Just when everyone is familiar with the A-level biology specifications, the examination boards change them. They do not do this to be awkward. They do it because the subject changes. New discoveries are made and these lead us to look at the living world in different ways. The changes made to specifications reflect this and help to make sure that what we study is up to date and relevant.
The biology specification that you are following is probably the result of a long series of such changes. The A-level specification that I followed was very different from modern specifications. There was, for example, a lot more emphasis on classification and the structure of different organisms, but no mention at all of DNA. Topics that were important at one time are replaced by others that reflect changes in emphasis. One topic that has been introduced in the latest set of specifications is biodiversity. Recent unit tests have shown that some students find this topic surprisingly difficult to understand, so we start this Upgrade by looking at biodiversity. We then look at a question on the topic and point out some of the ways in which A-level candidates went wrong when they attempted to answer it.
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