OCR Biology F215 A Level Exam

My daughter has just sat the final paper in her A level Biology (OCR paper F215). I have spent the last couple of months helping her revise so I had an interest in the overall content of the paper.  To get some idea about the questions that cropped up, I have followed the various discussions on chat forums and some students have been very unhappy about this paper. Their main criticism is that the paper was heavily biased toward ecological processes and concepts and did not have sufficient spread of questions covering all the syllabus topics. Facebook campaigns have been started and e-mails sent to OCR, the BBC and Ofqual. OCR has even issued a statement in response to the student’s concerns. Since OCR thinks that there was no problem with the paper, I have analyzed the mark distributions according to which core modules they come from. The results are:

Module 1 (Cellular control)                                                                     
20 marks

Module 2 (Biotechnology)                                                                      
20 marks

Module 3 (Ecosystems)                                                                          
28 marks

Module 4 (Responding to the Environment)                                         
19 marks

Assessment Objective 2 (Application of Knowledge/data handling)   
6 marks

Assessment Objective 3 (How Science Works)                                    
7 marks

At face value, it would appear that the questions were reasonably spread across all four Modules, with perhaps a slight bias towards Ecosystems. BUT, this does not take into account the content of each module. Based on the number of pages in the OCR Biology revision book by Heinemann, Module 1 = 33% of the syllabus, Module 2 = 28%, Module 3 =19% and Module 4 = 20%. On the exam paper, Module 3 questions account for 32% of the module specific marks but this module is only 18% of the syllabus. Perhaps the students have a point about the paper not being completely fair.

University Chancellor

The Chancellor is the titular Head of the University. The first Chancellor (Hugh de Hottun) was elected in 1246 and previous positions have been held by a plethora of Earls, Dukes, Lords and assorted aristocracy and not a single women. The Chancellorship is a life-long appointment and the individual performs several duties such as conferring Honorary Degrees and adjudicating in some University disputes. The Chancellor does not normally live in Cambridge but visits occasionally to perform these duties and have a slap up meal at one of the colleges. The current chancellor is HRH, The Duke of Edinburgh who has served since 1977, but at 90 years old he needs a rest and is stepping down. The Chancellor is elected by the University Senate and candidates require 50 nominations before they can stand. The plan by the University was to elect Lord Sainsbury as an unopposed candidate but a democratic system can jeopardise the best laid plans. Two other candidates have been proposed and gathered enough votes to force a proper election. The first candidate is Brian Blessed, a Cambridge graduate and actor well know for his thunderous voice and mountaineering exploits. The second candidate is Abdul Arain, a local shopkeeper who is campaigning against a Sainsbury’s supermarket opening in Mill Road. I suspect it will be a two horse race between the Bursary Sold In and the Beard Bless In. 

Brian Blessed whispering

Footloose and Fancy Free

A few months ago, a sculpture consisting of a pair of metal footprints inlaid into one of the paving slabs was added at one of the University sites. This interesting addition seemed to be appreciated by members of the public visiting the site. A few weeks later however, yellow lines were drawn around the sculpture. My first thought was that this was another example of Health and Safety gone mad to prevent the University being sued by some inattentive visitor who tripped on the few millimeters of metal protruding from the ground. Fortunately, I have heard that the yellow lines were put there by a construction firm working nearby to prevent them from driving over the sculpture and possibly damaging it. Common sense 1: observant workmen 0.