CAM Plants

[DrRoyal Pains]

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Do you guys think its too much to know all the aspects of C4 and CAM plants? Like how CO2 combines with OAA to form malic acid in CAM plants, but forms malate in C4 plants?

 

[jefff]

the A in CAM stands for acid...so that helps 🙂

i think knowing the differences between them is good...like:

C4 - CO2 is SPATIALLY segregated
CAM - CO2 is TEMPORALLY segregated (referring to time..)

C4 - mesophyll cell and bundle sheath cell
CAM - mesophyll cell and a vacuole (which stores the malic Acid until the day time -- hence the reference to segregation based on time)

im pretty sure they BOTH:***
-minimize water loss/transpiration
---C4: decrease in time needed for stomata to be open
---CAM: stomata open at night when the temp is lower

-minimize photorespiration byproducts
----due to the CO2 segregation

***can anyone confirm these last statements

 

[James Hetfield]

I can guarantee you with 99.99% certainty there will not be a question of that scope on the DAT, especially on plants. I studied it, never saw a single one regarding C4/CAM on DatQvault, Destroyer, Kaplan Online, or on the real exam.

I regret studying that much in depth for Bio, could have spent more time doing other stuff. Of course, someone feel free to correct me if they saw a question like that on the actual test.

 

[DrRoyal Pains]

Alright, I thought so. Thanks guys.

 

[jevan]

I can guarantee you with 99.99% certainty there will not be a question of that scope on the DAT, especially on plants. I studied it, never saw a single one regarding C4/CAM on DatQvault, Destroyer, Kaplan Online, or on the real exam.

I regret studying that much in depth for Bio, could have spent more time doing other stuff. Of course, someone feel free to correct me if they saw a question like that on the actual test.

I totally agree- never saw a single practice q on this topic in kaplan, topscore, achiever, destroyer or datqvault- nor did it come up on the exam... just bcs the cliffs AP bio book focuses on it doesnt mean the DAT focuses on it. I think there are a few more topics you should skip in the AP bio book-
1. plant hormones
2.classification of protists and fungi
and more i just cant recall right now..

 

[kster]

I'm not sure why people say you need to study plants (in particular the Cliff's AP Biology section on plants, which seems to be overkill) when it's only photosynthesis that's in the DAT scope of exam? KBB doesn't have a section on plants and only covers photosynthesis too.

 

[jevan]

I'm not sure why people say you need to study plants (in particular the Cliff's AP Biology section on plants, which seems to be overkill) when it's only photosynthesis that's in the DAT scope of exam? KBB doesn't have a section on plants and only covers photosynthesis too.

Kbb doesnt cover everything- I had to know some basic plant classification on my real DAT...and I only knew it bcs of the cliffs AP bio book (theres a reason why everybody studies from it)... dont throw the baby out with the bathwater- some plant stuff is overkill but most of it is extremely helpful...the trick is knowing what to focus on, and thats what these forums are for!

 

[AlbinoPolarBear]

Regarding the DAT bio section, LG2DS described it best as an Olympic sized swimming pool that is 1 foot deep.

A lot of random facts to memorize, but it's very broad and not detailed.

On my version of the DAT, out of 40 questions, around 35 were gimmes. Pretty straight forward. But 5 of the questions were insanely detailed that I wouldn't have known them if I studied for another month, some of which were not covered in Cliffs or Kaplan.

So if you are struggling with biology right now, I would skip the C4/CAM metabolism cycle and concentrate on understanding the other biology concepts (and there are many of them!). But if you have a firm grasp on biology and want to score 22+, then you would have to put an exponentially increased amount of effort to memorize all of these things in detail.

The general strategy I've seen on this forum is that they concentrate more energy on the 2 chems, because the scores are easier to be raised, and it'll inflate your Academic Average with lesser effort.

 

[Demps]

Regarding the DAT bio section, LG2DS described it best as an Olympic sized swimming pool that is 1 foot deep.

A lot of random facts to memorize, but it's very broad and not detailed.

On my version of the DAT, out of 40 questions, around 35 were gimmes. Pretty straight forward. But 5 of the questions were insanely detailed that I wouldn't have known them if I studied for another month, some of which were not covered in Cliffs or Kaplan.

So if you are struggling with biology right now, I would skip the C4/CAM metabolism cycle and concentrate on understanding the other biology concepts (and there are many of them!). But if you have a firm grasp on biology and want to score 22+, then you would have to put an exponentially increased amount of effort to memorize all of these things in detail.

The general strategy I've seen on this forum is that they concentrate more energy on the 2 chems, because the scores are easier to be raised, and it'll inflate your Academic Average with lesser effort.

Amen to that.

Same with my experience in BIO. 36/40 gimmes and 4 of them I would have never known even if I studied for another 2-3 months.