This is normally a major problem for students who are taking IB Biology since there is a type of questions known as the database analysis in Paper 2. Students are required to understand the message behind the given data set, graphs or lines and answer questions accordingly.
To me, my advice is that if you are not so confident in the database questions, try to skip those first and finish the questions that are knowledge based, like the structural questions as well as the essay type questions. As long as you have built a certain level of confidence and have run the brain for a period of time, then you can start doing the database questions using the remaining time. This is a classic way from teachers' suggestion.
When handling the database questions, first and foremost, read completely and carefully the given situation and setting. Try to get familiarize with the background and understand every sentence from the given situation. Students always do the database questions too fast, they think that spending long time in reading the question background is not worthy as usually the setting is really long and it can occupy 1 whole page of paper. So, they feel annoyed about the long description of the background setting.
I think this is starting with a wrong approach already. For me, I would suggest students to understand every sentence word by word effectively. Try only read the paragraph once, but this reading must be complete in terms of understanding every word's meaning as long as the paragraph idea. This is much more efficient than skipping the reading of background and then jump to the questions. Then they realized they don't know what is asking, and then get back to the previous background setting and read repeatedly. This is even more time consuming than my suggested approach. So, try to follow the flow and arrangement of the question, taste and understand every sentence given. Understand what the writer is going to deliver first before reading the questions.
In terms of the graph interpretation, we do similar approach. After reading the background, spend like 1 or 2 minutes just focused on the graphs, lines or other format of data presentation, and ask yourself: What is the message that the writer wants to deliver? How this graph is linked to the experimental objective? What is the conclusion about those graphs? Sometimes, it is quite obvious that there is already a trend we can spot out, like a positive correlation, inverse relationship, etc. But this is not as always. So, before reading the questions, don't rush. We should have a complete understanding of what the database is about, what the experiment is used for and what is the writer wants to deliver before handling the questions. Sometimes, you may even realize that the thinking process is actually what they are asking when finally read the questions. If this is the case, congratulations! You now know how people set questions and get improvements on this type of questions.
Last but not least, practice makes perfect. Try doing more past papers to get used to this way of thinking and apply them in real situations. You will find it very useful.
Hope this article is helpful for those who are struggling on the database questions !
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