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Topic 18: Variation and Selection

4 subtopics · Variation and mutation, adaptive features, and the five-step chain that earns natural-selection marks

📖 Open Full Study Guide → 🏆 Challenge Prep Guide — Master the tricky questions
Heads up — every Biology exam here is Challenge level. There are no standard mocks for Biology: all six papers for this topic are deliberately harder than a normal Cambridge paper. So read your scores in that light — a mark that looks low here would usually be higher on a real paper.
18.1
Variation and Mutation
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Continuous vs discontinuous, what causes each, and how new alleles are formed
18.2
Adaptive Features, Xerophytes and Hydrophytes
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Inherited features that help survival, and two plants built for opposite extremes
18.3
Natural Selection
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The five steps Cambridge marks, with antibiotic resistance as the worked example
18.4
Selective Breeding, and Natural vs Artificial
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Choosing, crossing and selecting over generations — and how it differs from natural selection
18.5
Exam Technique & the Vocabulary That Scores
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Populations become adapted; individuals do not. The phrasing is the mark
📝 Topic 18 Challenge Exams
3 × Paper 2 (MCQ) · 3 × Paper 4 (Theory) · all Challenge level
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