Dear all,
I have been asked about the nature of the exam on Thursday. It is not a memory test comprised of questions such as "which enzyme catalyses the interconversion of metabolite X to metabolite Y?", but is rather designed to be a test of general understanding of biochemical principles.
Example questions from previous exams:
Short length answer question:
Ethanol is widely used as a disinfectant against prokaryotes and single cellular eukaryotes such as yeast. However, ethanol is produced by the brewing industry using such micro-organisms. How is this apparent contradiction resolved and how does ethanol act as a disinfectant?
Medium length answer question:
Organisms use multiple methods to ensure the correct localization of molecules and macromolecules within different subcellular compartments inside a cell. Briefly outline the different methods used and explain the importance for eukaryotic organisms of having different sub-cellular compartments.
Long answer questions:
1) The regulation of cellular pH is essential for all living organisms. For Homo sapiens physiological pH is often cited as a value around 7.3, but various organs have other pH values e.g. the stomach has a pH value of less than 2.
a) What is the physiological significance of the low pH of the stomach?
b) In which sub-cellular compartments is the pH value different from 7.3?
c) What is the importance of regulation of intra-cellular pH?
d) What is the importance of regulation of extra-cellular pH in Homo sapiens?
e) How are extracellular and outer membrane proteins adapted for the greater pH variance that can occur extracellularly compared with the pH variance that occurs intracellularly?
2) What mechanisms do cells use to regulate the rate of conversion between two metabolites?
Note that long answer questions either tend to have multiple parts or are more "essay" type.
For the medium and long answer sections you have a choice of questions to answer.
Hope this helps rather than panics people.
Best wishes,
Lloyd