AQA A-Level Biology Paper 1 [7th June 2023] Exam Chat

okay so doing past papers will help you to spot patterns immediately if you havent already! honestly start aiming to do about 2 past papers a week for bio, if not more depending on when you have your exams.

answering questions is all about key terminology you need to know to include such as: when you see "ENZYMES" think "specific tertiary structure, induced fit model, complementary shapes", practice questions and make sure to include all the BOLD and UNDERLINED words!

answering data questions seems complicated but there is a pattern and i will put you on this.
when you see "EVALUATE" there are bits of the markscheme that always come up depending on the context and can be worth up to 3 marks alone out of 4/5 !
when you see EVALUATE - think:
- is there a control group?
- is the experiment carried out for a long enough period of time?
- if its a test on e.g rats, can we automarically assume humans response will be the same?
- is there a stats test to check if the results are statistically significant?
these are usually always on the marksheme for those 3-5 markers about evaluating a method, memorise them to maximise your marks. if its a graph ALWAYS comment on comparisons + standard deviations if present. and try to include data values as well for maximum marks.

**a helpful miss estruch tip is also to just quickly note during the paper the control, independent, dependent variables as well!!**

this is great thank you!!

Reply 41

em_iz

6

Hi, does anyone know what mark/percentage I should be aiming for in each paper if I want to get an A/A*? Thank you!

Reply 42

docxo

8

Original post by em_iz

Hi, does anyone know what mark/percentage I should be aiming for in each paper if I want to get an A/A*? Thank you!

according to 2019 grade boundaries, 52/91 for an A in paper 1 & 2 and 45/78 for an A in paper 3 !

Reply 43

em_iz

6

Original post by docxo

according to 2019 grade boundaries, 52/91 for an A in paper 1 & 2 and 45/78 for an A in paper 3 !

Great! Thank you so much :smile:

Reply 44

bazwilladay

1

Original post by ate3

there'll probably be some biology

ain’t no way bruh

Reply 45

ate3

13

anyone else feeling slightly more worried after seeing how that physics exam went. I'm really hoping aqa have gone nice on biology.

Reply 46

â€”-aa

7

omg so worried cause up until now exams seems to have gone okay but physics !!

Reply 47

DanielK1456

10

Original post by ate3

anyone else feeling slightly more worried after seeing how that physics exam went. I'm really hoping aqa have gone nice on biology.

I think it gives us a good idea as to how AQA felt about making this year more 'normal' ie make every A level science student's life a misery. Hope I'm proven wrong.

Reply 48

prettywindchimes

9

Original post by DanielK1456

I think it gives us a good idea as to how AQA felt about making this year more 'normal' ie make every A level science student's life a misery. Hope I'm proven wrong.

aqa sittin in their villainous lair concocting some of the most down right horrendous questions 😭😭😭😭😭😭 i js know theyre gonna do smth dumb for biology 😭😭😭

Reply 49

Aqadeviousasf

1

nah bru that physics was so low. like why tf they make it so hard. u think they are gonna do the same for chem and bio 💀💀💀💀💀💀

Reply 50

hhHhS

5

Original post by Aqadeviousasf

nah bru that physics was so low. like why tf they make it so hard. u think they are gonna do the same for chem and bio 💀💀💀💀💀💀

i hope not :frown:

being a woman in stem is hard

Reply 51

hhHhS

5

hi would u mind adding me to the official chat too or let me know where i can find it please ?

Original post by Evil Homer

Would you mind if I move you over to our official exam chat for that paper, it might help you get the answers you're looking for :smile:

Reply 52

JcT17

1

Original post by mh05

i have my alevel biology exams coming up and i'm really worried about them. i have to get an A for university but i feel like i might not. my biggest issue is the 'application' questions (essentially the whole paper) as no matter how many practice questions i do, i never feel like i know how to answer them.

i know that the best way to revise for bio is to do past paper questions but are there any other tips for other things i could also do? i.e how to go about answer the questions/ reading the questions for what they are asking/ how to write questions including data?

i'll take anything :redface:

Personally, I look at the question and think what topic it's relating to. If it's fairly obvious what they are talking about I then think about the key marking points in that topic and how those relate to the questions being asked.

Doing past paper questions should give you the general gist of how they want you to go about answering those application questions, but I've found watching walkthroughs of the papers on youtube help me see how I should be thinking.

Hope that helped a bit!

Reply 53

birthofbambi

9

do u think its alright if i do the AS papers as revision aswell for paper 1, or are the questions on AS way easier than actual a level p1 or basically the same?

(edited 11 months ago)

Reply 54

ate3

13

Original post by birthofbambi

do u think its alright if i do the AS papers as revision aswell for paper 1, or are the questions on AS way easier than actual a level p1 or basically the same?

the questions will be easier as the mark scheme will be more lenient in what they give as marking points. But it is a good source of content revision though for year 1

Reply 55

Covidsucks2021

9

Original post by moonbeige

okay so doing past papers will help you to spot patterns immediately if you havent already! honestly start aiming to do about 2 past papers a week for bio, if not more depending on when you have your exams.

answering questions is all about key terminology you need to know to include such as: when you see "ENZYMES" think "specific tertiary structure, induced fit model, complementary shapes", practice questions and make sure to include all the BOLD and UNDERLINED words!

answering data questions seems complicated but there is a pattern and i will put you on this.
when you see "EVALUATE" there are bits of the markscheme that always come up depending on the context and can be worth up to 3 marks alone out of 4/5 !
when you see EVALUATE - think:
- is there a control group?
- is the experiment carried out for a long enough period of time?
- if its a test on e.g rats, can we automarically assume humans response will be the same?
- is there a stats test to check if the results are statistically significant?
these are usually always on the marksheme for those 3-5 markers about evaluating a method, memorise them to maximise your marks. if its a graph ALWAYS comment on comparisons + standard deviations if present. and try to include data values as well for maximum marks.

**a helpful miss estruch tip is also to just quickly note during the paper the control, independent, dependent variables as well!!**

THank you do much for the tips. I will definitely use these.

Reply 56

Jofu54

5

Guyss. I know with maths q it comes with practice, but some ppl just KNOW the steps to go through on any maths qs, like the first thing to do etc. idk I was just wondering if anyone has a strategy when they come to approaching maths q in Bio. I know it’s a vague request cus there’s so many different types of maths questions you could get, but it would be helpful if any of you could share your own steps when you see a maths Q :smile:

Reply 57

helloavs

10

Hi guys, does anyone have any predictions/theories about the grade boundaries for biology this year? Do you think they’ll be similarly to 2019? I feel like they’ve kept relatively consistent for biology from 2019-2022 but idk

Reply 58

happycheese423

9

Original post by helloavs

Hi guys, does anyone have any predictions/theories about the grade boundaries for biology this year? Do you think they’ll be similarly to 2019? I feel like they’ve kept relatively consistent for biology from 2019-2022 but idk