错误做法:

Listing egestion as a characteristic of living organisms, or defining excretion as removal of undigested food.

原因:

Egestion is the removal of undigested food that never entered cells, not metabolic waste, so it is not a core characteristic.

正确做法:

Only list excretion as a characteristic, and define it as the removal of metabolic waste produced by cell reactions.

错误做法:

Writing only the MRS C GREN mnemonic letters in exam answers instead of the full characteristic names.

原因:

Mark schemes do not award marks for the mnemonic alone, you must use the full specification terminology.

正确做法:

Use the mnemonic to recall the characteristics, but write out the full name of each characteristic in your answer.

错误做法:

Stating that viruses are living because they can reproduce.

原因:

Viruses only reproduce inside a living host cell, and do not exhibit any of the other 7 core characteristics of living organisms.

正确做法:

Classify viruses as non-living, and justify by explaining they only carry out reproduction inside a host, and lack all other 7 characteristics.

错误做法:

Claiming that plants are not living because they do not move from place to place.

原因:

The definition of movement includes moving parts of the organism, not moving the entire body. Plants move their leaves towards sunlight, for example.

正确做法:

Reference that plants exhibit movement (e.g. sun tracking, root growth) as one of their characteristics.

错误做法:

Using non-specification terminology for characteristics, e.g. writing 'homeostasis' instead of 'control their internal conditions' when asked to list the 8 characteristics.

原因:

The Edexcel specification explicitly uses the phrase 'control their internal conditions' for this characteristic, and mark schemes may reject non-standard terminology for direct list questions.

正确做法:

Use the exact wording from the specification when listing the 8 characteristics, and only use the term homeostasis if specifically asked for it in later questions on the topic.