As the AQA A2 biology paper was featured on the BBC news last week, I feel it almost compulsory for me to comment and put my view in print. I followed the news story and Facebook discussions and eventually was able to obtain a copy of the paper. So, the main criticism made was that the paper didn't examine the syllabus, and I'm afraid that I don't agree. This paper was (i) quite difficult and (ii) quite different but I do think that it followed the syllabus.

What we had was a paper that didn't ask students to recite great tomes of biological fact and principle, but asked them to apply their knowledge of biology to given situations. The now legendary "shrew" question didn't require any knowledge at all about different species of the rodent, but asked students to apply their knowledge of data collection and interpretation to a given scenario - namely observing shrews in a habitat. The questions may not have been immediately obvious, but this is A2 biology and not GCSE.

I suspect that the grade boundaries will be quite low, because this style of paper has certainly not been seen in more recent years. Did I like this paper? Well, actually, yes I did. Do I think that we will see more of the same style? Well, yes I do - and we all need to be prepared for it.

There have been criticisms lately that A levels are becoming easier and that science education is no longer fit for purpose in terms of feeding universities or industry with appropriate science undergraduates. I think that this type of paper will turn that tide. So, let's get on with the task in hand of preparing for the June exam, but let's focus on the application of biological knowledge rather than regurgitation of large chunks of the text books.