One of the hardest parts about the biology HSC is answering questions containing a stimulus. These are tricky because they require the application of knowledge, rather than just the recall of things that have been taught in class. In order to answer these questions, I equip students with a few key principles
1. identify the corresponding syllabus dot point
Each question in the HSC is based directly off of the syllabus dot points, and the marking criteria will also correspond to the information learn in these inquiry questions. Therefore, I encourage students to write their class notes or summary notes according to the syllabus dot points and use them to guide their study. For example, turning the dot points into questions themselves and writing as much as you know about each dot point. In doing so, you will be relating the dot point to the content. This will then allow the student to be thinking about the correct content to guide them in answering the question. I find that this is often difficult for students at the start as they struggle to determine what information they actually need to include in a question.
2. Reference the stimulus
After identifying the correlated syllabus dot point/s, it is easy to start regurgitating relevant information into the answer box. However, just because the information is relevant to the topic, does not mean it will get you marks in the test. Here, you must relate this information DIRECTLY to the stimulus, otherwise it would not have been there in the first place. For examples, in a question which has a brief introduction about the golden rice and then asks "what is the importance of biotechnology", at least on of the marks will be allocated to the importance of golden rice, which is often missed by students.
