Tell me about AS Biology!

Ok so cab reading all of the above posts to see if it has already been read..sorry.. here's how I would probably summarise from experience/what i've been told: Further maths will involve endless hours of maths, you will hone your problem solving skills if you do the work, potentially making you into a far more academic individual. (Huge sweeping statement I know, and I also know tonnes of super intelligent people that study Biology) but generally AS biology is quite..fluffy and memorise things, far less application. On the other hand, further maths is quite unnecessary for most options and not taking biology may close any of the life science routes. Hope you make a decision you won't regret.

The moment I saw Einstein avatar I exactly knew what sort of statement you were going to make :P

Anyway, yes, I love maths, but at the same time I'm afraid of closing biological option. In terms of admission, chemistry seems to be sufficient but without knowing advanced biology I wouldn't think of doing anything biological.
However my childhood dreams had never been much biological despite almost always being scientific, maybe archeologist and forensic scientist were the closest ones to being biological. So maybe it's unlikely that I think of pursueing biology but not impossible so gahhhh

Oh well, thanks, Ihope so as well. I've been bothering about this for literally 3 months now >.>

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It depends very heavily on the course you would be following - I followed Salters Nuffield for Edexcel, and didn't enjoy it (it was a context-led approach, which I found dull and a little patronising).

If you're looking at studying any formal science at university, further maths will not only make for a stronger application, but also will make your university studies a lot simpler.

If for whatever reason during your studies you happen to actually fancy the idea of studying chemistry at degree level then you can actually veer towards biological applications later on. I've just had to choose my research project for my final year and loads of the professors have groups that are involved in stuff like proteins, DNA, bio-active compounds etc. so it's not not the same as what you'd do as a biological sciences student but chemistry underpins a lot of biology.

Ohhh cool I didn't know you were that much older i'm sure you'd be a great teacher haha

Oh really. Is it the Mechanics modules that were beneficial or the pure stuff? This makes me think about taking FM because although I don't know all the maths behind physics I watch a lot of physics videos (without maths because I won't understand lol) on Youtube or TED talks so I think I like physics

Yeah it depends on the person. I ve been tilting towards physical sciences for quite long time now but I am really afraid of shuttering my path to biological sciences yu know. There isn't a huge possibility but there is still bigger than 0% of possibility that biological science is what I really like
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LOL this plot twist made my day!
Why that avatar then lool

Was there a lot of biochemistry in AS?


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Tell me about AS Biology as detailed as possible!

- Did you like it or not?
- What did you like/dislike about it?
- Convince me to take Biology AS!
- Why should I avoid AS Biology?

The thing is, I made this thread called "Biology or Further Maths". There, I received good amount of convincing opinions as to why I should take FM. However, I didn't get any feedbacks on AS Biology that was convincing!

Don't care about my career/degree plan and tell me what you thought about it!

Thanks alot

P.S. my board is AQA

Actually, mostly the pure stuff - classical, Newtonian mechanics really wasn't all that relevant for most of what I was interested in (I tended to work in the quantum and condensed matter areas). For example, waves can be described using imaginary numbers, which makes working out how they interfere with one another so much easier. And matrices are basically at the root of all quantum mechanics. Both of these are covered in depth in FP1, FP2 and FP3.

I understand the reservations about closing off some doors. If you're really unsure could you not perhaps study both for the first few weeks and then drop whichever you found you engaged with to a lesser extent?

Ok so again, I'm another Salters-nuffield context led approach, however I didn't find it to be particularly..context led. I loved the structure of the course. Anyway, umm not difficult biochemistry, but biochemistry forms the firm foundation upon all of the biology you learn really I.E Hydrolysis reactions, Protein structure, DNA structure lipids etc.

Ah ok these sound interesting I love DNA stuff because I read a lot of detective suspense stories and quite a bit of knowledge can be taken from these haha
well thanks Einstein the Biochemist LOL

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AS Biology (Edexcel) was my favourite subject this year. Like all subject it has its boring sections, but I found it overall interesting and easy to learn. Stick to it from the start (I wish I had taken my own advice- I only started working 'properly' after Christmas) and you'll find it a doddle. Much of it is factual recall and IMO the concepts aren't very hard to understand.

Unit 1 is Lifestyle, Transport, Genes and Health and this was my favourite unit because I love genetics. Unit 2 is shorter and is on Development, Plants and the Environment which sounds more boring than it is.

You need to have a basic understanding from GCSE, but I wouldn't say you need to have been an A-grade Biology student in GCSE to get on in AS.

I'd say that Edexcel is the best exam board when it comes to Biology because their mark schemes are pretty lenient. If a question asks for say, 2 answers, you can write down like 5 and you'll get the marks (2 max) for any right answers you put. As far as I know, AQA don't do this and I'm not sure about the other exam boards.

I also did Chemistry which I found about 50x harder and not as enjoyable.

Biology is one of the longest and most boring subjects known to man (OCR). You'll enjoy it 😊

Planning on doing for A2 because it's requires less effort than physics lol

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Hello,

First a bit about me (so you know my position). I have just finished year 13. I did Biology, Chemistry and Maths at A level and Physics at AS. I did OCR biology. I am hoping to study biology at Imperial (need AAA) in October and I run an A level biology and chemistry youtube channel and I hope to go into A level biology and chemistry teaching when I’m older…basically I love biology :P

-Did you like it or not?

I loved it (and loved A2 even more). You start of learning the basics of cells and various organ systems in plants and animals and then move on to biological molecules, food, diet, health and biodiversity at AS.

- What did you like/dislike about it?

I just love the content, always have. Biology is all around us, every day you experience biology, every second and it is visible. Maths, not so much. Haven’t really gone about my daily life and just thought “hmm…that’s a vector there” or “omg I just made a differential equation”. Saying that I love maths as well :P It is just less relatable to the real world at a year 12/13 level. Same with other sciences like chemistry, not as relatable. You see biology, feel biology (though of course there is a lot that isn’t quite relatable, such as visualising a cell working) but there are plenty you do see every day. Food, Health, Biodiversity and you even notice things about your organ systems you wouldn’t notice as much with A level biology.. A lot of the topics I loved as well. I love finding out how a cell works and all the parts work together to how whole ecosystems works and interactions of them together. Plus I really enjoy chemistry so love seeing the chemistry that is brought into biology.

However, there are a few things I dislike. Mainly the food and health topic, purely because they are of no interest to me but with many subjects it is hard to not find a topic you wont like.

- Convince me to take Biology AS!

Biology is useful on so many levels. It really helps your memory, wording and structuring of answers. It has extended answers (and in the case of AQA a proper essay in A2). It teaches you the importance of the world around us and preserving the environment and our own bodies. It is fascinating. It is a hard subject and is always looked well upon.

Some universities sometimes count Further maths and maths as the same which might cause a slight disadvantage (unless you are going for a degree which requires further maths…I don’t know what you want to do :P ) but biology is always seen as a separate A level.

Plus it furthers your understanding of biology. It is so much more detailed than GCSE and so much more interesting, if you have even the slightest craving to learn more about life you will love A level biology.

- Why should I avoid AS Biology?

If you don’t like memorising lots of facts then it isn’t great. If you also struggle with long answers it can be a problem. It also requires an insane amount of time, effort and work so if you don’t like working, making notes, revising a lot then it isn’t that good. Maths and Further maths is a lot more practice rather than making notes.


You said be as detailed as possible so sorry for the essay :P If you have any other questions please ask or if you want to discuss anything email me ([email protected]). I would definitely choose biology though but I must say…I am bias :P good luck