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If you could drop a topic or few from A-level biology, what would it/they be?

It may come to no surprise to some of you that I loathe learning about plants and ecology in the A-level biology syllabus.

My favorite topics were cell histology, immunology, genetics and the cardiovascular system.

It's a huge subject and there are bound to be topics that people gravitate to less than others. So I pose the titular question: If you could drop a topic or few from A-level biology, what would it/they be?

And is there anything you perhaps feel should have been included instead?

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Less human biology, more ecology :tongue:

Original post by Kvothe the arcane
It may come to no surprise to some of you that I loathe learning about plants and ecology in the A-level biology syllabus.

My favorite topics were cell histology, immunology, genetics and the cardiovascular system.

It's a huge subject and there are bound to be topics that people gravitate to less than others. So I pose the titular question: If you could drop a topic or few from A-level biology, what would it/they be?

And is there anything you perhaps feel should have been included instead?
Reply 2
Avatar for NT226
NT226
7
Original post by Kvothe the arcane
It may come to no surprise to some of you that I loathe learning about plants and ecology in the A-level biology syllabus.

My favorite topics were cell histology, immunology, genetics and the cardiovascular system.

It's a huge subject and there are bound to be topics that people gravitate to less than others. So I pose the titular question: If you could drop a topic or few from A-level biology, what would it/they be?

And is there anything you perhaps feel should have been included instead?

I would definitely drop most of ecology - it's my worst topic and my exam this year was nearly all on ecology
Cells. :tongue:
DNA technology because its the one bit which I never sat down and learnt :frown: too much stuff. I'd keep ecology even though I don't like it cause its easy marks haha
From what I can remember from as bio I would defo drop the topic on plants :frown:
Reply 6
Avatar for kkboyk
kkboyk
21
I feel that everything there was a good introduction to a wide variety of different topics within Biological Sciences.

But one thing I would definitely get rid of is all the Ecology stuff, as it was too simple (despite the fact I struggle on this lol) and wasn't really any different to GCSE.
Reply 7
Avatar for fefssdf
fefssdf
20
everything apart from knowing the parts of a cell
Original post by Kvothe the arcane
It may come to no surprise to some of you that I loathe learning about plants and ecology in the A-level biology syllabus.

My favorite topics were cell histology, immunology, genetics and the cardiovascular system.

It's a huge subject and there are bound to be topics that people gravitate to less than others. So I pose the titular question: If you could drop a topic or few from A-level biology, what would it/they be?

And is there anything you perhaps feel should have been included instead?


I wouldn't drop anything:colonhash: - but I would add more neuroscience. I finished my Biomed BSc at UCL, specialising in neuroscience, and its very sad how A-Level Biology does not even explain how the human brain actually works!!!:angry:... very sad indeed...:frown:

:tongue::wink:
Biodiversity, plants..all that stuff...
Original post by Kvothe the arcane
It may come to no surprise to some of you that I loathe learning about plants and ecology in the A-level biology syllabus.

My favorite topics were cell histology, immunology, genetics and the cardiovascular system.

It's a huge subject and there are bound to be topics that people gravitate to less than others. So I pose the titular question: If you could drop a topic or few from A-level biology, what would it/they be?

And is there anything you perhaps feel should have been included instead?


I loved plants! Plants was an awesome topic to learn about!

I'd drop immunology; I hated that. :colonhash:
I'd also drop DNA technology, just because it seemed big and tedious to learn [about.]

I'd include toxicology in the spec just because it sounds so awesome. :biggrin: (Although it'd be entirely irrelevant to nearly/nigh everyone.) :yep:
I would drop plants/biodiversity and those dihybrid/monohybrid test cross things. I love the rest.
The entirety of biology.

Spoiler

Original post by UCLScienceMan365
I wouldn't drop anything:colonhash: - but I would add more neuroscience. I finished my Biomed BSc at UCL, specialising in neuroscience, and its very sad how A-Level Biology does not even explain how the human brain actually works!!!:angry:... very sad indeed...:frown:

:tongue::wink:


That's really cool! I'm hoping to do Biomed. How's Biomed in UCL?
Original post by UCLScienceMan365
I wouldn't drop anything:colonhash: - but I would add more neuroscience. I finished my Biomed BSc at UCL, specialising in neuroscience, and its very sad how A-Level Biology does not even explain how the human brain actually works!!!:angry:... very sad indeed...:frown:

:tongue::wink:


Neuroscience is something that interests me too. What's it like, studying Biomed at UCL?
Original post by sameehaiqbal
i would drop plants/biodiversity and those dihybrid/monohybrid test cross things. I love the rest.


yes same thank you!
ALL of the plants, basically.

Spoiler

Agreed about the ecology stuff, it's all very basic (and boring).


Original post by Salamandastron
The entirety of biology.

Spoiler



Snap :five:
Original post by _4everfaithful__
That's really cool! I'm hoping to do Biomed. How's Biomed in UCL?



its great!
the course is very broad and flexible

some people do clinical human biology because they want to get into medicine/surgery
some because does biochem to work in drugs/pharmaceuticals
some people like plants
some people like anatomy and sports physiology
i specialized in computational and cognitive neurosciences - it's so cool! i might do my phd in that!:smile::smile::h:

but the course is very intellectually demanding!!!!!!!! :wink::redface:
you need to read a lot of seminal research papers, and write your own!!:s-smilie:

:smile:
Original post by Wolfram Alpha
Neuroscience is something that interests me too. What's it like, studying Biomed at UCL?


its great!
the course is very broad and flexible

some people do clinical human biology because they want to get into medicine/surgery
some because does biochem to work in drugs/pharmaceuticals
some people like plants
some people like anatomy and sports physiology
i specialized in computational and cognitive neurosciences - it's so cool! i might do my phd in that!

but the course is very intellectually demanding!!!!!!!!
you need to read a lot of seminal research papers, and write your own!!



-------
Also extra bit for Neuroscience - UCL is ranked top 10 in world in research power & citations for neuro (alongside ox, cam, imperial, and other non-uk unis eg. usa: stanford, caltech, mit, harvard):biggrin:

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