This topic asks a basic question: what makes something living, and how do we sort the variety of living things? It sits at the start of IGCSE Biology 0610, and later topics such as cells, nutrition and inheritance all use its vocabulary. Check the current syllabus on the Cambridge subject page for the exact wording.
What should you know before you start?
You need very little. Everyday knowledge of animals, plants and their obvious features is enough. Careful reading of wording is the main skill, so keep a pencil ready to underline the feature a question gives you.
An orienting example
Here is a short question that uses the whole topic in miniature. The organism is invented for practice.
A pond organism is a single cell. It has a nucleus and chloroplasts and it moves by a thread-like tail. Is it alive, and which group does it belong to?
- The organism moves and, given light, makes food. Two life processes are shown, movement and nutrition, so it is a living organism. This is the reasoning in distinguishing a life process from a single observation.
- It has a nucleus, so it is not a prokaryote, and it is single-celled with chloroplasts, so it fits a protoctist. That is the reasoning in explaining classification by shared features.
Notice that neither answer used the habitat or the name.
In which order should you study the lessons?
- Distinguish a life process from a single observation: this gives you the test for what counts as living.
- Use a simple identification key: it practises reading features, one step at a time.
- Explain classification by shared features: this turns features into groups.
- Interpret a scientific name: it shows how names record those groups.
- Compare virus and cell descriptions: this tests your structure knowledge on something that is not a cell.
When you finish, work through the mixed practice set. The cell structures in the last lesson continue in cells and microscopy.
What are the common traps?
- Judging by one feature. Movement or growth alone does not prove that something is alive.
- Using habitat for classification. A whale lives in the sea, but it is a mammal.
- Reading keys from memory. Follow the statements on the page, in order.
- Naming errors. Capitalise the genus, use lower case for the species, and compare the genus for relatedness.
- Saying too much about viruses. State the structure and the need for a host cell, and stop there.
How should you use the practice set?
Attempt the questions with the answers covered, then read the worked answers for reasoning, not only the final word. The routing table at the end of the set sends each type of error back to one lesson.
If you want a teacher to go through your answers with you, our page on online one-to-one Biology tuition explains how the paid one-hour trial works.