AQA Biology/Human Biology A Unit 6 Tues 19/06/07

mypaperheart

16

Is anyone else doing this exam?? How's your revision going? :smile:

I hate the fact that there's synoptic material in this exam aswell as the Unit 8 - what's the point?! :s-smilie:

Reply 1

alun789

Yeah i'm taking this as well. My revision is going fine... well i haven't started yet but this is one of my good subjects. The rules of the exams by AQA is that there must be at least 20% synoptic and because unit 8 is only worth 60 UMS some has to be included in the other exam (30% of it) Its normally easy stuff like enzymes and proteins.

Make sure you look at past papers... the questions always come up again and good luck!!

Reply 2

will_lover03

Yeah im doing it too and am a bit worried! The synpoptic questions in unit 6 seem to be enzymes, proteins or the heart from all the past papers ive done they arent too difficult really i dont think i wouldnt worry too much about those! Anyone got any idea on what they think is going to come up! im hoping its not too much about the kidney for some reason i just done seem to be getting that! Or the bit about ruminants! dont understand that either! Unit 6 isnt really bothering me that much i think the unit 8 one is really hard tho!

Reply 3

fireworks

I'm doing Unit 5 + Unit 6 on the same day cos I faffed up unit 5 in January (as did most of my year in school actually, meh...). However, I need some advice folks:-

I've went through "AQA Biology Specification A - Further Studies in Biology" - the A2 textbook written by Bill Indge, chief examiners, etc. and made loads of notes on both modules and have had a stab at learning the module 5 ones, but I'm at a bit of a cross-roads because I'm not sure what the point is - it's far too much to remember, and they want slightly different in the mark schemes all the time!!

I have the wee green Revision & Summary version of the book, but on closer inspection of past papers, the full textbook has stuff it leaves out - so am in a bit of a quandry. What would anyone recommend doing - learning my revision notes in detail, or just keep reading through them and concentrating mostly on past papers + mark schemes?

I'm on an A at AS Level, and I'd really like to keep it that way :frown:

Any help greatly appreciated!

Reply 4

mercexe

fireworks

I'm doing Unit 5 + Unit 6 on the same day cos I faffed up unit 5 in January

Yep, me too. I got an A at AS then 65/90 in the unit 5 paper in January, which was a bit disappointing because I came out feeling it went quite well :frown:

Regarding which books/revision method to use -
Personally, I find that the red book is the best. The green summary book was awesome for AS, but I think it lacks detail at A2. Well, that's what I think anyway - I knew the green summary book like the back of my hand for the January module yet still only just got a B grade so I have been sticking to the big red book this time around.

Reply 5

mercexe

will_lover03

Unit 6 isnt really bothering me that much i think the unit 8 one is really hard tho!

Yeah, unit 8 is :eek:

. Especially the essays, it is really down to luck. You could get two okay topics or two dreadful topics where you don't even know where to start :frown:

Reply 6

username68316

3

fireworks

I'm doing Unit 5 + Unit 6 on the same day cos I faffed up unit 5 in January (as did most of my year in school actually, meh...). However, I need some advice folks:-

I've went through "AQA Biology Specification A - Further Studies in Biology" - the A2 textbook written by Bill Indge, chief examiners, etc. and made loads of notes on both modules and have had a stab at learning the module 5 ones, but I'm at a bit of a cross-roads because I'm not sure what the point is - it's far too much to remember, and they want slightly different in the mark schemes all the time!!

I have the wee green Revision & Summary version of the book, but on closer inspection of past papers, the full textbook has stuff it leaves out - so am in a bit of a quandry. What would anyone recommend doing - learning my revision notes in detail, or just keep reading through them and concentrating mostly on past papers + mark schemes?

I'm on an A at AS Level, and I'd really like to keep it that way :frown:

Any help greatly appreciated!

Indeed, well spotted. The little green book cuts a huge amount out of the normal textbook. What i did at the time was to make notes by following the specification, then looking for the appropriate bits in the textbook, AND revision book so that i didn't miss anything, and so that it was concise. This way revision should be fairly slick. I suppose it would be a bit late to do this now, but i suggest revising from the spec, looking in the revision book, then looking in the textbook for bits that it misses?

I have AAA from AS , an A from unit 5, and 41/42 from this years coursework. I'm hoping this exam will be fine. I thought the january one went quite badly at the time because of all that stuff about sympatric speciation and other such waffle that was hard to write down! I've got a feeling this exam should be fine, and should then take the pressure off the synoptic module.

I have chem on monday, so i'll revise that on saturday and sunday, meaning i'll revise Biology tomorow and monday evening :eek:

Good luck everyone :smile:

Reply 7

pinkrules

i hate all the stuff about nervous system arghh!!

Reply 8

Rainbow24

8

I'm doing BYA7 which is the human biology module - it's similar to BYA6 - and i'm dreading it soo much :frown:

I need an A in biology to get into uni and this exam and the synoptic are impossible!

And it's true that the mark scheme changes every year... there were two almost identical questions in two different papers and the marks were awarded differently for each question which I find very worrying :s-smilie:

Reply 9

mypaperheart

OP

16

I think the Nervous system chapter is by far the hardest - I still don't fully understand it! :s-smilie:

and guys I use the green revision book because i tend to find the full textbook waffles a bit! I think if you use the two in conjunction you should be fine! I hope homeostasis is on... that's by far the easiest section! :biggrin:

Reply 10

username68316

3

Yeah the nervous system took me ages to make condensed notes for, but i quite like it now i get the hang of it. Sure, homeostasis is easy, but so is all the plant stuff and digestion and all that :biggrin:

Reply 11

maryam1

i hate revisin unit 6 it stresses me out more than anything

Reply 12

fireworks

I've been learning my notes I made, which are sort of condensed, but still pretty detailed. The 6 mark beasts of questions at the end of the papers have never been repeated or are ever that similar, so are worth doing, but not as useful mark schemes as AS papers (module 1 + module 2).

The frustrating thing is though, you could know your notes word-for-word, and yet, the vast majority of it won't come up on the day, or the mark scheme might screw you over (seems to vary much more from year-to-year at A2).

How strict are the mark schemes? If it's 'correct' and using biological terminology do you get the marks, or does it have to be AQA wording like the mark scheme would have you believe? Are past papers the best way to revise at A2 still?

Sorry for all the questions! :smile:

Reply 13

mercexe

fireworks

I've been learning my notes I made, which are sort of condensed, but still pretty detailed. The 6 mark beasts of questions at the end of the papers have never been repeated or are ever that similar, so are worth doing, but not as useful mark schemes as AS papers (module 1 + module 2).

The frustrating thing is though, you could know your notes word-for-word, and yet, the vast majority of it won't come up on the day, or the mark scheme might screw you over (seems to vary much more from year-to-year at A2).

How strict are the mark schemes? If it's 'correct' and using biological terminology do you get the marks, or does it have to be AQA wording like the mark scheme would have you believe? Are past papers the best way to revise at A2 still?

Sorry for all the questions! :smile:

I find that doing past papers gets you used to fitting your answers around the mark scheme. Having said that, I do agree. It's so painfully annoying when I truly understand a question and write down a biologically perfect answer, then check the mark scheme and find out I would have got zero because I didn't express myself correctly. :frown:

totally agree ^^

^ Same here. In one past paper we went through in class, my friend and I had both used the word 'poisonous' but the mark scheme wanted 'toxic' for the mark. I just just get it sometimes!

I don't feel like I'm very well prepared for this exam because other subjects are more of a priority for me, but I didn't understand unit 5 stuff at all and was certain I'd have to do a resit, but got an A... and I don't even know how because I was always the one in lessons who was pretending to know what they were doing but didn't have a clue! Must have been a stroke of luck there! But I did resits for AS and got those units up so I think I only need a B in unit 6 to get an A overall... but as i said i don't feel very well prepared yet so who knows?

Good luck everyone anyway!

Reply 16

will_lover03

mercexe

Yeah, unit 8 is :eek:

. Especially the essays, it is really down to luck. You could get two okay topics or two dreadful topics where you don't even know where to start :frown:

Yeah tell me about it we've been doing a few past ones in classes and i just never know where to start at all on most of them!! Im hoping to do well in the unit 6 on tuesday and then hopefully that will make me feel a bit more relaxed about thursday as it may not matter as much then!!

Reply 17

Greenmile

9

I am not looking forward to the exams at all. I had a U in the January module, although I had A at AS and an A in my coursework. But I need an A or B for my uni, so I'm panicking. Been revising since 8.30 this morning so just taking a quick break. I completely do not get transpiration. I've not done much revision at all, and I didn't actually go to any lessons (flexi study) so not even done it before. I know I'm stupid for not revising earlier - so for anyone who is doing AS - definately do not put off your revision for A2, it's not a good idea!!!!! :frown:

Reply 18

mypaperheart

OP

16

So guys... its tomorrow!! I've been doing past papers all day and not doing great :frown:

the knowledge is there, its just applying it that's the problem!!

Reply 19

mercexe

mypaperheart

So guys... its tomorrow!! I've been doing past papers all day and not doing great :frown:

the knowledge is there, its just applying it that's the problem!!

Yep, couldn't agree more. Those darned AQA mark schemes! :frown:

Anyway, I kind of gave up doing past papers and then marking them. I found that I was being way too generous - I always gave myself more marks then I deserved because I understood what I meant even if the mark scheme didn't!! :biggrin:

AQA Biology/Human Biology A Unit 6 Tues 19/06/07

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