SACE Biology exam 2026Exam: Fri 6 Nov · SACE Board timetable
Your SACE Biology exam:
When and how long
- Biology9.00 am start2 h 10 min
SACE Board: morning exams start at 9 am and afternoon exams at 1.30 pm, South Australian time (8 am and 12.30 pm in the Northern Territory). Some subjects have additional time for reading only; schools get day-by-day instructions at the start of Term 4. Language exams run earlier in October.
Source: SACE examinations timetable 2026 (SACE Board), checked Wednesday 23 September 2026. Where a start time, reading time or duration isn't shown, the timetable doesn't publish it: check your personal timetable and the front of your paper.
What the exam covers
We don't have past-paper frequency data for this exam, so here is the course, module by module. Make sure every module is covered.
Night-before and exam-morning checklists
The night before
- Morning exams start at 9 am and afternoon exams at 1.30 pm, South Australian time.[1]
- Some subjects have extra time for reading only: check the day-by-day instructions your school gets at the start of Term 4.[1]
- Some exams are electronic: check with your school how yours runs.[1]
- Pack your equipment the night before, set two alarms and sleep.[2]
Exam-week survival kit: The last 7 days · The night before and exam morning · What to bring, and what's banned · How to use reading time · If you're sick or something goes wrong · Handling exam-week stress.
Last-week revision
SACE Biology cram sheet
Key formulas, definitions and facts copied from our Biology syllabus pages. One page when printed.
Topic 1: DNA and Proteins
A refinement of the simple lock-and-key idea. The active site is not perfectly rigid; it changes shape slightly to fit the substrate more snugly when the substrate binds, which helps catalyse the reaction.
Lactose acts as the inducer. The default state is off (repressor bound); the presence of the substrate turns the operon on. This lets bacteria respond rapidly to changes in their food supply.
Amplification lets scientists work with tiny starting samples - a single hair, a drop of blood, or trace cells at a crime scene - by producing enough DNA to analyse.
An insertion or deletion that is not a multiple of three bases, shifting the reading frame so that all subsequent codons are changed.
Topic 2: Cells as the Basis of Life
Photosynthesis stores energy by building glucose using carbon dioxide and water and releasing oxygen; respiration releases that energy by breaking glucose down using oxygen and producing carbon dioxide and water. The products of one are the reactants of the other.
Folding, branching and flattening all increase surface area relative to volume, raising the SA:V ratio so the rate of exchange can keep pace with demand.
DNA is copied exactly in S phase, and mitosis separates one copy of each chromosome into each daughter cell. So both daughter cells have the same number and type of chromosomes as the parent - they are genetically identical.
Aerobic respiration of one glucose molecule releases far more ATP (commonly stated as around 36 to 38 ATP at SACE level) than anaerobic respiration, which yields only the 2 ATP from glycolysis.
Topic 3: Homeostasis
ADH changes the permeability of the nephron to water, controlling how much is reabsorbed. More ADH conserves water (concentrated urine); less ADH loses water (dilute urine). This negative feedback keeps blood concentration near its set point.
A cell that has the specific receptor for a particular hormone and therefore responds to it. Cells lacking that receptor ignore the hormone.
A control mechanism in which a change in a variable triggers a response that reverses the change, returning the variable toward its set point.
A pair of specialised cells surrounding each stoma that change shape with their water content (turgor) to open or close the pore, controlling both gas exchange and water loss.
Topic 4: Evolution
In evolutionary terms, fitness is an organism's relative ability to survive and produce fertile offspring, not its physical strength. The "fittest" are simply those that leave the most offspring in their environment.
The principle gives the allele and genotype frequencies expected when nothing is changing. By comparing observed frequencies with these predictions, scientists can detect whether a population is evolving and estimate the frequency of carriers of recessive alleles.
The resistance mutation exists before the antibiotic is used. The antibiotic acts as the selection pressure, removing susceptible bacteria so that the pre-existing resistant ones increase in proportion.
A change in allele frequencies caused by random sampling of which individuals reproduce, with the strongest effect in small populations because chance is not averaged out.