WACE Biology past exams 2020–2025, 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.

• Unit 3 — Continuity of species — Continuity through binary fission, mitosis, meiosis and fertilisation · DNA organisation, nucleotide pairing and semi-conservative replication · Genes, the triplet code, transcription, translation and protein function · Gene–environment effects, mutation and sources of genetic variation · Dominant, recessive and autosomal inheritance with Punnett probabilities · Co-dominance, incomplete dominance, sex linkage, multiple alleles and polygenes · Pedigrees, genotype inference and future-generation probability · PCR, gel electrophoresis, sequencing, DNA profiling and recombinant DNA · Transgenic organisms: applications, environmental risks and evidence-based decisions · Evidence for evolution and constructing and interpreting phylogenetic trees · Dynamic gene pools: mutation, natural selection, drift, founder effect and gene flow · Microevolution, allopatric speciation, artificial selection and conserving viable gene pools
• Unit 4 — Surviving in a changing environment — Stimulus–response models, tolerance limits and negative feedback · Heat exchange and thermoregulation in endotherms and ectotherms · Nitrogenous wastes and animal water and salt balance · Xerophyte and halophyte adaptations for water balance and gas exchange · Pathogen groups, structural distinctions and the syllabus disease examples · Pathogen life cycles, host invasion, zoonoses and transmission pathways · Population density, movement, climate, vectors and epidemic modelling · Quarantine, herd immunity, physical controls, antibiotics, antivirals and resistance