Download Review Material for Exam II Preparation

Review Material for Exam II Preparation
General Comment:
The exam was designed to access your understanding of the content and competencies developed
during the first seven lecture block of material. All questions were derived exclusively from lecture
content as summarized in the posted class notes.
The exam will consist of 50 multiple-choice questions. Each lecture received roughly an equal weight
of questions.
When designing questions for the exam I had one single objective: to access whether you understand
the important topics and themes discussed and can apply this knowledge in a critical manner. Knowing
individual facts is required but you must be able to use them to describe or explain concepts, processes
and biological phenomena.
For each lecture topic I first identified what I believed to be the important concepts we discussed. This
may have included important background information required to understand broader phenomena, key
critical concepts, important processes, and unifying themes. I then tried to design questions that
assessed whether you understand the important concepts.
Given the limitations of assessment in large classes like ours in combination with the above described
objectives, the exam process includes multiple-choice questions that require knowledge about more
than a single fact usually applied to a single concept. Many of the questions take the form: “In regards
to X, which of the following is NOT TRUE?” The “X” is almost always one of the important concepts
we discussed during lecture.
Once you have committed the individual facts we discussed to memory, the challenge is now to attach
these facts to the key concepts that they explain or describe. Knowing these facts is absolutely required
but knowing facts in isolation is not sufficient.
To facilitate this process, here is what I view to be some the important content of each lecture topic:
Photosynthesis
A. Characteristics of electromagnetic radiation
B. Structure and function of chloroplasts
C. Structure and function of the two photosystems— account for electrons passing through each
system
D. Carbon fixation reactions in C3 and C4 plants
E. NADPH and ATP formation
Cell Cycle and Mitosis
A. Phases of the cell cycle
B. Characteristics of each of the five phases of mitosis
C. General characteristics of the mitotic process
D. General characteristics of cancer
Chromosomes and Meiosis
A. Characteristic and function of chromosomes
B. Genetic makeup of cells undergoing meiosis
C. Physical characteristics of cells during the various stages of meiosis
D. Process of synapsis
Mendelian Genetics
A. Terminology used to describe genetics
B. Sources of genetic variability
C. Patterns of inheritance
D. Probability of allele distribution
E. Single trait cross
F. Dihybrid crosses, test and back-cross
Nucleic Acids and DNA Replication
A. Structure and function of nucleic acids
B. Historical experiments used to study DNA replication
C. Enzymes and proteins involved in replication
D. Sequence of events occurring during DNA replication
E. Continuous and discontinuous synthesis
Translation and Transcription
A. Basic processes occurring during gene expression
B. Triplet code
C. Events occurring during DNA-directed synthesis of RNA
D. Enzymes and proteins required for DNA-directed synthesis of RNA
E. Structure and function of tRNA
F. Sequence of events that occur during translation
G. Enzymes and proteins required for translation
H. Structure and function of ribosomes
I. Types of point mutations
DNA Technology
A. DNA sequencing techniques
B. PCR
C. Cloning using plasmids
D. Restriction enzymes and mapping
E. Electrophoresis
F. Uses of genomic and cDNA
G. Expression clones
For each of these topics, what would you need to know to describe them? Imagine stopping the next
person you meet and having to explain how a gene is expressed, or how double fertilization occurs, or
how chromosomes are moved during mitosis. What would you have to tell that person? Keep in mind
you have to do that without any resources—your book, notes, lecture summaries, flash cards, etc. If
you can do that, you “know”.
A common mistake that students make is that they “never close” their resources while studying. As
they prepare, most of the content is readily comprehensible and seems very familiar. Most, if not all,
facts and concepts are understood. This familiarity is mistaken for “knowing”. Your nervous system
causes you to understand, but the facts and details continue to exist to some extent only in the resource
you are using to study. It may seem as if that knowledge resides as consolidated brain-based
information, but in fact your nervous system is using was exists in working memory, most of which is
acquired from the information in your resources, not from consolidated memory. Therefore: CLOSE
YOUR NOTES AND TELL SOMEONE ELSE WHAT YOU KNOW.