The Heart and Monitoring Heart Function | OCR A-Level Biology B (Advancing Biology) (H422)
The Heart and Monitoring Heart Function
- 92 questions
- 6 subtopics
- Further biology content, examined on all three papers
- Component 01, Component 02 and Component 03
The Heart and Monitoring Heart Function is examined in all three written papers — the specification states that Components 01, 02 and 03 can each assess content from any of the five modules, so nothing is confined to one paper.
It covers the need for a mass transport system, structure and dissection of the mammalian heart, the cardiac cycle, initiation and coordination of the heartbeat, heart rate, pulse rate and cardiac output and electrocardiograms and emergency cardiac treatment.
Sample questions from The Heart and Monitoring Heart Function
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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The need for a mass transport system
Explain why a small surface area to volume ratio makes diffusion alone inadequate in a mammal.
Show the answer
There is too little exchange surface for the mass of respiring tissue, and the distances from the surface to the innermost cells are far too great for diffusion to supply oxygen quickly enough. -
The need for a mass transport system
Name three substances that the mammalian mass transport system delivers to respiring tissues.
Show the answer
Oxygen, glucose and amino acids. -
Structure and dissection of the mammalian heart
Which valve lies between the left atrium and the left ventricle?
Show the answer
The bicuspid valve, which is also called the mitral valve. -
Structure and dissection of the mammalian heart
How can the left ventricle of an intact dissected heart be identified without cutting it open?
Show the answer
Its wall feels much thicker and firmer, so that side of the heart resists being squeezed between the fingers. -
The cardiac cycle
Explain why the semilunar valves close at the end of ventricular systole.
Show the answer
The ventricles relax and their pressure falls below the arterial pressure, so blood begins to flow backwards and fills the valve cusps, snapping them shut. -
The cardiac cycle
What produces the two heart sounds heard through a stethoscope?
Show the answer
The first sound is the atrioventricular valves closing at the start of ventricular systole, and the second is the semilunar valves closing at the start of diastole. -
Initiation and coordination of the heartbeat
Where is the atrio-ventricular node found?
Show the answer
In the septum at the base of the right atrium, on the boundary between the atria and the ventricles. -
Initiation and coordination of the heartbeat
Why must the two ventricles contract at the same time?
Show the answer
The same volume of blood has to be pushed into the pulmonary and systemic circulations each beat, or blood would accumulate in one of them.
The 6 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| The need for a mass transport system | Recall questions on mass transport systems, why single-celled organisms manage by diffusion, surface area to volume ratio and its calculation, how size, multicellularity and metabolic rate create a need for mass transport, and what the mammalian blood system carries. | 13 |
| Structure and dissection of the mammalian heart | Recall questions on the four chambers and the vessels entering and leaving them, the thick left ventricle wall, the septum, the bicuspid and tricuspid valves and tendinous cords, the coronary arteries, and identifying, dissecting and drawing a mammalian heart safely. | 15 |
| The cardiac cycle | Recall questions on the three stages in order, what opens and closes each set of valves, pressure during diastole, the heart sounds, and calculations from a cycle's timing. | 15 |
| Initiation and coordination of the heartbeat | Recall questions on why cardiac muscle is called myogenic, how excitation spreads across the atria, the reason for the delay before the ventricles, the route down the septum, and pacemakers. | 14 |
| Heart rate, pulse rate and cardiac output | Recall questions on stroke volume and calculating cardiac output, the low resting heart rate of athletes, what a pulse is and how to take one, primary and secondary data, and how heart rate and stroke volume change during and after exercise, with the variables to control. | 16 |
| Electrocardiograms and emergency cardiac treatment | Recall questions on the P wave, QRS complex and T wave of an ECG, calculating heart rate, tachycardia and bradycardia, S-T elevation, ventricular and atrial fibrillation, first aid and aspirin for a heart attack, cardiac arrest and CPR, and how a defibrillator works. | 19 |
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Nearby topics
OCR A-Level Biology B (Advancing Biology) Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 2,895 questions with their answers.