How Creative People Study for Bio, Part 3

Get your 10-year-old sister to make a practice test for you.

I was forced to take the test, which I have reproduced below.   Keep in mind that although I hang out with a biologist, I have not taken biology since 9th grade.  After taking the test, I thought that the person who wrote and graded the test (currently in 5th grade) already knows more biology than I knew at any time of my life.  By some miracle, I remembered the word “mitosis” although I never use it.

I got a score of 12/20, probably not the equivalent of a “5” on the AP exam. I was accused of being too sinister in my answer for #16.   My answers to #8 were reluctantly marked as correct.  The "teacher" said those were not the answers she expected, but she acknowledged that my answers were correct.  

I can spell Deoxyribonucleic acid correctly! Just don't ask me what it does.

Test Questions
1.  What is DNA?
2.  What is RNA?
3.  What latches on to RNA when it is being read?
4. What does RNA make when translated?
5. What do these make up?
6. What is the brain of a cell?
7.  What jelly-like substance is throughout the cell?
8.  Name two things that all cells do.
9. _ ____________________ is when an outosomal cell divides.
10. _____________________ is when a sex cell divides.
11.  Name a bone and an organ.    ___________           __________
12.  Name the domains of life:
_____________    _____________    _____________
13. What is used from the male in reproduction?
a. egg b. sperm c. blood cells d.  none of the above
14. What do plants produce when reproducting?
a. babies b.histomines c.  seeds d.  eggs
15.  How do bacteria reproduce?
16.  Name a use for viruses.

______________________________________________________

My answers, and correct answers:
    1.  What is DNA? Deoxyribonucleic acid
    2.  What is RNA?  ribonucleic acid
X 3.  What latches on to RNA when it is being read? Cockroaches.
Correct answer: Ribosomes
X 4. What does RNA make when translated?  DNA.
Correct answer: amino acids.
X 5. What do these make up?  I don’t understand the question.
Correct answer: proteins.
    6. What is the brain of a cell? A brain has cells, but a cell can’t have a brain!  You tried to trick me!  But perhaps you were speaking metaphorically, in which case the nucleus is the “brain” of the cell.
X  7.  What jelly-like substance is throughout the cell? Goop.
Correct answer: cytoplasm.
    8.  Name two things that all cells do. Live   Die
(The teacher was expecting “makes proteins” and “makes energy”)
    9.  Mitosis  is when an outosomal cell divides.
    10. Meiosis is when a sex cell divides.
    11.  Name a bone and an organ.      Femur    Kidney
X  12.  Name the domains of life:  Work   Rest   Eating
Correct answer: Archae, Prokarya, Eukarya
    13. What is used from the male in reproduction?   b. sperm 
    14. What do plants produce when reproducting?  c.  seeds
    15.  How do bacteria reproduce?  They divide.
X 16.  Name a use for viruses.  To make the enemy sick.
Correct answer: gene therapy.