TCE Biology past exams 2024–2025, by year and topic

The rest of the syllabus

Question-level mapping for these areas is still being verified. Every official paper covering them is in the year table above.

• Experimental questions, variables and directional hypotheses — Turn a biological observation into a testable question · Identify the variable and its operational measurement · Write a directional, mechanistically justified hypothesis · Control competing explanations with specific decisions · Choose replication and sampling that match the comparison · Build a reproducible method and an honest conclusion
• Evidence quality, data representation and inquiry ethics — Distinguish validity, reliability and measurement accuracy · Summarise a dataset without concealing its variation · Select graphs that preserve the biological relationship · Reason from evidence to a bounded causal conclusion · Apply ethical reasoning to the actual investigation · Evaluate sources and communicate uncertainty transparently
• Science as a human endeavour and internal inquiry folios — Connect biological knowledge with how it was developed · Analyse a discovery through a concrete case framework · Plan the current practical skills and inquiry folios · Develop the human-endeavour folio with traceable sources · Use ethical attribution and distinguish evidence from advocacy · Reconcile internal preparation with the external examination
• Enzyme mechanisms and rate investigations — Explain catalysis through structure and successful interaction · Interpret temperature and pH effects without overgeneralising · Distinguish substrate saturation from enzyme limitation · Compare inhibition with support from cofactors and coenzymes · Design an initial-rate enzyme experiment · Construct complete explanations from unfamiliar enzyme data
• Photosynthesis and cellular respiration — Track matter and energy with balanced net equations · Relate chloroplast structure to the stages of photosynthesis · Follow glucose through aerobic respiration at course depth · Compare aerobic and anaerobic pathways by outcomes · Interpret limiting factors and net gas exchange · Evaluate investigations of photosynthesis and respiration
• DNA structure, replication and manipulation — Relate nucleotide structure to genetic information · Use complementarity to explain accurate copying · Assign the required replication enzymes distinct roles · Explain the evidence logic of semi-conservative replication · Distinguish DNA manipulation from copying an organism · Interpret sequencing and fragment evidence cautiously
• Protein synthesis and codon interpretation — Connect gene information to a functional protein · Explain transcription as RNA construction from a template · Distinguish RNA processing from changing DNA · Explain translation through codons and matching transfer RNA · Work a codon-chart question with explicit checking · Evaluate the consequences of a changed sequence
• Gene expression, lac operon and mutation — Explain why cells regulate gene expression · Model the lac operon with lactose absent and present · Apply the current Lac Z and Lac Y requirement · Classify mutations by the molecular change · Separate expression changes from inherited sequence variation · Evaluate a gene-to-phenotype argument using linked evidence
• Neurons and synaptic transmission — Relate neuron structures to information transfer · Explain resting potential through ions and permeability · Describe threshold and the phases of an action potential · Explain propagation without moving one spike as an object · Trace chemical transmission across a synapse · Connect neural signalling to homeostatic responses
• Negative feedback and blood glucose — Build a complete negative-feedback explanation · Trace the response to rising blood glucose · Trace the response to falling blood glucose · Compare endocrine targeting with neural communication · Interpret glucose and hormone time-series data · Evaluate a glucose-regulation model and its limitations
• Thermoregulation — Define the regulated condition and the heat balance · Trace detection and control through negative feedback · Explain vasodilation and vasoconstriction by blood distribution · Distinguish sweating from successful evaporative cooling · Compare shivering, insulation and behaviour in cold conditions · Interpret thermoregulation evidence and model boundaries
• Animal and plant water balance — Explain why water balance depends on solutes and movement · Trace ADH feedback from detection to urine change · Distinguish filtration from selective reabsorption in the nephron · Explain the transpiration stream from roots to leaves · Interpret environmental effects on transpiration · Compare arid adaptations and integrate competing demands
• Pathogen types and transmission — Distinguish pathogen categories without treating all as cells · Separate exposure, infection, disease and transmission · Compare direct, fluid, food, water and airborne routes · Explain vectors and pathogen adaptations functionally · Interpret population disease data with denominators · Evaluate control strategies by their place in the chain
• Innate immunity and inflammation — Organise defence without turning it into a rigid timetable · Compare structural, chemical and biological barriers · Trace inflammation through mediators and vascular changes · Explain phagocytosis as a membrane-mediated process · Connect antigen presentation with adaptive activation · Evaluate innate-response data without assuming more is always better
• Adaptive immunity — Explain specificity and clonal expansion · Trace the B-cell response to plasma cells and antibodies · Explain antibody action without making antibodies into cells · Distinguish helper, cytotoxic, regulatory and memory T cells · Interpret primary and secondary responses through memory · Integrate humoral and cellular evidence in one explanation
• Vaccination, immunity types and population protection — Classify immunity using source and mechanism separately · Explain vaccination through antigen exposure and memory · Compare passive protection with active memory formation · Explain population protection through transmission opportunities · Calculate comparative outcomes without overstating them · Evaluate a transmission model and communicate its limits
• Cell cycle, mitosis and meiosis — Locate DNA replication within the cell cycle · Trace mitosis through chromosome movement and cytokinesis · Explain meiosis I through homologous chromosome separation · Explain meiosis II and the relationship to fertilisation · Connect independent assortment with genetic variation · Interpret division diagrams and evaluate errors carefully
• Monohybrid inheritance and ABO blood groups — Define alleles, genotype and phenotype before calculating · Construct a Punnett square from gamete probabilities · Use test-cross logic while respecting finite evidence · Distinguish incomplete dominance from codominance · Work ABO crosses using multiple alleles and codominance · Check probabilities and distinguish expected from observed
• X-linked inheritance and pedigree analysis — Set the sex-linked model and notation explicitly · Calculate an X-linked recessive cross carefully · Use X-linked dominant transmission as a discriminating pattern · Eliminate autosomal models through informative relationships · Represent genotype uncertainty instead of guessing · Write a pedigree argument that addresses alternatives
• Evolution and speciation — Distinguish genetic variation from changes in its frequency · Explain natural selection through differential reproduction · Separate genetic drift, founder effects and bottlenecks · Explain gene flow and interactions among mechanisms · Trace geographical isolation towards speciation · Evaluate diversity, extinction risk and evolutionary evidence