How do I go from an A in biology to A*?

I really enjoy Biology but I don't know how to improve my grade.
I'm in year 10 and currently a solid B/A.
How do i get an A*!!!!

Thanks

Work hard. Find a revision method that fits you. Ace your coursework with lots of background reading

Which exam board are you on?
I was on OCR 21st Century and what helped me was going over the same topics loads of times until you actually understand them not just know them. Rewriting notes multiple times rather than just reading them helped a lot, and I wrote them on different coloured paper for different topics, it helped me remember things. Keep answering past questions and find a structure which you can use for all 6 mark questions. Another tip is to know the mark scheme inside out and know exactly what answer they are looking for.
Hope I helped.

Well i have the MygcseScience videos if you want them?

Every single past paper existed.
Read through the content, memorise and do the textbook questions. Then do all the data questions in the past papers multiple times (perhaps even look at other exam boards with overlapping topics) and memorise the Mark schemes.

Its not about how hard you work but the exam technique and that's the difference between an A or an A*

Posted from TSR Mobile

Every single past paper existed.
Read through the content, memorise and do the textbook questions. Then do all the data questions in the past papers multiple times (perhaps even look at other exam boards with overlapping topics) and memorise the Mark schemes.

Its not about how hard you work but the exam technique and that's the difference between an A or an A*

Posted from TSR Mobile

Try to understand EVERY topic quite well while you cover them. This made revision a cinch for me. To revise: make sure you've done a past paper or two (or more) to familiarise yourself with the format of the exam. I went through a revision guide and wrote down EVERYTHING I didn't know in condensed form. Proceeded to memorise the 2-3 pages the day before the exam and was able to get 100%. Wouldn't recommend leaving it so late unless you know your memory is good/reliable. Also, structure the notes well so the structure helps to remember the content. I did it like: keyword - definition/fact. Then highlight the key words then you can revise by just glancing at the key words and recalling the information. That way when a question uses a key word all the information should spring into your mind.

Thanks that advice was really useful!

How would you recommend memorising facts. In another thread someone said to memorise the CGP revision guides as it helps? Not sure whether this is true or not.

I personally liked the CGP guides as they condensed down the information quite nicely. Just go through it and whatever you can't remember are unsure about, write it down. Then turn this information into a format you can use. I personally found just writing it all down in a condensed page of words with no colours etc. the best way for me but you might learn differently to me. I broke my notes down into: subject (e.g. biology) then sub topic/unit (so maybe all about photosynthesis or whatever) then wrote the keyword with info. Just read through it over and over again covering up the info. and looking at the key word trying to remember all the info. If I could do it, then I'd move onto a different one. If I couldn't, simple repetition helped me out. By the end I could visualise every word on the page and its location on the page without looking at it, which was very useful in the exam! I'd recommend this method for all the sciences, and geography (if you're doing it). English lit would also be a good one for this, and maybe some historical case studies (if you're doing history). For maths the best way is not to do this, but just to do lots and lots of questions/past papers until you're confident and ideally sit down with the topic and try to understand WHY a particular method works.

I am doing Geography at GCSE but I'm fairly confident in that. My main struggle is science and because I want to pursue a career in science I really want to get A* in all three. I have GCSE mocks after the holidays and I have been revisiting notes throughout but I just wondered how other people revised.

I have the CGP revision guides and workbooks for Biology, Chemistry and Physics which is really useful. The only topic I feel I struggle on in B1 is disease, antibiotic-resistant etc. Also, would you recommend doing a full paper each day or just specific questions in the test paper you have been studying. For example, at school we haven't covered Physics AT ALL! I'm concerned about that because i really struggle with it. And in Chemistry we haven't covered absolutely everything. Shall i still revise the extra or not?

You've got plenty of time, so take it easy. Get the spec from your exam board website and just make sure you understand everything on that. If you find doing questions/papers useful as you go along then by all means do them. All I personally did was the homework all year but I sort of build up a model of everything in science in my head and how it all pieces together. Any ambiguities/doubts I have about something I ask straight away. My method worked for me (100% science and got an A* in geog. ) but it might not work for you. You've got to find some way (whatever that is) of understanding and remembering the info you need. For physics AS this meant going well beyond the syllabus to try to understand the things in the syllabus because our teaching was abysmal, but make sure you know EVERYTHING. Don't trust your teachers (especially at A level) to teach you everything because they may not. I don't think our teaching in science was finished right up until about 2 weeks before study leave started. The only thing I revised for in Dec of Y11 was english language because I had the exam in Jan. Revise for mocks if you find them useful, but don't worry if you don't do that well, you've still got lots of time to revise.

Yeah i guess so, i'm a real stresshead when it comes to studying as i want to get THE best lol! I am a visual learner so i find diagrams, mindmaps, flashcards really useful! Will carry on revising nd enjoy it hopefully!

Thanks for your advice BTW can i ask what you got in GCSEs?

I personally found my laziness overrode my stressiness I did fairly well in my GCSEs - 9A*s and 2As. Not exceptional, but not too bad.

Wow! That's really impressive! Do you have any tips for english and english lit?

They were the subjects I hated the most. It's because I felt like I wasn't improving at all when I revised for them. Do well in the coursework I guess? Gives you some nice free marks that you have longer to prepare for. For language I just practised analysing a newspaper and that was about it. I honestly don't know how I did well in it. For lit I memorised a revision guide on each of the books I had (of mice and men, inspector calls) and worked on analysis a bit. Weirdly they came out to be (by %) two of my best subjects. They were the two I never really figured out a solid way to revise other than just practising as best you can. I felt a similar way when I started doing STEP (horrible maths exams) but I've found I have gotten better so I think you just have to trust you're making progress and pray some good questions come up. Hope I helped