Practical questions
During the GCSE Biology course you will complete practical activities from eight Practical Activity Groups (PAGs).
The exams will include questions about some of these experiments. You may also be asked to apply what you know to unfamiliar practical contexts, which will draw on your practical knowledge and understanding.
You could be asked to:
- write or identify a hypothesis or prediction that could be tested in an experiment
- name equipment and measuring instruments, and describe what they do and how they are used
- identify factors that must be controlled, and explain why
- describe how to work safely
- process data by doing calculations and representing it graphically
- identify patterns and trends in data
- evaluate the accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility of data, and identify possible errors and anomalous results
- suggest improvements to methods
- interpret data and draw conclusions from it
Practical questions will appear throughout both exam papers (Breadth and Depth), and at both Foundation tier and Higher tier. Practical questions could be multiple-choice or free-response, and could include calculations. A six-mark question could be asked in a practical context, so practise writing in detail about the practical work you have done.
It's important to look back at your lab book or your notes from the practical activities you have done when revising for your exams.
Sample question 1 - Foundation
Question
Kai carried out an experiment to investigate the effect of changing the colour of the light on the angle that plant shoots bent towards the source of light.
Name the independent and dependent variable in his investigation. [2 marks]
This question has been written by a Bitesize consultant as a suggestion to the type of question that may appear in an exam paper.
Remember that the independent variable is the one that the investigator chooses to change. The dependent variable is what is measured when the independent variable is changed.
Independent variable: the colour of light used [1 mark]
Dependent variable: the angle that the plant shoots bend towards the source of light [1 mark]
Sample question 2 - Foundation
Question
Suzanne grew cress seeds in eight different petri dishes. She put ten seeds into each petri dish and counted how many seeds had germinated in each petri dish after three and five days. Her results are shown in the table below.
| Petri dish | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Average |
| Day 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Day 5 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Day 3 | |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 0 |
| 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 3 |
| 5 | 2 |
| 6 | 0 |
| 7 | 1 |
| 8 | 0 |
| Average | |
| Day 5 | |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5 |
| 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 3 |
| 5 | 3 |
| 6 | 0 |
| 7 | 5 |
| 8 | 2 |
| Average | 3 |
Calculate the average number of seeds that had germinated on day three. Give your answer to the nearest whole number. [2 marks]
This question has been written by a Bitesize consultant as a suggestion to the type of question that may appear in an exam paper.
Don't forget to include the counts of 0 in your calculation:
0 + 0 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 0 + 1 + 0 = 7
7 ÷ 8 = 0.875
To the nearest whole number is 1.
If the student gives 0.875 as their answer, they can only get one mark.
Sample question 3 - Higher
Question
Blood is made up of cells, plasma and platelets.
The picture below shows blood cells as seen down a microscope.
Draw a labelled scientific diagram of a white blood cell in the space below.
Label the nucleus and cell membrane. [4 marks]
OCR 21st Century, GCE Biology, Paper J257 - Higher, 2016.
Correct cell drawn.
Continuous, unfeathery lines, no shading.
Label lines drawn with a ruler.
Nucleus and cell membrane correctly labelled.
Sample question 4 - Higher
Question
Leo was collecting data about phototropisms.
He concluded that the closer the light source to germinating seeds, the greater the angle of bending of the shoots.
His results are shown below.
Toby argued that Leo could not make such a strong conclusion.
Suggest two improvements that Leo could make to his data set in order to draw a stronger conclusion.
| Distance of light source from seeds (cm) | Angle of bending of shoots (°) |
| 5 | 5 |
| 15 | 35 |
| Distance of light source from seeds (cm) | 5 |
|---|---|
| Angle of bending of shoots (°) | 5 |
| Distance of light source from seeds (cm) | 15 |
|---|---|
| Angle of bending of shoots (°) | 35 |
This question has been written by a Bitesize consultant as a suggestion to the type of question that may appear in an exam paper.
Test more distances. [1 mark]
Repeat the data for each distance. [1 mark]
