WACE Biology exam 2026Exam: Mon 9 Nov · SCSA timetable
Your WACE Biology exam:
When and how long
- Biology2.00 pm start3 h plus 10 min reading time
SCSA: arrive 30 minutes before the examination start time. Every ATAR written exam has 10 minutes reading time and 3 hours working time unless otherwise indicated. The timetable is final, and no allowance is made for misreading it.
Source: 2026 Year 12 ATAR course written examinations timetable (SCSA), 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
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
WACE Biology cram sheet
Key formulas, definitions and facts copied from our Biology syllabus pages. One page when printed.
Unit 3: Continuity of Species
In mitosis, sister chromatids separate once and the chromosome number stays diploid. In meiosis, homologous chromosomes separate in meiosis I (halving the number) and sister chromatids separate in meiosis II.
Gene pool: all the alleles in a population. Genetic drift: random change in allele frequencies. Gene flow: movement of alleles between populations. Bottleneck: a sharp reduction in population size that lowers genetic diversity.
Natural selection: differential survival and reproduction based on heritable variation. Selection pressure: an environmental factor affecting survival and reproduction. Fitness: an individual's reproductive success. Adaptation: an inherited trait that improves fitness in a given environment.
Vector: a DNA molecule (often a plasmid) used to carry a gene into a host cell. Recombinant DNA: DNA combined from two sources. Transgenic: containing a gene from another species. DNA profile: the banding pattern used to identify individuals.
Unit 4: Surviving in a Changing Environment
Pathogen: a disease-causing agent. Host: an organism that a pathogen lives in or on. Vector: an organism that transmits a pathogen between hosts. Infectious disease: a disease that can be transmitted between organisms.
Transpiration: loss of water vapour from a plant, mainly through stomata. Guard cells: paired cells that open and close a stoma. Abscisic acid (ABA): hormone that closes stomata under water stress. Tropism: a directional growth response to a stimulus.
Active immunity is slow to develop but long-lasting because it produces memory cells. Passive immunity is immediate but short-lived because the borrowed antibodies are used up and no memory cells are made. This is why antivenom protects at once but does not give lasting immunity.
Direct transmission: pathogen passing straight between hosts. Indirect transmission: pathogen passing via an intermediate. Vector: a living organism that carries a pathogen between hosts. Fomite: a contaminated object that transmits a pathogen.