Cell Bio

[kmeister87]

Do we need to memorize all the enzymes in the Citric Acid Cycle?

At state last year we had to put molecular diagrams in order for the citric acid cycle. The enzymes really aren't too bad-- their names describe what they do if you break them down to their roots.

[dickyjones]

Are you from Indiana? Yeah, we had to do that at state last year as well.

I wouldn't spend too much time on it. If you have nothing else to do, go for it, but chances are you won't get that on a test. And if you do get it, very few other teams will know it so it will end up being like a thrown out question anyways. Personally, I think questions like those are against the spirit of this event. I see this as the "bio-lab" event which should be more about process skills like analyzing data, making observations, knowing basic lab techniques, and making hypotheses. But apparentally very few event supervisors agree with me, so I guess we're supposed to just treat it like a study event.

[kmeister87]

Are you from Indiana? Yeah, we had to do that at state last year as well.

Yeah, Bloomington North. Despite the ridiculous in-depth Krebs cycle, though, I thought it was a good test. From what I remember, it covered pretty much everything in the rules, and did some knowledge synthesis questions rather than just "regurgitate this information." Did you get to do the event at nationals? I'd be interested to see how you thought the tests compared... Due to some nasty scheduling conflicts, neither of the people who did it at state could do it at nationals.

[dickyjones]

Ahhh, ok. No, I was only thrown in for state; I think it conflicted with Sounds at nats maybe? I did do last year's nats test from the test packet though. It seemed like it was a review of all of first semester Bio II. I generally ignore DNA replication in studying so I could do pretty much all but the questions on that, though half of the diagrams printed so dark that I couldn't read any of those questions. It seemed rather easy other than that, though I'm sure it would be more difficult when timed and with lab stations.

State test was decent. I didn't know the cellular diseases, so we BS'ed that part. My partner knew all of the tissue types, otherwise I would've failed that station. And I didn't like the fun facts station (yeah, we didn't know about Robert Hooke and ostrich ovums at that point). And I think when they ask for the names of biological polymers, they should give a word bank because otherwise I have no idea how specific to get (should I say carbohydrate, simple sugar, disacharride, or maltose?!?). The rest went pretty well, though. I'd say (only looking at the practice test) that the state test was more difficult in content, though easier to do in the time allotted.

[kmeister87]

Ahhh, ok. No, I was only thrown in for state; I think it conflicted with Sounds at nats maybe? I did do last year's nats test from the test packet though. It seemed like it was a review of all of first semester Bio II. I generally ignore DNA replication in studying so I could do pretty much all but the questions on that, though half of the diagrams printed so dark that I couldn't read any of those questions. It seemed rather easy other than that, though I'm sure it would be more difficult when timed and with lab stations.

State test was decent. I didn't know the cellular diseases, so we BS'ed that part. My partner knew all of the tissue types, otherwise I would've failed that station. And I didn't like the fun facts station (yeah, we didn't know about Robert Hooke and ostrich ovums at that point). And I think when they ask for the names of biological polymers, they should give a word bank because otherwise I have no idea how specific to get (should I say carbohydrate, simple sugar, disacharride, or maltose?!?). The rest went pretty well, though. I'd say (only looking at the practice test) that the state test was more difficult in content, though easier to do in the time allotted.

Oh, crazy! You're in Sounds? That's why I couldn't do it either. We might have talked at the opening ceremony. Which building event are you doing this year?

The cellular disease station was crazy... we were working on that during the rest of the test. Every time we finished a station with time to spare, we flipped back to those questions on our answer sheet and scribbled a few more words down before we had to move on to the next station. I think they said as specific as possible on the question with chemical diagrams. Yeah, ironically, our regionals test was probably the best; there were hardcore stations with actual microscopes set up rather than just printouts. One station even had a model of a phospholipid.

[dickyjones]

Well, we probably talked since I'm sure I talked multiple times to both of the Sounds people from Bloomington North. I was the white, male person competing. I'm not doing much building this year. I do egg-o-naut, but mostly recreationally. Coming into the season it looked like we'd have more trouble in studies than builds (we have a several better builder than me) so I've been concentrating more on that. So I've had to migrate from physics to chem, which hasn't been much fun (hate enviro chem so much). At least I keep my bio events.

Back on Topic:
All of the cell bio events I've competed in have been basically tests w/o any labs, models, real specimens, etc. I'm hoping this year I'll finally get to have a more hands-on test.

And I still don't know any of the answers to that station. The textbook I use (and google) don't seem to have much information on cellular diseases.

[kmeister87]

Hmm. On-topic. Hijacking the thread is definitely more fun. Maybe this should go in the Indiana chat...

It's actually really cool, I was thinking about those diseases and then an entire section of the practice problems in our advanced textbook was about cellular diseases! Pretty cool, eh? The one I bet they were getting at for peroxisomes was adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD), caused by defective digestion of long-chain fatty acids. For sounds, I was the one playing the metallophone, (my partner had amazing boingy curly hair). Okay. I should probably go study now instead of talking about studying.

[AlexSmalex]

No thats not really cool b cause diseases really kill people and i hate diseases

[gneissisnice]

Hey, I just noticed that there's no cell bio thread. I thought that was kinda weird.
If I made a mistake and there is a thread, then feel free to lock and/or delete it.
[Merged - Andrewwski]

What did you guys think of the nats test this year? I thought it was relatively fair, asking a broad range of cell....stuff.

[sciolykid101]

Hey, I just noticed that there's no cell bio thread. I thought that was kinda weird.
If I made a mistake and there is a thread, then feel free to lock and/or delete it.
[Merged - Andrewwski]

What did you guys think of the nats test this year? I thought it was relatively fair, asking a broad range of cell....stuff.

Usually, what do Top 6 competitors get on the tests?