Information regarding the Bio 284a final exam

 

The final exam is on Friday Dec 6 at 7 pm in Nat Sci 1.  It is 3 hours long (7 – 10 pm)  and is worth 60% of your final grade.

 

Section A consists of 60 true or false questions, each worth ˝ a mark (30 marks total).

 

Section B consists of 22 multiple choice questions each worth 1 mark (22 marks total).

 

Section C consists of 36 questions requiring you to match elements from 2 columns, each worth ˝ a mark (18 marks total). 

 

Section D consists of 6 short essay questions, from which you choose 3 to answer (each worth 10 marks; 30 marks total).

 

All questions will be answered on the exam paper.  You do not have to fill in markex sheets.

 

The total number of available marks on the exam is 100.

 

As you prepare for the exam, focus on the material presented in the lectures.  Material in the course handbook is intended to provide additional background to help clarify concepts presented in class.  It also has a lot of great information for those who are particularly interested in the material covered in this course.   You are not expected to be responsible for all the information provided in the book unless it is material that was presented in class.

 

However, anything presented in the lectures is fair game for the exam.  This includes specific examples of organisms, geological times, etc. Use the emphasis in lectures as a guide – if I breezed over something in class, it is unlikely it will appear as a  major question on the exam.

 

The essay questions are intended to give you the opportunity to show that you can integrate material and understand the context of information presented in lecture.  Thus, keep in mind the course objectives – to  understand patterns in the distribution of life’s diversity in space and time, and to understand the evolutionary processes that created these patterns.

 

Good luck with your studying and feel free to contact me if you have questions.