HSC Biology: How to ace the HSC extended response section!

Written by Rayash Prasad | 12 Minutes of reading time

Key Points Summary

• Know how to answer: Explain, Discuss, Analyse, Assess, and Evaluate HSC directive verbs as they will pop up quite often
• Some questions may not have ‘clear’ verbs, and it is better to look at the amount of marks it has and make a decision
• The use of Inquiry based Learning helps drive deeper understanding, which helps you create more conceptual links. This helps have more to write about in an exam
• 1.5 Minutes per mark is a guideline used commonly in the HSC 

Introduction

Imagine you enter the HSC examination hall, and as you scroll through the paper, you see questions with 6, 7 and 8 marks; you think to yourself, “How will I answer these questions!?”. Extended Responses were honestly the bane of every HSC Biology student’s existence leading up to the HSC examination period. 

However, let’s ponder on ‘how can we answer these long questions?’, as this blog guides you through how you can ace the extended response section (for both Preliminary and HSC Biology)!

Content

Syllabus

Students:

• Communicates scientific understanding using suitable language and terminology for a specific audience or purpose 

1. Knowing how to respond to different NESA verbs

Often students in HSC biology believe that vomiting content onto the paper will get them marks, often ignoring the nesa verb and what the question is even asking. This will not get you the band 6. 

Answering extended responses is like following a recipe from a cookbook, where the different nesa verbs give you guidance on what sequence to add your ingredients, just like cooking a lasagne! But instead of pasta recipes, you’re going to be working off NESA verbs. You must be wondering, what are nesa verbs? Let’s look at some common verbs you will see in the extended responses section:

2. Make your knowledge of content stand out

While it seems tempting to only know a concept’s basics and just move on, it will certainly bite you back when you sit in the extended response section, panicking with nothing to write about. 

How can you overcome this? Being strategic with how you interpret the content learnt allows you to have enough information to comfortably answer a wide range of question types. The key concept is related to how you interpret the content. But how do we do this? A rule of thumb should be to answer in a certain degree of depth about: 

You must be wondering “why am I even structuring my notes like this?”. Well, research highlights the importance of inquiry-based learning in improving the rate of engagement with the curriculum (Attard et al., 2022). The HSC nowadays is mostly application based, hence, asking these small questions can not only help you get the big picture but can also help you overcome curveball questions.  

3. Timing:

We’ve covered how to structure responses, as well as how to improve your understanding of content, but knowing how much time to spend on a question is imperative. “But why is timing important?”, this is because you don’t want to waste time on questions that don’t need as much time to be answered. 

For example, you would not want to spend an equal amount of time answering a 2 mark question and an 8 mark question. The best way to indicate how much time it should take you to answer a question can be based on the strength of the NESA verb, as well as the mark amount.

The best way to work on timing is to do responses under exam conditions, as well as being concise in how to respond to questions. Furthermore, using a timer when doing responses keeps you accountable for your time.  

Example: Seeing it in practice​​

Here is an example of all my tips being used. The nesa verb is Explain, meaning to relate cause and effect! This means by having a conceptual understanding of the content, the flow between your explanations improves. Note the key structural parts in bold.

The use of biotechnologies, such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), Restriction Enzymes and Recombinant DNA technologies, can be used to mass produce the enzyme X [short introduction of technologies]. 

Restriction enzymes: By identifying the gene of interest, scientists can utilise restriction endonucleases to cut out DNA from their genome [cause]. As a result [link], the genome that can be used to create enzyme X is revealed [effect]. This is achieved through the DNA section’s transcription by RNA polymerase II to produce mRNA, and the translation of mRNA to enzyme X. [demonstration of knowledge of content]

PCR: PCR can be used to replicate the aforementioned strand of DNA to ensure we have enough gene copies for recombinant DNA technology (RDT) [link to previous and final point]. Because due to the low chance of bacteria accepting plasmids, PCR enables a steady supply of DNA, allowing many re-attempts. PCR is achieved by placing the strand of DNA, dNTP primers, free floating nucleotides, and a thermophilic polymerase (TAQ) into a thermocycler machine. The DNA will firstly experience 95C heat that will denature the phosphate bonds between bases, followed by the annealing of primers to the separated strands at 65 C. At 75 C, TAQ will bind to the primer, and begin extending the strand, placing complementary nucleotides to the strands of DNA. As a result, this has created DNA [demonstration of in-depth knowledge of process, linked to goal]. 

Recombinant DNA Technology can finally then be performed. RDT can begin using restriction endonucleases to cut an empty DNA plasmid, giving space for Enzyme X’s gene to be placed within it. Once the DNA has been inserted into the opening, DNA ligase begins to anneal the bonds between the two strands, forming a uniform structure of DNA, and this vector is then translocated into bacteria [cause]. As a result [link], the bacteria will then express the gene, mass replicating the enzyme [effect]. 

Therefore, through the use of restriction enzymes, PCR and recombinant DNA technology, enzyme X could be mass produced to break down pesticides, cleaning out waterways [conclusion that links to the question].

Conclusion

So there you have it! Want to learn more about the science of life? Come to Dymocks Tutoring for a free trial lesson!