What this practice covers
These questions are drawn from past CIE 9700 Biology papers and filtered to fluid mosaic membranes. You answer, you find out immediately whether you were right, and you get the reasoning for the correct option and for each distractor. Wrong answers go to a mistakes locker so you can come back to exactly those.
Practice is free. You need an account only so your progress and your mistakes are still there next time.
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What examiners see students get wrong here
These are the errors that cost marks on fluid mosaic membranes, taken from our own topic notes. Read them before you practise and you will recognise the traps in the questions.
- Saying the membrane is "made of phospholipids and proteins" without saying the phospholipids form a bilayer with heads outward.
- Putting hydrophilic tails and hydrophobic heads the wrong way round. The phosphate head is hydrophilic.
- Saying cholesterol only makes the membrane less fluid. It works in both directions.
- Saying carbohydrate chains are found on both surfaces. They face outward only.
- Saying water cannot cross the bilayer at all. It crosses slowly, and faster through aquaporin channels.
Revise it first
If any of the above is unfamiliar, work through the notes before practising: Fluid mosaic membranes revision notes.