[xamiexpokex]

I really don't know what to do for biology, there is just SO MUCH content and I know I won't be able to revise every single detail! In previous mocks I have only been getting level 2s, I need some help or advice, even any tips that I could do to improve my score apart from the obvious 'revise' tip.

One of the biggest problems I am facing which is bringing my mark down drastically is the graph questions! It must be the way I am answering but I always seem to either get zero or one marks for the graph questions and I just don't know how to get that any higher =/

Help would be much appreciated.. Thanks.

[ElationAndPathways]

Yes. Story of Biology's life. There's just soooooo much to learn :-/

One thing ive been doing the last time i went through everything is making acronyms for certain things so that theyre easier to remember. Eg for the things blood transports around the body i remember CHAUN and the functions of membrane proteins i remember HEEAP and for the last piece of evidence for evolution I remember SDHC (the type of memory card) and DB - Striking Differences in the Heritable Characteristics of Domesticated Breeds show us that species can evolve very rapidly (I just memorise the sentence cos I really cba to explain in my own words...)

This may not help u a lot if u literally have the whole syllabus to learn in 3 days :-/ but tbh all I can say is biology (like many IB subjects) is a longterm learning thing. There's just soooooo much that it forces you to try and understand everything in class and that makes it much easier to remember. But now just keep going, dont give up. If u dont understand something please make sure you do that first, by reading in related books or asking a teacher etc before just memorising.

[ElationAndPathways]

Ooh sorry for the graph questions I suggest just practising lots of data response questions. Those questions I hate with a passion because they dont test biology -.-
Get help by googling ib biology data questions or something or looking in text books for tips.

[justmyopinions]

Biology was my 5.5 hours revision days. Do 1.5 hours going over stuff you already know, then the rest trying to learn new things

[mintaltoids]

Pick out processes and then memorize them like crazy. That's your last hope, as bio is just right around the corner from now! I haven't even started... but I find bio easy. Except for the bits on plant growth during daytime and at night. That s***s hard!

[xamiexpokex]

Wow I think the whole acronym thing and playing with words is going to really help! I've never really thought to do that before, and just now looking through fertilization I have always got the cortical and acrosome reactions mixed up, but now after looking at the actual words its clear the acrosome reaction comes first because A comes first in the alphabet xD This is really helpful, thanks!

[WLDL3]

Try studying from Click4Biology? Or do you have great notes?
As for graph questions, I used to be horrible at those. I used to think they need to be biology and would always link them to that... well, they don't. When they ask you to describe the graph, you literally describe the graph! You describe the interval where temperature is highest, and blabla, whatever it is that they're asking...

[patcake]

This is probably last minute but I found just reading the course companion actually makes a hell of a difference.Sort of fills in all the gaps. If you have the green thin one by Andrew Allot ( which is worth absolute gold! ) you'll be fine. It's not too long either. My teacher told us one of his students once memorised the entire book and got a level 6 without knowing any biology.
Probably a bit too late for that now mind
Also,try making drawings.My walls are covered in the syllabus at the moment.

[Willez]

(Original post by patcake)
This is probably last minute but I found just reading the course companion actually makes a hell of a difference.Sort of fills in all the gaps. If you have the green thin one by Andrew Allot ( which is worth absolute gold! ) you'll be fine. It's not too long either. My teacher told us one of his students once memorised the entire book and got a level 6 without knowing any biology.
Probably a bit too late for that now mind
Also,try making drawings.My walls are covered in the syllabus at the moment.

That's what I did for my mocks a few weeks back. In fact, I hadn't even read through three entire topics and I still managed a 6. Gonna do it again, except the entire book this time!

Also, khanacademy.org has some very good videos on biology that will help with things you don't understand.

[mintaltoids]

It's 9:26pm in Vietnam and I am still finishing up core. AHL left. FML ):

[johndoe04]

(Original post by mintaltoids)
It's 9:26pm in Vietnam and I am still finishing up core. AHL left. FML ):

Breathe. Just do as much as you can tonight. There's literally no point in getting stressed out. Stress makes you forget information. And you want to retain it. So make yourself a nice hot cup of coffee, or tea (whichever your preference) and study. But not mindless studying. Target areas where you feel you're not so strong at within specific times. Managing time is crucial to doing well. You've come all this way; you must know something.

So. My advice condensed to three short, yet simple sentences.

Do not panic. Remember to breathe. And get on it.


Good luck.

[KeelyEverywhere]

Just three words:

I WANNA DIE.

Biology HL, why are you so hard???

[Jacey67]

How did you guys do in Biology HL?!?

btw, do you guys know how to figure what timezone paper we did?

[mintaltoids]

(Original post by Jacey67)
How did you guys do in Biology HL?!?

btw, do you guys know how to figure what timezone paper we did?

Americas - TZ1
World - TZ2

P1 was extremely easy
P2 was moderate
P3 (ecology+evolution) was easy

[Jacey67]

(Original post by mintaltoids)
Americas - TZ1
World - TZ2

P1 was extremely easy
P2 was moderate
P3 (ecology+evolution) was easy

Oh! thanks!

I feel that paper 1 was alright, the tendril question was one thing I remembered being struggling in!
Paper 2 was different from how I expected it to be, I was so scared that DNA and things like photosynthesis might come up but in the end it didn't! XD I did option E and G!

[mintaltoids]

(Original post by Jacey67)
Oh! thanks!

I feel that paper 1 was alright, the tendril question was one thing I remembered being struggling in!
Paper 2 was different from how I expected it to be, I was so scared that DNA and things like photosynthesis might come up but in the end it didn't! XD I did option E and G!

That tendril question was hard if you didn't study plants. I was lucky because I had woken at 6am to study plants and physiology (last two remaining topics to study on the day of P1/2) and finished at exactly 11:40. Ran to school and then took the exam with the information fresh in my mind! E and G are evo and eco respectively right? Sorry I don't remember what letters they are! How did you think the options were?

[Jacey67]

(Original post by mintaltoids)
That tendril question was hard if you didn't study plants. I was lucky because I had woken at 6am to study plants and physiology (last two remaining topics to study on the day of P1/2) and finished at exactly 11:40. Ran to school and then took the exam with the information fresh in my mind! E and G are evo and eco respectively right? Sorry I don't remember what letters they are! How did you think the options were?

haha yeah, I started to hate plants after studying all about it. I got so tired the next day everything just ended up everywhere

Option E is neurobiology and behaviour, G is ecology.
I think the questions were alright, but I didn't quite get the data questions.

How did you do?

[Willez]

Paper 1 was easy. Paper 2 was pretty difficult. Paper 3 (evolution and neurobiology) was very easy.