Biology Olympiad success 2022
Posted on: March 29th 2022School News
Congratulations to all of our pupils who took part in this year's Biology Olympiad run by the Royal Society of Biology.
Over 10,000 students from more than 700 schools worldwide took part in this year's competition, and it is testament to the hard work of the MGS pupils who achieved Commended, Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards.
Well done to Theodore T and Frank D who achieved Gold, to Hunter S who received a Silver Award, to Sabih N, Saran D and Marcus N who achieved Bronze Awards and to Roy H and Karam K who were Commended.
Roy commented: "Biology Olympiad provides me with a great opportunity to enhance my outside knowledge and encourage me to do more outside reading, including genetic engineering , respiration and photosynthesis beyond the A level syllabus, demonstrating how the content can be used to explain real world phenomenon as well as exploring new ways to biomedical treatment, these all piqued my interest and gives me faith to take biology a step further, and hopefully pursue a career in medicine".
Theodore spoke about the useful preparation for university admissions which the Olympiad provided, saying; "The two papers – the first covering basic A-level knowledge and understanding, the second containing problem-solving questions – covered all aspects of the A-level course, including biochemistry, plant and mammalian physiology, genetics, and ecology. Some questions required careful consideration of multiple-choice options, and others required calculations, under appreciable time pressure; most questions, however, involved application of A-level knowledge to novel and topical situations, such as qPCR testing for COVID-19, and metabolic pathways in deep-water plants. I am very grateful to the school and the RSB for facilitating the Olympiad this year, and for providing an insight into and good preparation for A2 topics and the sorts of questions likely to appear at university interview".
Saran gave an insight into the pressured environment of the exam: "I felt that the experience was quite stressful, but at the same time rewarding. This helped to develop and consolidate my knowledge of A-level biology and pushed it past the limit. It was quite difficult because of the similarity in the answers for the multiple choice questions and the complicated calculations. Overall, I enjoyed doing the Biology Olympiad as I learnt more than what is normally taught in the curriculum, nothing important for the specification but still very interesting, and I had the opportunity to think more logically rather than using the base knowledge. I would recommend doing Biology Olympiad because of the value of having attempted it and there are no negative outcomes if you choose to try it".
