getting an A* in bio a level without learning ALL of the content?

I've seen 2 people so far who have gotten A* in biology A level and they both said that apparently you don't have to memorise all of the biology A level content to do well in it & that apparently they didn't. I even saw a tutor for bio a level say that too.

If that's the case, then how much of the content should I actually memorise? Could I just memorise off of the cgp book? Cause one of the students i mentioned earlier said she used a CGP book for bio a level but didn't specify what she did in particular.

I think the best thing for bio a level is learning the mark scheme. In leading up to my a level exams I exclusively did past papers and practise questions as some information for bio is filler information so you have an understanding of what you’re talking about.

I think the best thing for bio a level is learning the mark scheme. In leading up to my a level exams I exclusively did past papers and practise questions as some information for bio is filler information so you have an understanding of what you’re talking about.

yes but what about when im initially learning the content before i even start the exam questions/ past papers? how do i know wat is filler and what to skip?

Use the specification. Our college provided them but I’m pretty sure they’re just on the exam website. You can either print this or put it in a document and make bullet points to expand on everything you know using them and they should help get that core knowledge you can apply to exam style questions

yes but what about when im initially learning the content before i even start the exam questions/ past papers? how do i know wat is filler and what to skip?

Please, please, please learn the content at A-Level Biology. Do question papers and learn how they mark questions and format your answers that way, just like everyone else is saying in this thread, but PLEASE also learn the content.


Why? Because you need to know the content. Those people either completely fluked it or know more than they're letting on, and actually do subconsciously have that knowledge from, you guessed it, learning the content at A-Level Biology. Not making an effort to understand what you're taught is practically suicidal; no mark scheme is going to save you if you don't know anything.


To summarise, please don't be lazy and ignore the content you're taught. Make the effort to revise that as well as learning how the examiners mark questions and how your answers should be formatted, what points should be brought up, etc., because that strategy you're hearing of has probably worked for a double-digits amount of people, or is a complete and utter fabrication.



Skipping questions? Please don't do this. I can't stress this enough. You shouldn't skip ANY questions unless you don't have a clue what it's talking about, and regardless, you should know what it's talking about if you teach yourself the content. You need to work at every single possible mark until you know you've done as much as you can in your given time span for completing a question. There's no such thing as just "filler"; skipping one of those questions is the difference between passing and failing.