Exam Focus

Exam Focus

Competition and adaptations appear on both AQA Paper 1 and Paper 2. Adaptation questions are common in 3-6 mark structured responses. Key question patterns include:

• Adaptation explanation questions (3-4 marks): "Describe and explain how the polar bear is adapted to its environment" — always identify the feature AND explain the survival advantage it provides.
• Type identification questions (1-2 marks): "State whether this is a structural, behavioural, or functional adaptation and explain why" — use SBF to classify.
• Competition questions (2-3 marks): Distinguish between intraspecific and interspecific competition with examples.
• Extremophile questions (2-3 marks): Describe how an organism is adapted to an extreme environment, naming the specific challenge (heat, pressure, salt) and the adaptation that addresses it.

Common mark-losing errors: Saying organisms "choose" or "decide" to adapt; naming an adaptation without explaining its survival value; confusing structural and functional adaptations; describing camels as storing water in their hump.

Edexcel 1BI0 Paper 2 (T9 — Ecosystems and Material Cycles): Edexcel adaptation and competition questions often use an ecosystem change scenario — for example, a data table showing species population changes before and after a competitor species is introduced, with questions asking you to suggest how competition for resources explains the population data. "Explain" questions on adaptations require the feature AND its survival advantage. Extremophile questions may present data from an unusual habitat (hydrothermal vent, saline lake) and ask you to suggest an adaptation. Edexcel mark schemes use "Accept…" and "Allow…" for valid survival explanations using different wording.