AS/A2 Biology - Edexcel

Hey there. I'm having to do this course online, which is a bit of a pain. The online course materials I have been provided with are full of waffle and my online tutor is next to useless. I'm currently working from the CGP Edexcel biology revision book as my main learning tool and using Edexcel Biology for AS by CJ Clegg on the side, as a text book reference for further understanding. Is it possible to obtain a good grade just using these books? I've read a lot of reviews for the CGP books on amazon saying that some pupils passed solely by using these. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Also, very randomly, do we need to memorize all 20 amino acids used in protein synthesis and if so, to what detail? Because I suppose this is where the CGP books and text books start to differ - the amount of detail. And sometimes I'm a little unsure what I should be memorizing and what I shouldn't. Thank you anyone for your help!

Reply 1

nic-nac

Have you got the specification from the edexcel website ?? This acts as a checklist of everything you need to know. Sometimes there's a big chunk of something in the spec but there's only a few sentences on it in the textbook, in which case you need to read around a bit more. Exam questions can only come from the specification which is even better for science courses as the calculations are the same, they just give you different numbers.

Reply 2

aniani

Original post by ed97

I am doing the AQA course but I know there are some crossovers! For my science GCSE's I was absent for many of the lessons and only used my revision guide and textbook for the exams and passed with all A*'s. So it is possible. But I am not sure about A-level. In theory, you probably can but it will be a lot harder, not having someone to just clarify details and answer any of your questions.

For the amino acids question - I asked my teacher this (although for AQA) and she said you didn't need to know any of the 20 by name or structure unless specifically asked for in the syllabus which for mine it isn't!

Good Luck.

Thank you for the reply! I remember only using the CGP books for my GCSEs and I did well with them. I'm using another text book too to fill in the gaps, but I think I'll keep going with how I am now. Thank you for specifying about the amino acids! I'll find a way to check the syllabus again, just to make sure I don't need to know them for mine.

Reply 3

aniani

Original post by nic-nac

Thank you for the advice. I'd just been looking at the content listed on my online course for it and in my books. I'll check the Edexcel website too and double check everything! Thanks again!