How To Get an A in AS Biology and Chemistry?

hey guys, i was wondering if anyone had any tips and trick on doing well in bio and chem. At the moment i feel like i know all the content and the material however i sometimes struggle with understanding what the question is asking me and sometimes miss out a few key words in my answers. Is it my revision/ understanding or my exam technique. If so, then how can i improve this ? Thanks guys and feel free the share the tips and advice so lots of people and improve !

Reply 1

Appiagyei_Maddie

Original post by iDiLLZ

The most important thing is to do LOAADS of exam practice!! The more you familiarise yourself with the types of questions, the higher chance of doing well especially with chemistry as the type of questions they can ask is pretty limited.
In Biology, practise LOTS of application questions, the minority of the paper is recall. A large amount is applying the knowledge you have learnt!
Good luck! :smile:

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2

Jessiocar

Original post by iDiLLZ

From failing my Biology Unit one exam in as and having to revise now what I've learnt is DO LOADS OF PAST PAPERS!!! Even if that means repeating the ones you've already done!!

When there are questions which I worth a whole load of marks in one paper, try the question out using text book or your notes to answer and then do without... Make cue cards with long answer questions in bullet point forms and re write them over and over and over again till you know it off your head!!

Be active as well I guess...if you have a smartphone then there's this app where you can make cue cards on that. You could then just read the cue cards when you're on the bus or just bored out of home??

draw diagrams and stick them where you look around regularly(probably in your room is best).

For chemistry// ugh IDEK how to crack that one yet.... But do loadssss of questions on the formulas ie anything.

If you run out of mark schemes/past papers from your exam board... Try other exam boards but ONLY when you get bored of the ones you have, the other exam boards mark their papers different so your answers might get the marks from your exam board even if the mark scheme won't for the other exam board

Reply 3

username1560589

Understanding the content, reading through notes, doing past paper practice.

Reply 4

beyknowles

Original post by morgan8002

Understanding the content, reading through notes, doing past paper practice.

I'm not sure whether it's illegal to ask someone a question in someone else's study help thread or not

But using the specification I have summarised all of my notes (so far, obv we are covering things as time goes on), if I just revise from these and past papers will this be enough ? I can't bring myself to make cue cards or anything for Human Biology

But my advice to OP is: print the specification and make sure you only learn what you need to. If I hadn't have printed the spec, I would be walking into the exams with twice as much the knowledge as is required.

Reply 5

username1560589

Original post by beyknowles

The spec doesn't give enough detail. It might give you a sentence and expect you to write a 9 mark answer on it, so you have to use other sources as well. Use your notes and textbook also to revise.

Also why are you learning biology? Is it just to pass the exam or do you want as much knowledge as possible?

Reply 6

beyknowles

Original post by morgan8002

just to pass the exam ! like literally I never want to hear the word biology ever again after my a2 year

but thanks for the advice. the spec I use often uses single words, for example 'Diffusion'. Active transport'