preferences.
Imagine you loved horses and an essay came up … Describe the role of horses in an ecosystem … you’d be over the moon, off you’d go … but really, where to? After you covered eating grass and excreting over a field, I suspect you’d run out of ideas!
I suggest you take an objective look at both titles and try to try to a speed plan, a quick carve up of both essay titles. Which has more scope..? Which one can you fill in more boxes for…? Which one has more detail that you know..? Look out for the following:

CLUES IN THE TITLE
Looking at the list of essay titles I included in Appendix 2, the following is a list of triggers in the titles which suggest it can be “opened up” to flood the marks.
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“Biology” or” Biological”: This gives you opportunity to draw from a wide range of levels and/or kingdoms
The 50-50 splits offer an easy entry into the carving-up process to start to digest a bigger essay into bite-sized pieces
“Living Organisms” offers an easy splitting into animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and protoctists and/or generic examples
“Transfer”
or
“Flow”.
Think of a movement or flow …
FROM…INTO…THROUGH…OUT OF…BETWEEN – again, a nice split to get you thinking. TRIGGER WORDS TO BE WARY OF IN MY OPINION
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“Importance”. This is hard to get for most people, and I have a simple suggestion for deal with essays with importance in the title … avoid them!
“Negative Feedback” or “Osmosis” any single narrow topic – this could soon cause you to dry up and run out of content unless you are experienced at forcing examples.
“Relationships” e.g. a Structure-fuction relationship of protein etc … are do-able but you must take care as you must constantly connect and link the two parts otherwise the content and relevance marks could be very low.

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8. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
By definition, I suppose a good essay is one which scores 25/25 marks! If you have followed the tips outlined in the previous section you should be well on the way to generating one. There are some common features of essays that stand out in the examiners eyes and a prior knowledge of these allows them to be built into your essay.
In general, a good essay will ...
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Start with a definition of a title keyword. Definitions show precision and knowledge and demonstrate a good understanding of the content. Starting with one sets the context of the essay and give a solid entry into the material. For example, if our essay title was PROTEINS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE TO LIVING ORGANISMS, a good definition opener could be ... Proteins are polymers of amino acids joined by peptide bonds which have a wide variety of key functions in living organisms...
Follow up with a statement of intent. A statement of intent demonstrates clear a focus for the essay and details the objective in a clear and concise manner.
Continuing the example above we could now add ... This essay will list and detail many of these specific roles in plants, animals, fungi and bacteria and highlight the benefits these molecules confer to the organism.
Have a clearly discernible structure. The precise structure will follow from the planning stage and be specific to different essays. Using the example above, it would be logical to follow a sequence of functions through the different kingdoms in turn, separating out those functions that were specific to each, e.g. pancreatic amylase which hydrolyses starch to maltose in the small intestine of an animal would not be mixed with in the same section with penicillinase, an enzyme released by a fungus that hydrolyses cell walls of bacteria.
Have breadth not depth. One mistake many students make is to go into a topic in way too much detail. They fail to accept the point at which they scored the marks that were available for the points they are making. When studying the mark schemes of previous essays it becomes clear that only a few key points are required to score marks, but that many topic areas need to be covered. Using the example above, a good essay would cover a few specific examples of many roles for proteins like enzymes, hormones, receptors, fur, channels, antigens, antibodies etc rather than many examples of just hormones or enzymes.
Show an understanding of the title and not just repeat it. In essays such as the one above, it is common to find phrases like “... receptors like the insulin receptor have a specific shape to recognise only insulin and so they are a really important role for proteins.” This is telling the examiner it is important rather than demonstrating to him you understand why. Instead a phrase “ ... the insulin receptor’s complementary shape to insulin ensures a cells specific response to the hormone causing the glucose channel to open only when the concentration is high enough.” Uses specific content from the syllabus. This should be an obvious point, but a clear demonstration of syllabus specific material will always impress the examiner and targets mark points you know will be there. E.g. The specification lists ...
“Enzymes as catalysts lowering activation energy through the formation of enzymesubstrate complexes.” So in our essay we could stress that ... “one crucial role for proteins is to act as enzymes. These are protein catalysts that control specific chemical reactions, increasing their rate by lowering the activation energy. This is

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brought about by the formation of an enzyme-substrate complex in which an active site binds to the complementary shaped substrate molecule.”
Show evidence of extra depth of study. Try to bring in some examples from the
How Science Works aspects of the text book or link some content to your genera; knowledge of studies of other subjects. Statements like “In a recent article in New
Scientist it was suggested that … “ will unconsciously help the examiner rate you as someone who has read around the biology and related subjects.
Uses definitions. Following on from above, specific definitions of terms will always be a powerful addition to any essay. E.g., “antibodies are Y-shaped globular proteins secreted by plasma B-cells, with a variable region that targets and binds specific antigens on a pathogen.” ... is probably more mark-worthy than “antibodies bind to and inactivate pathogens.”
Contains specific named examples. Always add quality and flesh to your essay with named examples or enzymes (maltase, DNA polymerase, helicase, etc), hormones (ADH, FSH, insulin etc), animals (seal, lions etc), plants (oak trees, dandelion etc), fungi (bread mould, yeast) .
Has clear flow and direction. This type of essay avoids simply being a list. The reader is lead and guided in a planned sequence through the maze of content.

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APPENDIX 1: AQA’S PUBLISHED GENERIC MARK SCHEME

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Examiners are looking for
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evidence of knowledge and understanding at a depth appropriate to A level selection of relevant knowledge and understanding from different areas of the specification coverage of the main concepts and principles that might be reasonably be expected in relation to the essay title connection of concepts, principles and other information from different areas in response to the essay title construction of an account that forms a coherent response clear and logical expression, using accurate specialist vocabulary appropriate to A level Assessing Scientific Content
Maximum 16 marks.
Descriptors are divided into 3 categories: Good (16, 14, 12), Average (10, 8, 6) and
Poor

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(4, 2, 0). Only even scores can be awarded, i.e. not 15, 13, etc.
Examiners need first to decide into which category an essay comes.

A good essay
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includes a level of detail that could be expected from a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of relevant parts of the specification maintains appropriate depth and accuracy throughout avoids fundamental errors covers a majority of the main areas that might be expected from the essay title.
(These areas are indicated in the mark scheme. Occasionally a candidate may tackle an essay in an original or unconventional way. Such essays may be biased in a particular way, but where a high level of understanding is shown a high mark may be justified.) demonstrates clearly the links between principles and concepts from different areas. Note that it is not expected that an essay must be 'perfect' or exceptionally long in order to gain maximum marks, bearing in mind the limitations on time and the pressure arising from exam conditions.

An average essay
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should include material that might be expected of grade C/D/E candidates is likely to have less detail and be more patchy in the depth to which areas are covered, and to omit several relevant areas is likely to include some errors and misunderstandings, but should have few fundamental errors is likely to include mainly more superficial and less explicit connections

A poor essay
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is largely below the standard expected of a grade E candidate shows limited knowledge and understanding of the topic is likely to cover only a limited number of relevant areas and may be relatively short is likely to provide superficial treatment of connections includes several errors, including some major ones
Having decided on the basic category, examiners may award the median mark, or the ones above or below the median according to whether the candidate exceeds the requirements or does not quite meet them.

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APPENDIX 2: AQA’S ESSAY TITLE LIST

Paper

Biology A

Biology B

Jun
02

The different ways in which organisms use ATP.

The different ways in which organisms use ATP.

How the structure of cells is related to their function.

How the structure of cells is related to their function.

How bacteria affect human lives.

The biological importance of water.

The biological importance of water.

The movement of substances within living organisms.

The structure and functions of carbohydrates. The structure and functions of carbohydrates. Cycles in biology.

Cycles in biology.

How carbon dioxide gets from a respiring cell to the lumen of an alveolus in the lungs.

How the structure of proteins is related to their functions.

Jan 03

Jun
03

Jan 04

How an amino acid gets from protein in a person’s food to becoming part of a human protein in that person.
Jun
04

The transfer of energy between different organisms and between these organisms and their environment. The causes of variation and its biological importance.

The process of osmosis and its importance to living organisms.
Energy transfers which take place inside living organisms.

Ways in which different species of organisms differ from each other.
Jun
05

Inorganic ions include those of sodium, phosphorus and hydrogen.
Describe how these and other inorganic ions are used in living organisms. 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.

Negative feedback in living organisms.
Mean temperatures are rising in many parts of the world. The rising temperatures may result in physiological and ecological effects on living organisms. Describe and explain these effects.

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Dr Robert Mitchell

Jun
06

Polymers have different structures.
They also have different functions.
Describe how the structures of different polymers are related to their functions. Describe how nitrogen-containing substances are taken into, and metabolised in, animals and plants.

Jun
07

Carbon dioxide in organisms and ecosystems. The transfer of substances containing carbon between organisms and between organisms and the environment. Cells are easy to distinguish by their shape. How are the shapes of cells related to their function?

Movements inside cells.
Transfers through ecosystems.

Why offspring produced by the same parents are different in appearance.
Jun
08

The part played by the movement of substances across cell membranes in the functioning of different organs and organ systems.
The part played by enzymes in the functioning of different cells, tissues and organs.

Jun
09

DNA and the transmission of information The ways in which different organisms use inorganic ions

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APPENDIX 3: SUGGESTED ESSAY TITLES TO PREPARE
I’ve included a list of possible titles which I think reflect the changes of direction within the new A level. Each one is very synoptic and covers a wide range of topics from AS and A2.
1.
2.
3.
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5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

Lipids in health and disease.
Genes and diversity.
The ways in which different organisms become adapted to their environments.
Coordination within organisms and between organisms and their environments.
Discuss how scientists collect, analyse and interpret biological data.
A space probe brought back samples of life-forms from a hot, dry planet with low atmospheric oxygen but high carbon dioxide concentrations. Describe the adaptations these life-forms would have in order to survive these conditions.
The physiological impact of lifestyle on health.
The impact of human activities on the diversity of animals and plants.
Receptors and their roles in coordination.
The pathways of synthesis of carbohydrates from atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Proteins such as insulin, FSH or an anti-influenza antibody are made in cells that are remote from their target tissues. Describe how one of these is synthesised and exerts an effect elsewhere.
Perform a critical analysis of methods used to collect biological data.
Stem cells research offers a great number of potential benefits to humans. It also comes with many down sides. Write a balanced account of the ways in which stem cells could and should be used to benefit humans.
Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of gene cloning technologies.

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May 2010
 AQA A2 Biology: Writing the Synoptic Essay e-book
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July 2010
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AS to A2 Chemistry: Bridging the gap
AS to A2 Biology: Bridging the gap
AQA AS Chemistry CHEM1 Cheat sheets
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AQA AS Biology BIOL2 Cheat sheets

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