HELP NEEDED!!!A EVEL SCIENCE SUBJECTS...(really appreciates help from A-A* students

Personally, the CGP revision guides are all you need imo. They make everything very simple and easy to understand, and despite what some people may say I think they tell you everything you need to know for the exams. Seemed that way and it worked perfectly for me anyway, especially in Biology

This is b/s. The revision guide is not enough content.

Take this from someone who got 90/90 UMS in Biology this January, buy the OCR endorsed text book for your course and learn all of that! Yes it may be a lot more work than learning 50 pages out of a basic revision guide but for getting a high mark in Biology you need to know EVERYTHING, as they sometimes test you on really obscure things.

@Rob 16, that's what i thought because last year summer i didn't use the revision guide whereas i did in january last yr and then this yr i used the revision guide and my text book....:/ and i did past papers and went over what i didnt get with teachers.........:/ but thanks for the advice xx

People knock it because of its "lack of content" but I really dont think you need anything more, past experience shows that. Text book just overcomplicates things. Specially when the way the revision guide lays things out, its perfect for the 4/5/6 mark questions. Effectively just copy out what it says from memory onto the paper! Where as the text book will make a couple pages out of it, which is all well and good, but at the end of the day you dont copy multiple pages out, you want the main points that get you the marks, and thats what the revision guide does perfectly.

Well from a person who got 100/100 UMS in the January A2 exam last year, and an A* in Biology at A2 from using just the revision guide, not my notes or a text book. And tbf without an awful lot of work. Going through the revision guide a few times until you know it all pretty well is enough. And in my exam they did test us on realy obscure things, hence why most people at my college failed it, because it was hardly on track. The revision guide gives you all the basic knowledge you need, which you can then easily apply to all the abstract situations they give you.

But I guess we're always going to disagree on this. But like i said, i got an A* in biology using just the revision guide, so its perfectly possible. I guess it may not work for everyone though

Really?! I'd have thought that too many questions would have relied heavily upon a distinct trend in question papers/mark schemes and using a revision guide would be way too unspecific and give you irrelevant/not enough information etc.

Well from a person who got 100/100 UMS in the January A2 exam last year, and an A* in Biology at A2 from using just the revision guide, not my notes or a text book. And tbf without an awful lot of work. Going through the revision guide a few times until you know it all pretty well is enough. And in my exam they did test us on realy obscure things, hence why most people at my college failed it, because it was hardly on track. The revision guide gives you all the basic knowledge you need, which you can then easily apply to all the abstract situations they give you.

But I guess we're always going to disagree on this. But like i said, i got an A* in biology using just the revision guide, so its perfectly possible. I guess it may not work for everyone though

You may well have done well using the revision guide, but the mere fact the OP is asking for advice on how to do well on a subject as simple as Biology should make you realise that they are not going to just be able to learn the revision guide and that will be enough. Of course some people are capable of not doing any work and still getting good marks, but that is besides the point. The OP was asking for advice and for most people, the revision guide just doesn't cover enough.

How can you possibly know that? Most people, like you, don't think its enough and so don't rely on it. They split their time between the revision guide, the text book, class notes, make mind maps and flash cards and allsorts. You don't have to be really bright for it to work, my friend did better than a lot of the other people in our class using the revision guide, and hes by no means one of the "brightest". By the same logic, just because it doesn't work for you, doesn't mean to say it doesn't work for the majority, or specifically OP.

And yes, OP asked for opinions/advice from students who got A/A*, I fit into that category and gave my advice. It may not work for everyone, but it worked for me and a lot of other people

Love the way that just because I don't memorise the revision guide that I'm the kind of person that fits into the stereotypical mind-map revision category :L

Never mind. OP, just choose whatever advice you want but remember that just because memorising the revision guide worked for this person, please don't rely on it to get you an A*