The unit in one line
What a cell is, what each organelle is made of and does, and how cells divide. 5 of Botany's 40 questions over three chapters; the organelles note is the longest.
Read in this order
- Cell concept and cell theory (8 min) — Hooke to Virchow, and the prokaryote–eukaryote and plant–animal comparisons.
- Cell organelles (9 min) — the ten headings MEC lists, from the cell wall to cell inclusions.
- Cell cycle and cell division (9 min) — interphase and its checkpoints, mitosis, meiosis with the substages of prophase I, and why each division matters. The Genetics unit builds on it, so read it first.
About 25 minutes in all.
How it is asked
MEC sets the paper roughly half recall, a third understanding and a fifth application. Recall here is discoverers and dates, ribosome sizes, and which organelle is the suicide bag. Understanding is why mitochondria and chloroplasts are called semi-autonomous, or why meiosis keeps the chromosome number constant. Application is a described cell to name its phase, or a chromosome count to carry from one stage to the next.
Then practise
Each chapter has a fixed-length chapter test under Practice › Topics, drawn from questions written to that chapter's scope. Sit it after reading; a second sitting a week later shows whether it stuck.