TABLE 3.

Sample high-level tested and untested items

	Unit exam item	Final exam item
Tested item (content: photosynthesis)	You are trying a risky experiment with your newly purchased beta fish. You obtain a large glass jar with a lid and fill it with water, soil, an Elodea plant (an aquarium plant), some plankton (little invertebrates who eat algae), some algal spores (photosynthetic, single-celled eukaryotes), and your fish. You then seal the lid and hope for the best. What ingredient are you missing in order for this ecosystem to thrive? a) Oxygen b) A food source for your fish c) Sunlight d) Carbon dioxide	If green algae cells in a buffer solution containing only inorganic salts are placed in a sealed container at room temperature with excess carbon dioxide gas and exposed to light, the cells will a) Live for many hours and multiply. b) Live for several hours, but fail to multiply because there is no source of carbon in the buffer solution. c) Live for several hours, but fail to multiply because no oxygen is present. d) Die rapidly, because no oxygen is present.
Untested item (content: cell cycle regulation)	(No unit exam item)	The passage of a cell through the checkpoints of the cell cycle is tightly controlled by the manufacture of a protein called cyclin. As cyclin concentrations build up, they bind to an ever-present enzyme, cyclin-dependent kinase (cdk) that activates the cell cycle. To turn the cell cycle off, cyclin is destroyed. Cancer would most likely be caused by a) An inactivation of the cyclin gene b) An inactivation of the cdk gene c) An overactivation of the cyclin gene d) An overactivation of the cdk gene e) Both a and b would cause cancer f) Both c and d would cause cancer