Matric Life Sciences past papers, marked

Life Sciences rewards the exact term and a short, precise explanation. Our November 2024 Paper 1 set has 81 questions worth 150 marks, split by topic as human responses to the environment (52), human reproduction (41), endocrine system and homeostasis (34), plant responses to the environment (13), reproduction in vertebrates (8) and scientific investigation and graphs (2). Of the 150 marks, 96 are for recalling facts and terms, 31 for explaining, 21 for reading data from diagrams, tables and graphs, 1 for method and working and 1 for the correct final answer. Many questions are only one or two marks, so each answer needs the key word the marker is looking for.

The Department of Basic Education’s 2024 Diagnostic Report for Paper 1 lists these mistakes among others: explaining what a hormone does when the question asks why its level changes, writing only the letter or only the name of a labelled part, describing a graph with numbers when the trend was asked for, and naming variables wrongly in investigations. Use the topic pages below to practise one area at a time.