Honors biology practice test: free questions with worked answers

Each daily paper has 8 original questions worth 25 to 35 marks, and the two above split the work. The High School Biology paper covers the core course: cells, enzymes, photosynthesis, respiration, genetics, evolution, ecology and body systems. The Honors Biology paper adds the extra depth: biomolecules, membranes and transport, DNA replication, protein synthesis, mitosis, gas exchange, the immune system and classification. It goes further than some honors courses, so use your syllabus to decide what to skip.

What makes honors biology harder

The topics overlap with regular biology. The difference is depth and pace:

• More molecular detail: not just that DNA carries genes, but how it is copied, transcribed and translated.
• More numbers: rates from enzyme data, base and codon counts, and chromosome numbers through cell division.
• Explanations that link steps: why a second infection is milder, not only that it is.
• A faster pace, so each test covers more ground.

Free honors biology practice test: 6 questions

We wrote these questions for this page. Give yourself 25 minutes, then check the answers below.

1. Name the monomers that build proteins, carbohydrates and nucleic acids.
2. An enzyme-catalyzed reaction produces 48 µmol of product in the first 4 minutes. What is the initial rate, and why does the rate fall later on?
3. Bacteria grown on heavy nitrogen (¹⁵N) are moved to light nitrogen (¹⁴N). Predict the DNA after one and after two rounds of replication, if replication is semi-conservative.
4. What is the minimum number of mRNA bases needed to code for a protein of 150 amino acids?
5. A human body cell has 46 chromosomes. How many does each daughter cell have after mitosis, and each cell after meiosis?
6. Why does a second infection by the same virus usually cause milder illness than the first?

Honors biology practice test answers

1. Proteins are built from amino acids, carbohydrates from monosaccharides such as glucose, and nucleic acids from nucleotides. Lipids such as triglycerides are built from glycerol and fatty acids, though they aren't true polymers.

2. 12 µmol per minute. 48 ÷ 4 = 12 µmol/min. Later the rate falls because the substrate is being used up, so there are fewer enzyme-substrate collisions per second. The enzyme itself isn't used up.

3. After one round every DNA molecule is hybrid, with one heavy strand and one light strand, because each new molecule keeps one parent strand. After two rounds, half are hybrid and half are fully light. This is the result Meselson and Stahl found, which ruled out conservative replication.

4. 450 bases. Each amino acid is coded by a codon of 3 bases, so 150 × 3 = 450. With the stop codon the coding sequence is 453 bases, and real mRNA is longer still. Translate a sequence in the DNA Translator.

5. 46 after mitosis, 23 after meiosis. Mitosis makes 2 identical diploid cells for growth and repair. Meiosis makes 4 genetically different haploid cells, the gametes, so fertilization restores 46. Try a question from our Genetics and DNA course, then press Mark.

6. The first infection leaves memory cells that recognize the virus's antigens. On a second infection they divide quickly and the body makes the matching antibodies much faster and in greater numbers, often before you feel ill. Vaccines work by creating those memory cells without the disease.

What an honors biology final usually covers

Your teacher writes the final, so the syllabus is the real guide. Most honors courses build on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) ideas about cells, heredity, ecosystems and evolution, and go further into molecules: how DNA is copied and read, how enzymes work, and how cells divide. Many students take AP Biology next.

Use the daily paper as a short timed practice test

1. Open today's Honors Biology paper and work to the suggested time, 35 to 45 minutes.
2. Use the exact terms: active site, codon, haploid, antigen.
3. Mark it with the mark scheme and note the topic behind each lost mark.
4. Fill gaps with the Cell Biology and Genetics and DNA courses.

Common honors biology mistakes

• Saying enzymes are used up in a reaction.
• Mixing up transcription and translation: transcription makes mRNA from DNA; translation makes protein from mRNA.
• Confusing the products of mitosis and meiosis.
• Saying antibodies remember the virus: memory cells do.
• Calling every macromolecule a polymer: triglycerides aren't.

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