GCSE Biology Practice Test 2 – 60 Questions with Answers (AQA 8461)

Work through all 60 GCSE questions, checking each answer as you go to build confidence for your AQA Biology exam.

Cell biology

Q1. What happens during mitosis?

  • (A) Two cells fuse to form one cell
  • (B) The cytoplasm divides without nuclear division
  • (C) The cell divides into four genetically different cells
  • (D) The nucleus divides to form two genetically identical cells
Show Answer

Answer: D – Mitosis produces two daughter cells genetically identical to the parent.

Q2. Which stage of the cell cycle comes before mitosis, when DNA is copied?

  • (A) Differentiation
  • (B) Interphase
  • (C) Cytokinesis
  • (D) Fertilisation
Show Answer

Answer: B – During interphase the DNA replicates so each new cell gets a full copy.

Q3. Why is mitosis important for growth?

  • (A) It increases the number of cells
  • (B) It produces gametes
  • (C) It removes damaged genes
  • (D) It reduces chromosome number
Show Answer

Answer: A – Growth needs more cells, produced by mitotic division.

Q4. Which cells in a plant can divide to form different plant tissues?

  • (A) Meristem cells
  • (B) Guard cells
  • (C) Root hair cells
  • (D) Leaf mesophyll cells
Show Answer

Answer: A – Meristems contain unspecialised plant stem cells.

Q5. What is diffusion?

  • (A) Movement of particles from high to low concentration down a gradient
  • (B) Movement of particles against a gradient using energy
  • (C) Movement of water through a partially permeable membrane
  • (D) Active uptake of ions by root cells
Show Answer

Answer: A – Diffusion is passive movement down a concentration gradient.

Q6. Which factor increases the rate of diffusion?

  • (A) A steeper concentration gradient
  • (B) A thicker membrane
  • (C) A smaller surface area
  • (D) A lower temperature
Show Answer

Answer: A – A steeper gradient gives faster net diffusion.

Q7. A red blood cell placed in pure water swells and bursts. Why?

  • (A) Salt diffuses out of the cell and it collapses
  • (B) Glucose moves into the cell using energy
  • (C) Water enters by osmosis because the cytoplasm is more concentrated than the water outside
  • (D) The cell membrane dissolves in pure water
Show Answer

Answer: C – Water moves by osmosis into the more concentrated cytoplasm, swelling the cell until it bursts.

Q8. A plant cell is placed in pure water. What happens?

  • (A) It bursts
  • (B) It becomes turgid
  • (C) It becomes plasmolysed
  • (D) It shrinks
Show Answer

Answer: B – Water enters by osmosis and the cell becomes firm, supported by the wall.

Organisation

Q9. What is the function of the large intestine?

  • (A) To absorb water from undigested food
  • (B) To produce bile
  • (C) To absorb glucose
  • (D) To digest protein
Show Answer

Answer: A – Water is absorbed in the large intestine, forming faeces.

Q10. Which blood vessel carries digested food from the small intestine to the liver?

  • (A) Pulmonary vein
  • (B) Hepatic artery
  • (C) Hepatic portal vein
  • (D) Renal vein
Show Answer

Answer: C – The hepatic portal vein carries nutrient-rich blood to the liver.

Q11. Which chamber of the heart pumps blood to the body?

  • (A) Left atrium
  • (B) Left ventricle
  • (C) Right atrium
  • (D) Right ventricle
Show Answer

Answer: B – The left ventricle has the thickest wall and pumps blood around the body.

Q12. Which blood vessel carries blood away from the heart to the lungs?

  • (A) Aorta
  • (B) Vena cava
  • (C) Pulmonary vein
  • (D) Pulmonary artery
Show Answer

Answer: D – The pulmonary artery carries deoxygenated blood to the lungs.

Q13. Which blood vessel carries blood at the highest pressure away from the heart to the body?

  • (A) Aorta
  • (B) Vena cava
  • (C) Pulmonary vein
  • (D) Capillary
Show Answer

Answer: A – The aorta carries oxygenated blood from the left ventricle around the body at high pressure.

Q14. What is the function of valves in the heart and veins?

  • (A) To filter blood
  • (B) To add oxygen
  • (C) To speed up blood
  • (D) To prevent backflow of blood
Show Answer

Answer: D – Valves ensure blood flows in one direction only.

Q15. Which type of blood vessel has the thickest muscular wall?

  • (A) Vein
  • (B) Capillary
  • (C) Artery
  • (D) Lymph vessel
Show Answer

Answer: C – Arteries withstand high pressure, so they have thick elastic walls.

Q16. Why do capillaries have a very large total surface area?

  • (A) To pump blood faster
  • (B) To allow rapid exchange of substances with tissues
  • (C) To store extra blood
  • (D) To withstand high pressure
Show Answer

Answer: B – A large surface area allows fast diffusion of oxygen, glucose and waste products between blood and tissues.

Q17. Which feature of red blood cells helps them carry oxygen efficiently?

  • (A) They contain haemoglobin and have a biconcave shape giving a large surface area
  • (B) They have a large nucleus
  • (C) They can divide rapidly in the blood
  • (D) They produce antibodies
Show Answer

Answer: A – Haemoglobin binds oxygen, and the biconcave shape gives a large surface area for diffusion.

Infection and response

Q18. Why does each antibody act against only one type of pathogen?

  • (A) Antibodies are too large to reach most pathogens
  • (B) Pathogens destroy all other antibodies
  • (C) Each antibody has a shape complementary to one specific antigen
  • (D) White blood cells only make one antibody each
Show Answer

Answer: C – An antibody fits the shape of its specific antigen, like a key fitting a lock.

Q19. How does vaccination protect a person?

  • (A) It replaces antibodies
  • (B) It prevents all infections for life
  • (C) It kills all bacteria in the body
  • (D) It stimulates white blood cells to make memory cells
Show Answer

Answer: D – Vaccination triggers memory cells for a faster second response.

Q20. Why is a second exposure to a pathogen dealt with faster?

  • (A) Skin is thicker
  • (B) Fever is higher
  • (C) Antibodies are larger
  • (D) Memory cells recognise it quickly
Show Answer

Answer: D – Memory lymphocytes give a rapid, larger response on re-exposure.

Q21. What does herd immunity mean?

  • (A) Pathogens disappear completely
  • (B) Antibiotics work better
  • (C) Everyone is vaccinated
  • (D) Enough people are immune that spread is limited, protecting those who cannot be vaccinated
Show Answer

Answer: D – High immunity levels break chains of transmission.

Q22. A patient with a viral cold is not given antibiotics. Why?

  • (A) Viruses are killed by vaccines only
  • (B) Antibiotics weaken the immune system
  • (C) Antibiotics do not kill viruses
  • (D) Antibiotics only work in hospitals
Show Answer

Answer: C – Antibiotics kill or prevent the growth of bacteria, but they have no effect on viruses.

Q23. Why should a course of antibiotics be completed?

  • (A) To avoid side effects
  • (B) To kill all bacteria and reduce resistant strains surviving
  • (C) To build memory cells
  • (D) To increase dosage
Show Answer

Answer: B – Stopping early can leave resistant bacteria alive to multiply.

Q24. What is antibiotic resistance?

  • (A) People become immune to antibiotics
  • (B) Bacteria evolve that are not killed by an antibiotic
  • (C) Antibiotics become weaker in storage
  • (D) Viruses learn to avoid drugs
Show Answer

Answer: B – Resistant bacteria survive treatment and pass on resistance.

Q25. Which is a way to reduce antibiotic resistance?

  • (A) Use antibiotics for colds
  • (B) Only use antibiotics when prescribed and needed
  • (C) Share antibiotics
  • (D) Stop courses early
Show Answer

Answer: B – Using antibiotics only when needed slows resistance.

Q26. What is the first stage of drug development?

  • (A) Testing on animals
  • (B) Finding a compound that works in the lab
  • (C) Large clinical trials
  • (D) Testing on healthy volunteers
Show Answer

Answer: B – New drugs are first tested on cells and tissues in the laboratory.

Bioenergetics

Q27. A plant lacks nitrate. Which symptom is likely?

  • (A) Purple stems only
  • (B) Wilting only
  • (C) Yellow leaves only from magnesium lack
  • (D) Stunted growth and pale leaves
Show Answer

Answer: D – Nitrate deficiency limits protein and growth, causing poor growth.

Q28. Which product of aerobic respiration is removed from the body by the lungs?

  • (A) Glucose
  • (B) Oxygen
  • (C) Carbon dioxide
  • (D) Lactic acid
Show Answer

Answer: C – Carbon dioxide diffuses from respiring tissues into the blood and is exhaled from the lungs.

Q29. Where in the cell does most aerobic respiration occur?

  • (A) Chloroplast
  • (B) Ribosome
  • (C) Nucleus
  • (D) Mitochondrion
Show Answer

Answer: D – Mitochondria are the main site of aerobic respiration.

Q30. What is anaerobic respiration in muscle cells?

  • (A) Glucose + oxygen -> carbon dioxide + water
  • (B) Glucose -> lactic acid (+ energy)
  • (C) Glucose -> ethanol + carbon dioxide
  • (D) Glucose -> oxygen + water
Show Answer

Answer: B – Without enough oxygen, muscle makes lactic acid.


Q31. Why does lactic acid build-up cause muscle fatigue?

  • (A) It increases oxygen supply
  • (B) It builds muscle
  • (C) It provides extra energy
  • (D) It lowers pH and affects muscle function
Show Answer

Answer: D – Lactic acid accumulation causes pain and fatigue.

Q32. What is oxygen debt?

  • (A) Oxygen lost in sweat
  • (B) Oxygen used in photosynthesis
  • (C) Oxygen stored in muscles
  • (D) Extra oxygen needed after exercise to break down lactic acid
Show Answer

Answer: D – After exercise, oxygen is needed to oxidise lactic acid to carbon dioxide and water.

Q33. What is anaerobic respiration in yeast called?

  • (A) Digestion
  • (B) Fermentation
  • (C) Photosynthesis
  • (D) Respiration
Show Answer

Answer: B – Yeast fermentation produces ethanol and carbon dioxide.

Q34. Which gas makes bread dough rise?

  • (A) Nitrogen
  • (B) Carbon dioxide
  • (C) Hydrogen
  • (D) Oxygen
Show Answer

Answer: B – Carbon dioxide from yeast fermentation forms bubbles in dough.

Q35. Which process releases the most energy per glucose molecule?

  • (A) Aerobic respiration
  • (B) Photosynthesis
  • (C) Fermentation
  • (D) Anaerobic respiration
Show Answer

Answer: A – Aerobic respiration fully breaks down glucose, releasing more energy.

Homeostasis and response

Q36. How is information passed across a synapse?

  • (A) By hormones in blood
  • (B) By direct cell fusion
  • (C) By electrical current only
  • (D) By chemicals (neurotransmitters) diffusing across the gap
Show Answer

Answer: D – Chemicals diffuse across the synaptic gap to the next neurone.

Q37. Which sense organ contains light receptors?

  • (A) Tongue
  • (B) Ear
  • (C) Eye
  • (D) Skin
Show Answer

Answer: C – The retina of the eye contains light-sensitive cells.

Q38. A person walks out of a dark room into bright sunlight. What happens to their pupils?

  • (A) The pupils dilate to let in more light
  • (B) The lenses thicken
  • (C) The pupils constrict to reduce the light entering
  • (D) The irises become transparent
Show Answer

Answer: C – Iris muscles contract to make the pupil smaller, protecting the retina from too much light.

Q39. What happens to the pupil in bright light?

  • (A) It constricts
  • (B) It stays the same
  • (C) It changes colour
  • (D) It dilates
Show Answer

Answer: A – The iris muscles constrict the pupil to reduce light entering.

Q40. What is accommodation in the eye?

  • (A) Moving the eye
  • (B) Producing tears
  • (C) Changing pupil size
  • (D) Changing lens shape to focus on near or distant objects
Show Answer

Answer: D – Ciliary muscles alter lens shape for focusing.

Q41. Which hormone controls blood glucose?

  • (A) Insulin
  • (B) Thyroxine
  • (C) Oestrogen
  • (D) Adrenaline
Show Answer

Answer: A – Insulin lowers blood glucose by promoting uptake and storage.

Q42. What does glucagon do?

  • (A) Lowers blood pressure
  • (B) Increases heart rate
  • (C) Lowers blood glucose
  • (D) Raises blood glucose by converting glycogen to glucose
Show Answer

Answer: D – Glucagon from the pancreas raises blood glucose.

Q43. Which gland produces insulin?

  • (A) Adrenal
  • (B) Pancreas
  • (C) Pituitary
  • (D) Thyroid
Show Answer

Answer: B – Islets in the pancreas secrete insulin.

Q44. In type 1 diabetes, what is the problem?

  • (A) The pancreas produces little or no insulin
  • (B) Cells ignore insulin only
  • (C) Too much glucagon only
  • (D) Too much insulin
Show Answer

Answer: A – Type 1 diabetes is insulin deficiency, often from childhood.

Inheritance, variation and evolution

Q45. What does homozygous mean?

  • (A) No alleles
  • (B) Two different alleles
  • (C) Two identical alleles for a gene
  • (D) One allele only
Show Answer

Answer: C – Homozygous means both alleles are the same.

Q46. What does heterozygous mean?

  • (A) Two identical alleles
  • (B) Two different alleles
  • (C) Two chromosomes
  • (D) Two genes
Show Answer

Answer: B – Heterozygous means alleles differ.

Q47. If brown eyes (B) are dominant over blue eyes (b), what is the phenotype of Bb?

  • (A) Green eyes
  • (B) No eyes
  • (C) Blue eyes
  • (D) Brown eyes
Show Answer

Answer: D – The dominant allele is expressed in heterozygotes.

Q48. A cross between two heterozygous pea plants (Tt x Tt) for tall (T) dominant: what proportion of offspring are short (tt)?

  • (A) 1 in 4
  • (B) 3 in 4
  • (C) All
  • (D) 1 in 2
Show Answer

Answer: A – The Punnett square gives TT, Tt, Tt, tt: 1 in 4 are tt.

Q49. A cross Bb x bb (B dominant) gives what ratio of dominant to recessive phenotypes?

  • (A) All recessive
  • (B) 3:1
  • (C) 1:1
  • (D) All dominant
Show Answer

Answer: C – Half the offspring are Bb and half bb.

Q50. What determines the sex of a human baby?

  • (A) Temperature
  • (B) The mother’s egg only
  • (C) Whether the father’s sperm carries X or Y
  • (D) The mother’s diet
Show Answer

Answer: C – XX is female and XY is male; the sperm determines sex.

Q51. What is the chance of a baby being a boy?

  • (A) Always
  • (B) 1 in 4
  • (C) 1 in 2
  • (D) 3 in 4
Show Answer

Answer: C – Half of sperm carry Y, giving a 50 percent chance.

Q52. What is variation?

  • (A) Identical offspring
  • (B) Mutation only
  • (C) Evolution only
  • (D) Differences between individuals of a species
Show Answer

Answer: D – Variation is differences within a species.

Ecology

Q53. In a food chain grass -> rabbit -> fox, what is the fox?

  • (A) Producer
  • (B) Primary consumer
  • (C) Secondary consumer
  • (D) Decomposer
Show Answer

Answer: C – The fox eats the primary consumer, so it is secondary.

Q54. At each trophic level, most energy is lost from the food chain. In which form is much of this energy lost?

  • (A) As light
  • (B) As heat from respiration and in waste material
  • (C) As glucose stored in the body
  • (D) As sound
Show Answer

Answer: B – Energy is lost as heat during respiration and in egested material, so little passes to the next level.

Q55. How is energy lost between trophic levels?

  • (A) Through respiration, excretion, egestion and movement
  • (B) Only by heat from the Sun
  • (C) It is not lost
  • (D) Only by death
Show Answer

Answer: A – Much energy is transferred to the environment or in waste.

Q56. Approximately what percentage of energy is transferred to the next trophic level?

  • (A) About 10 percent
  • (B) About 1 percent
  • (C) About 90 percent
  • (D) About 50 percent
Show Answer

Answer: A – Roughly 10 percent passes on; most is lost.

Q57. In a food web, what happens to a predator if one of its prey species declines but it also eats other species?

  • (A) It can still feed on its other prey, so it is less affected than in a single food chain
  • (B) It dies out immediately
  • (C) Its numbers always increase
  • (D) It becomes a producer
Show Answer

Answer: A – Food webs give predators alternative food sources, making them more stable than a single food chain.

Q58. Which organisms break down dead material and return nutrients to soil?

  • (A) Producers
  • (B) Decomposers such as bacteria and fungi
  • (C) Primary consumers
  • (D) Predators
Show Answer

Answer: B – Decomposers recycle nutrients.

Q59. What is the role of decomposers in the carbon cycle?

  • (A) They make glucose
  • (B) They fix carbon dioxide
  • (C) They release carbon dioxide by respiration as they decay material
  • (D) They absorb carbon
Show Answer

Answer: C – Decomposer respiration returns carbon dioxide to the air.

Q60. How is carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere?

  • (A) By decomposition
  • (B) By animal respiration
  • (C) By photosynthesis
  • (D) By combustion
Show Answer

Answer: C – Photosynthesis takes in carbon dioxide to make glucose.

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