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Biology Essays

In the AQA Exam's we have to do a Biology essay worth 25 marks at the end of our paper.

We're doing practice ones, but I'm stuck on what to do! The title's are really vague like the one we're doing now is "The Conflict Between Food Production and Conservation" and I don't know where to go. Whether I should explain the conflicts in full detail or explain them both and then explain the conflicts that could occur

Biology essays are hard. I take English too so I thought I'd be good at this! If anyone has either a plan or ANY ideas please help!

Reply 1

No Future

I'm taking AQA biology and have the same problem. The most recent hw being: "The importance of water" or something equally panic inducing. I mean, where does one even begin?

Reply 2

Iscariot

I wrote my A-level essay on how seeds germinate on paper 5.

To this day I remember seeing the one out of two essay options on that test and thinking "I don't want to write about either of these topics!"

Reply 3

MadNatSci

Ohhhhh, but these can work in your favour, too! You need to get a balance between depth and breadth: there's no way you can cover everything in these topics in enough detail. So I would pick a few areas. What do you know best about food production? And what areas of conservation are you most knowledgeable about? Then scribble down a plan on a spare piece of paper, making as many links between them as possible. For example (just off the top of my head):

Food v conservation
Fertilisers --> higher yields --> more food BUT also --> eutrophication
Insecticides--> higher yields (again) BUT --> takes out food for birds and also poisons can accumulate in food chains
etc

Water
This is a lovely one; just think about all the different things water is important for and scribble them down with examples.

Solvent --> transport of nutrients eg up xylem in plants
Insulation --> life can survive cold winters in ponds/sea
Photosynthesis
etc etc

When you get questions like these, allow a few minutes to do a brainstorm. You should be able to use rough paper or, alternatively, the 'this page is intentionally left blank' pages in the exam paper. These questions are fantastic practice: for one, they make you use a huge amount of what you've learned and, crucially, make connections between different areas (you never really understand stuff until you can do that). They're also important practice: the majority of my exams at university consisted of broad essay questions.

Anyway, in summary, pick some areas you know really well and go into as much detail as you can on these. Try to pull in as much from different areas of the course as you can (take this into account when you're revising), for brownie points (and probably extra marks). Do lots of practice essays to time, as well, to get the timing right: there is nothing more frustrating than being in full-flow with an amazing point to make and having to leave it because you've run out of time.

Good luck!

Reply 4

danni_bella

s_qween

Biology essays are hard. I take English too so I thought I'd be good at this! If anyone has either a plan or ANY ideas please help!

I know! Tell me about it, it's not like Sociology where can write anything, a lot of quotes but it just has to make sence.

With biology you have to have hard evidence to back everything up >.<