Best Study Methods for Biology

I am an American student who has a conditional offer to UEA for Med in September 2011.
The Admissions team has suggested that I get an A-level biology book to study before i arrive so that i am on the same page as everyone else.
Since I have very little understanding of how A-Levels work, did anyone get an A in biology? If so do you have any suggestions for which books I should be looking at?

Reply 1

crazycake93

13

Murder somone, open their chest cavity and dissect their organs.

Reply 2

Intriguing Alias

16

The Official AQA AS&A2 level Textbooks are good. Made by Nelson Thornes - they cost £20-25 each.

I have only used the AS so far, but for my first module I relied almost solely on it for the exam and got an A :smile:

Reply 3

AndroidLight

18

A levels are usually 2 years worth of study, and you'd be best off just finding an A level textbook and looking through it. For a general overview of the topics studied, the books should help and I'd recommend looking at the specification for A level biology at whatever exam board, as it shouldn't make much of a difference. If you're not familiar with the exam boards, the main ones are edexcel, ocr, and aqa. Since you've been accepted into med school, I'm sure most topics will be familiar to you. I've done the AS year (first year) of the A level, and the topics covered roughly were: Cardiovascular cycle, structure of the heart, brief details of diseases related to the heart, protein structure (amino acids linking together, different bonds involved, different shapes of proteins and what bonds contribute), mono/polysaccharides and examples and uses of these such as starch and glycogen, cell membrane structure, cell structure and organelle structure, movement of molecules (exocytosis, osmosis etc), DNA structure (nucleotides, base pairs, bonds in the dna), protein synthesis, meiosis, mitosis, fertilization at the cellular level, gamete structure, plant reproduction, stem cells, gene expression, biodiversity, ecosystems, evolution, plant structures.

Reply 4

emmakh123

2

Original post by AndroidLight

A levels are usually 2 years worth of study, and you'd be best off just finding an A level textbook and looking through it. For a general overview of the topics studied, the books should help and I'd recommend looking at the specification for A level biology at whatever exam board, as it shouldn't make much of a difference. If you're not familiar with the exam boards, the main ones are edexcel, ocr, and aqa. Since you've been accepted into med school, I'm sure most topics will be familiar to you. I've done the AS year (first year) of the A level, and the topics covered roughly were: Cardiovascular cycle, structure of the heart, brief details of diseases related to the heart, protein structure (amino acids linking together, different bonds involved, different shapes of proteins and what bonds contribute), mono/polysaccharides and examples and uses of these such as starch and glycogen, cell membrane structure, cell structure and organelle structure, movement of molecules (exocytosis, osmosis etc), DNA structure (nucleotides, base pairs, bonds in the dna), protein synthesis, meiosis, mitosis, fertilization at the cellular level, gamete structure, plant reproduction, stem cells, gene expression, biodiversity, ecosystems, evolution, plant structures.

edexcel by any chance?

Reply 5

twelve

13

Yep, basically any AS and A2 level textbook should do that job - I wouldn't try and get a revision guide though, since those are rubbish unless you already half know the topic.

So you're looking for a textbook for Edexcel, AQA or OCR exam boards. But remember that the A levels are studied over two years - the AS level year, and then the A2 level year, and there are sometimes different textbooks for each year.

Seeing as you don't have to learn the stuff for an exam, you can just base your learning on these, and then look elswhere for a bit extra on the relevant parts - you won't need to be looking at any plant stuff after all :smile:

Reply 6

AndroidLight

18

Original post by emmakh123

edexcel by any chance?

Yeah I guess I was a bit too specific, and it's SNAB as well.