Sources of variation: OCR A‑Level Biology A questions
OCR A-Level Biology A past-paper questions on 6.1.2.1 Sources of variation, 2016–2025, with mark schemes and examiner’s reports where available.
Paper
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Exam
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Calculations
- Your answer
Q17(a)
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Q5(a)
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Q19(a)(ii)
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Q19(b)(i)
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Q19(b)(ii)
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- Your answer
Q4(b)
The whole paper ↗Q20(a)(iv)
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- Your answer
All 10 questions on Sources of variation, as a list
- June 2025, Paper 2, Q13 (1 mark): Reproduction can be sexual or asexual. What is an advantage of sexual reproduction? A Advantageous features are preserved between generations. B Genetic variati
- June 2025, Paper 2, Q17(a) (1 mark): Human identical twins are an example of natural animal clones. Suggest why human identical twins do not look exactly identical. [1]
- June 2024, Paper 3, Q5(a) (6 marks): Type 1 diabetes mellitus is characterised by a lack of insulin production. Type 2 diabetes mellitus can involve reduced production of insulin and a decreased re
- November 2020, Paper 2, Q19(a)(ii) (2 marks): Suggest why Hydra reproduces asexually when conditions are favourable. .. [2]
- November 2020, Paper 2, Q19(b)(i) (6 marks): When conditions are not favourable, Hydra reproduces sexually. This often happens in the winter. Cells in the body wall produce sperms and eggs by meiosis. Larg
- November 2020, Paper 2, Q19(b)(ii) (1 mark): [1]
- June 2019, Paper 2, Q6 (1 mark): Meiosis is an important feature of sexual reproduction. Which of the following processes occurs during meiosis and contributes to genetic variation in the offsp
- June 2019, Paper 3, Q4(b) (6 marks): (b)* The specific immune response involves B and T lymphocytes. There is variation in specific immune responses between individual animals. Variation between im
- June 2018, Paper 2, Q20(a)(iv) (2 marks): State the likely causes of variation in body length in cheetahs. [2]
- June 2017, Paper 2, Q4 (1 mark): The haploid chromosome number in the koala, Phascolarctos cinereus, is 8. Independent assortment of chromosomes in meiosis contributes to genetic variation in t
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