Hello Everyone,
Here is a link to a copy of the First Midterm from 2010. The purpose of posting a copy of this exam is to give you an idea of the form of questions that I will ask. You can find the answers to these questions at the bottom of this post.
http://www.slideshare.net/MarkMcGinley/biol-1404-midterm-1-2010
Warning #1. Invariably, I will manage to post at least one incorrect answer on the answer key (that's right, it is hard for me to get 100% on my own exam!). So if one of my posted answers appears to make no sense, then it is probably a mistake. I hope that I have gotten all of the answers posted correctly, and I apologize in advance for any errors. Please don't come and bitch at me if there are any problems!
Warning #2. In the past, I have seen lots of students who study by focusing far too much on the past exams. If you understand the material related to the questions on the past exams then that suggests that you will be able to perform well on your exam. However, if you have only learned the answers to those 30 questions, then it is unlikely that you will perform well on your midterm.
Remember that this year the midterm will contain 50 multiple choice questions and no essays!
Answers.
1 b
2 c
3 d
4 d
5 e
6 d
7 d
8 d
9 e
10 c
11 c
12 b
13 c
14 c
15 e
16 a
17 a
18 c
19 d
20 c
21 d
22 d
23 a
24 b
25 b
26 d
27 a
28 d
29 e
30 a (note this answer was incorrectly listed as "e" until Feb 10th)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why 11 is c) daughter would be better at fighting disease. I would understand sexy sons hypothesis or e)both sons and daughters would be better at fighting disease, but just daughters makes no sense to me. Will you please help explain it to me?
ReplyDeleteOnly males have throat sacs and bright colored ones show better blood circulation...so better fighting disease. That is why it is c) only sons benefit fighting disease gene or something like that
DeleteI'm just as confused as Rebecca concerning question 11... I recall reading that sexual selection possibly aids the offspring through females' picky selection of the father, as "good looks" have been speculated to correlate with good genes, but I fail to make the connection that large, bright throat-sacs and disease resistance have anything to do with one another. The sexy sons scenario appears more valid when keeping in mind the proposed purpose of mate-choice copying behavior; that copying other females' choices might lead to "sexier" sons with a higher chance of finding a mate. I'm guessing that somewhere in my explanation there's a mistake, and hope you get a chance to reply before the exam. Thanks in advance.
ReplyDeleteNevermind... I'm guessing it's the difficulty of inflating the throat-sac that demonstrates health. Unhealthy birds would put on less-spectacular performances. That paragraph was pretty important...
Delete