The Student Room Group

Revising via Mark Schemes?

So for my AS Year, I achieved BBC in my subjects and because I want 3 A*s at A2, I was wondering if working through mark schemes is a good idea. I study Maths, Chemistry and Biology respectively with the Grade order.

For Chemistry and Biology, would it be worth studying definitions and preparing for the "suggest" questions in Biology by looking through a mark scheme and memorizing or practising this? I've realized that for my AS Revision, I didn't practise any question papers or looked at mark schemes. I pretty much dissected my book and tried to understand everything. And looking from my AS papers, I scored at least half marks in every question.

Anyone else who's done their revision this way through mark schemes and achieved A*AA-A*A*A*? Replies would be appreciated.

Forgot to add that I will be resitting a few modules for AS in order to try and achieve A*s. I'm not blindly trying to get an A* even though its physically impossible to get it in Biology as I got a C. But I definitely plan on resitting.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 1
Original post by SteelCookie
So for my AS Year, I achieved BBC in my subjects and because I want 3 A*s at A2, I was wondering if working through mark schemes is a good idea. I study Maths, Chemistry and Biology respectively with the Grade order.

For Chemistry and Biology, would it be worth studying definitions and preparing for the "suggest" questions in Biology by looking through a mark scheme and memorizing or practising this? I've realized that for my AS Revision, I didn't practise any question papers or looked at mark schemes. I pretty much dissected my book and tried to understand everything. And looking from my AS papers, I scored at least half marks in every question.

Anyone else who's done their revision this way through mark schemes and achieved A*AA-A*A*A*? Replies would be appreciated.


Everyone I know who did sciences only achieved good grades by doing past papers, past questions and looking at mark schemes. In addition to dissecting their books and understanding everything. They often did the same paper multiple times until they got high marks. It's good you got your papers back as you can see where you went wrong, also if you have any questions about how to improve maybe your teacher can help.

I didn't do sciences, but I did do Politics. I used to read the question (in the paper). Then write down bullet point answers. Then check the mark scheme and see if I was on the right track. Although it will be hard to go from BBC to A*A*A*, it's definitely possible. Depending on how high your B was and of you intend to do resits. For example In year 12 I was 1 UMS off an A in Politics, by the end of Year 13 (without resits) I had an A* overall.
Reply 2
Original post by Alex360
Everyone I know who did sciences only achieved good grades by doing past papers, past questions and looking at mark schemes. In addition to dissecting their books and understanding everything. They often did the same paper multiple times until they got high marks. It's good you got your papers back as you can see where you went wrong, also if you have any questions about how to improve maybe your teacher can help.

I didn't do sciences, but I did do Politics. I used to read the question (in the paper). Then write down bullet point answers. Then check the mark scheme and see if I was on the right track. Although it will be hard to go from BBC to A*A*A*, it's definitely possible. Depending on how high your B was and of you intend to do resits. For example In year 12 I was 1 UMS off an A in Politics, by the end of Year 13 (without resits) I had an A* overall.


Thanks for the reply. I feel I nailed my understanding of my AS subjects but from my papers, I can see that I've missed them so called "buzzer words" which would get me the marks.

I have the idea of getting many of the suggest questions from the modules and pretty much learning then. It hurt a lot to know what you are on about in the exam but hard to put it down on paper D:
Reply 3
Original post by SteelCookie
Thanks for the reply. I feel I nailed my understanding of my AS subjects but from my papers, I can see that I've missed them so called "buzzer words" which would get me the marks.

I have the idea of getting many of the suggest questions from the modules and pretty much learning then. It hurt a lot to know what you are on about in the exam but hard to put it down on paper D:

Yeah the buzzer words are important often examiners are lazy and a buzzword just makes life easier instead of having to read through and infer what you mean, even though your knowledge is accurate.
Reply 4
I'm doing the same subjects in A2. I revised the scheme for biology and chemistry and swore I knew the buzzwords. Got Dand E in the end but was expecting at least B.. Don't know what went wrong..




Posted from TSR Mobile

Quick Reply

Latest

Trending

Trending