Heredity B/Designer Genes C

[reesabp]

Yah. That test for DG was ridiculous. It was like a regional test with 2 questions that were "national-level" content (the one mtDNA and the one on DNA repair). Other than that...it was regional test. Not exactly "every- attempt made to avoid over-emphasis on a particular area." Ugggggg... So much for studying for NSO.

[The Eviscerator]

Yeah, it was pretty disappointing. I just had the streak of the worst luck at the national tournament this year, and it was my last tournament ever... got 6 hours of sleep due to sickness on Thursday and Friday (If you saw a kid with a box of Kleenex that lost his voice, that was me), the unfortunately written Designer Genes test, and new Remote Sensing test writer that pretty much avoided following the rules.

[frogzorz]

Yeah, my partner and I walked out of that test feeling we could have gotten any place...because it was that easy. I was actually pretty disappointed because, in the moment, it felt like I wasted all the hours I spent stressing and studying for Genes for a test I could have easily done without any studying whatsoever. I'm still extremely proud of the material I learned, though, and I do not regret a single minute I studied for Genes.

If Heather McKean is proctoring it again next year, I would definitely suggest making a longer test in station format (like tests from earlier national tournaments). I'd really like to thank her for taking the time to proctor Designer Genes this year, but with all due respect, the test from this year was not at the difficulty level I would expect a Nationals test to be at.

EDIT: I just realized that the last two posts behind me began with "yeah" as well hahaha

Also, I think the test should not have asked about amino acids without providing a codon chart (because that's common courtesy/nice in general), but we put a codon chart on our cheat sheet just in case that happened.

[arooj1a2b3c]

Quick question for general designer genes knowledge. When calculating the probability of a child getting a rare recessive disease, given the genotype of the mother but not the father, do you assume the father could have the rare recessive allele if the question stated that the disease began with the mother's family (i.e. the mother's father originally had the disease/ got the rare allele). This kind of confused me at state.

[Luo]

got 6 hours of sleep due to sickness on Thursday and Friday

Haha if someone on our team got 6 hours of sleep in the days before a big tournament, they'd be getting by far the most sleep of anyone on our team. Not that that's a good thing though

[gneissisnice]

Quick question for general designer genes knowledge. When calculating the probability of a child getting a rare recessive disease, given the genotype of the mother but not the father, do you assume the father could have the rare recessive allele if the question stated that the disease began with the mother's family (i.e. the mother's father originally had the disease/ got the rare allele). This kind of confused me at state.

In my Genetics class, at least, the professor told us that if a disease was "rare", you would assume that anyone marrying into the family does NOT have it. So the question says that the mother's father is infected, the mother might have it but you would assume that her husband does not.