What is the best way to revise for A level Biology?

Reply 20

Lala_1234

9

Original post by Lemonade10

how much harder are the unit 2 exams comared to unit 1?

I found unit 2 was roughly equal to unit one, but I struggled when I started the A2

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Reply 21

jonchoongqx

Unit 1 and 2 was okay for me but unit 4 totally destroyed the entire class. Only 2 out of 23 people got an A for unit 4. Any tips for A2 Biology paper? I'm really worried about it.

Reply 22

ben7

Original post by Niki_

How much of the material do I need to memorize? I never know what is enough and what isn't enough. The specification is really vague. ><

You need to learn all of it. If you want an A or a B you need to be aiming for an A or full marks. With marking as nasty as it is you can't afford to risk losing marks anywhere.

Reply 23

Midnight1811

3

Its going off topic but how would you revise Chemistry ? Because I struggle to understand somethings, I'm doing gcse

Reply 24

Lala_1234

9

Original post by Midnight1811

Its going off topic but how would you revise Chemistry ? Because I struggle to understand somethings, I'm doing gcse

Figure out what sections you are struggling with and ask your teacher for some extra help. Same as what I said with biology, go through all of the past papers and you will realise what works and phrases will get you marks.
Also with Chemistry A level, the A2 coursework is really good to do, it was my favourite part of the whole course, if you do do it, ask to do a Briggs-rauscher oscillating reaction, they are fun! (YouTube it) haha

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Reply 25

Midnight1811

3

Original post by Lala_1234

Figure out what sections you are struggling with and ask your teacher for some extra help. Same as what I said with biology, go through all of the past papers and you will realise what works and phrases will get you marks.
Also with Chemistry A level, the A2 coursework is really good to do, it was my favourite part of the whole course, if you do do it, ask to do a Briggs-rauscher oscillating reaction, they are fun! (YouTube it) haha

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Thanks, the way I learn is I look through the exercise book so I get a rough idea of what's being asked, then just Google loads of resources from TES ( teachers post revision notes) have a look, I recommend it ! someone mentioned above that the gap between gcse and as level is big ? Is this true ? Is it like jumping from year 7- to yr 11 straightway

Reply 26

785695

1

Original post by jonchoongqx

Unit 1 and 2 was okay for me but unit 4 totally destroyed the entire class. Only 2 out of 23 people got an A for unit 4. Any tips for A2 Biology paper? I'm really worried about it.

i managed to get 90/100 in unit 4 so i just scraped an A* - what i did was i made notes and memorised them. A lot of people say it doesn't work but i found this method worked for me! so i guess it really depends on individuals - oh and after me, only one other person got an A and two people got B's. My teacher was really surprised as people who he expected to get A's came out with like C's and D's :s

Reply 27

Lala_1234

9

Original post by Midnight1811

Thanks, the way I learn is I look through the exercise book so I get a rough idea of what's being asked, then just Google loads of resources from TES ( teachers post revision notes) have a look, I recommend it ! someone mentioned above that the gap between gcse and as level is big ? Is this true ? Is it like jumping from year 7- to yr 11 straightway

Yeah that was me who said that. Only because I have seen so many people do badly in their first set of exams.
If you find GCSE's easy then you may be a bit naive when it comes to A level and think that you will be fine. In some cases you will be, but the likeliness is you won't. It's just how the exam board wants you to answer the questions, which is why I emphasise going through past papers and figuring out what the key words and phrases are. In GCSE they are alot easier going with your answers, if what you say is slightly relevant, you will get a mark, in A level you won't.
You have to get the key words in.
Also alot of A level text books are bigger than GCSE text books, and there is actually a large proportion in it which you don't need to know - granted it does help to know it because it will help you understand, so I'm not saying ignore the book, far from it, I'm just saying you will probably find it harder to study from the text books - revision books are good tho as it will cut out all the stuff you don't really need to know

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Reply 28

Katiehodge

7

I found Unit 1 the hardest- I think because Unit 2 and 4 are very different to Unit 1 (ecology and populations as opposed to human biology) then its very easy to think you're going to do badly then come out ok.

The revision methods people in my class used were:
Sitting in on extra classes
Making posters
Making flashcards and testing themselves
Past papers
Old papers (pre-2005)
Postitnotes all around the house
Testing others
Teaching others
Doing all the summary and quick questions in the Toole and Toole and the BIR textbooks
Having a revision timetable

Good luck :smile:

Reply 29

jonchoongqx

Original post by V95

i managed to get 90/100 in unit 4 so i just scraped an A* - what i did was i made notes and memorised them. A lot of people say it doesn't work but i found this method worked for me! so i guess it really depends on individuals - oh and after me, only one other person got an A and two people got B's. My teacher was really surprised as people who he expected to get A's came out with like C's and D's :s

Did you finish reading the text book or finish doing all the past years?

Reply 30

CuriousQuestioner

9

For my first exam I got and A and basically I just wrote tones of notes copied from my book into my big revision book and also copied relevant pieces from textbooks and then after this I made posters for different topics and put them on my walls and then I did past-papers and when you mark the past paper's you should write out all the questions you got wrong on a word document and the answer underneath then get someone to test you on those until you get those right too.

Hope that helps :cool:

Reply 31

rac1

18

mind maps and past papers.

Reply 32

785695

1

Original post by jonchoongqx

Did you finish reading the text book or finish doing all the past years?

i did both - revised from the text book and i did all of the past paper questions :smile:

Reply 33

igloo1

some questions ALWAYS come up, especially relating to experiments. Do papers and you'll realise which ones and then learn their answers. Easy marks.

Reply 34

Jadeh94

I find the AQA exams are very specific with terminology. It definitely pays off to go through all past papers to find out what they're after as you find each year there's similar questions that want the same answers.

also, make notes colourful and pretty! And if there's anyway you can relate certain concepts to something you're interested in, it helps.