Practise › Questions

A-level biology questions by topic

All 416 questions in the library, one at a time, with the mark scheme a tap away. Write your answer first, then mark yourself against what the scheme actually asks for; each question comes back on a schedule set by how it went.

What a timed set is and is not

A timed set draws from whatever you have selected, orders it easiest first and puts about a minute and a half a mark on the clock, which is roughly the rate the written papers run at. The schemes stay shut until you finish.

It is text-only practice and not a simulation of a paper. Every question in this bank is written prose: there is no micrograph, no apparatus drawing, no table of results and no graph to read, so a set drills recall, written explanation and calculation and leaves out the data-handling and image-reading that real biology papers carry. Practise those from your board’s own past papers.

Every topic with questions

A topic with a handful of questions links to its own page, where they are all set out with their schemes; the rest link to the questions at the foot of the lesson.

Scientific method and quantitative biologyUnit B0017 questions

• Variables and controls: what an experiment can show5 · 18 marks
• Handling data: units, scales, rates and uncertainty6 · 19 marks
• Statistics for biologists: spread, error bars and the three tests6 · 22 marks

Cells, microscopy and biological organisationUnit B0121 questions

• Cell structure: what each organelle is shaped for5 · 16 marks
• Microscopy: magnification, resolution and what you can trust6 · 20 marks
• Prokaryotic cells and viruses: less machinery, same problems5 · 16 marks
• Specialisation: how one genome becomes two hundred kinds of cell5 · 16 marks

Biological molecules, water and inorganic ionsUnit B0232 questions

• Carbohydrates: from one sugar to a store of thousands8 · 25 marks
• Lipids: triglycerides, phospholipids and the ester bond9 · 25 marks
• Water and inorganic ions: the properties life depends on8 · 25 marks
• Proteins: from one amino acid to a working shape7 · 21 marks

Enzymes and metabolic controlUnit B0317 questions

• Enzymes: what a catalyst can and cannot do5 · 16 marks
• Factors affecting enzyme rate: temperature, pH and concentration6 · 19 marks
• Inhibition: how cells, poisons and medicines all turn enzymes down6 · 20 marks

Membranes and transport across cellsUnit B0416 questions

• The fluid mosaic model: what a membrane is made of5 · 18 marks
• Diffusion and osmosis: movement that costs nothing6 · 20 marks
• Active transport, co-transport and moving things in bulk5 · 18 marks

Nucleic acids, genomes and protein synthesisUnit B0521 questions

• DNA and RNA: four letters and a rule about pairing5 · 16 marks
• DNA replication: one old strand in every new molecule5 · 17 marks
• The genetic code and transcription5 · 18 marks
• Translation: turning a message into a working protein6 · 21 marks

Cell cycles, reproduction and developmentUnit B0621 questions

• The cell cycle: growth, copying, and one division that changes nothing5 · 17 marks
• Stem cells: what a cell can still become, and what fixes it8 · 26 marks
• Gametes and fertilisation: from two cells to a blastocyst8 · 25 marks

Exchange surfaces and gas exchangeUnit B0716 questions

• Surface area to volume ratio: why size limits diffusion5 · 16 marks
• Lungs: seventy square metres, folded into a chest5 · 18 marks
• Three other answers: tracheae, gills and stomata6 · 20 marks

Plant transport and mineral nutritionUnit B0819 questions

• Xylem and the transpiration stream: the pull comes from the top7 · 21 marks
• Transpiration: the price of keeping the stomata open6 · 22 marks
• Phloem and translocation: pumped at the ends, flowing in the middle6 · 18 marks

Animal transport and cardiovascular biologyUnit B0919 questions

• The heart and the cardiac cycle: pressure decides everything6 · 20 marks
• Blood vessels and tissue fluid: what leaks out and what comes back6 · 20 marks
• Haemoglobin: an S-shaped curve and everything it explains7 · 23 marks

Nutrition, digestion and health evidenceUnit B1015 questions

• Digestion and absorption: one tube, four chemistries5 · 17 marks
• Diet, energy and how to read a health claim5 · 19 marks
• Cholesterol, atheroma and what a risk factor means5 · 20 marks

Pathogens, disease and immunityUnit B1118 questions

• Pathogens and non-specific defences6 · 21 marks
• The specific response: selected, cloned, remembered5 · 19 marks
• Antibodies, vaccination and the four kinds of immunity7 · 24 marks

Respiration and cellular energyUnit B1219 questions

• Spending ATP to make ATP: glycolysis and the link reaction6 · 20 marks
• The Krebs cycle and oxidative phosphorylation6 · 23 marks
• Anaerobic respiration and the respiratory quotient7 · 23 marks

Photosynthesis and primary productivityUnit B1318 questions

• Chloroplasts: catching light and turning it into ATP6 · 20 marks
• The Calvin cycle: three steps, and the arithmetic behind them6 · 21 marks
• Limiting factors and primary productivity6 · 21 marks

Nervous coordination, receptors, muscles and behaviourUnit B1425 questions

• Receptors: turning a stimulus into something a neurone can carry6 · 22 marks
• The action potential: the same size, however hard you push7 · 25 marks
• The synapse: transmission, and why it runs one way6 · 21 marks
• Sliding filaments: shortening a muscle without shortening anything6 · 24 marks

Hormonal communication, plant responses and homeostasisUnit B1524 questions

• Hormones: a message broadcast in the blood that only some cells can read6 · 22 marks
• Blood glucose: two hormones, one liver, and two different diabetes6 · 24 marks
• The kidney: filter everything, then take almost all of it back6 · 23 marks
• Plant responses: tropisms, auxins and the classic experiments6 · 20 marks

Inheritance and population geneticsUnit B1624 questions

• Meiosis: two divisions, and why no two gametes come out the same6 · 21 marks
• Monohybrid inheritance: genetic diagrams that score6 · 23 marks
• Two genes at once: 9 : 3 : 3 : 1, the ways it breaks, and the chi-squared test6 · 21 marks
• Hardy-Weinberg: what alleles do in a population when nothing acts on them6 · 22 marks

Gene regulation, genomics and biotechnologyUnit B1720 questions

• Control of gene expression: which genes a cell reads5 · 16 marks
• Mutation and cancer: what goes wrong, and where it goes wrong5 · 17 marks
• Recombinant DNA technology: isolating, inserting and expressing a gene5 · 18 marks
• Genomes, screening and gene therapy: what a sequence is good for5 · 16 marks

Classification, biodiversity and conservationUnit B1818 questions

• Classification and phylogeny: sorting by ancestry, not by looks6 · 18 marks
• Measuring biodiversity: richness, evenness and the index that catches both6 · 23 marks
• Conservation: keeping a species where it lives, or somewhere else6 · 22 marks

Evolution and speciationUnit B1918 questions

• Natural selection: variation, selection and allele frequency6 · 19 marks
• Resistance, drift and the evidence: selection where you can watch it happen6 · 20 marks
• Speciation: how one gene pool becomes two, and why the line is genuinely fuzzy6 · 22 marks

Ecology, populations and environmental changeUnit B2018 questions

• Populations and their limits: what stops the numbers rising6 · 21 marks
• Nutrient cycles: nitrogen, phosphorus and eutrophication6 · 22 marks
• Succession: how bare rock becomes woodland, and why we stop it6 · 21 marks

416 questions worth 1423 marks, every one original InkBiology material rather than past-paper text. Your progress is kept in this browser, on this device, and is sent nowhere.