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Anyone else struggling with OCR Bio???

During GCSE's or with life, I've never struggled to understand and take in a lot of information, however we have only done 4 chapter in class and my head is about to explode. The AS book itself is 12 chapter! There's just so much information to take in and I hate how everything links together, which makes it even more confusing when answering exam questions. In only 4 chapters we've learned cells, proteins, carbs, lipids, enzymes,microscopy etc in such detail and I just think how do people get A or A* in Biology, even when you have to remember and understand so much info?
Reply 1
They work hard, they go over the topics after the lesson at home and they answer exam questions/end of chapter questions to ensure they have the full understanding of the topic.
Original post by ineedthosegrades
During GCSE's or with life, I've never struggled to understand and take in a lot of information, however we have only done 4 chapter in class and my head is about to explode. The AS book itself is 12 chapter! There's just so much information to take in and I hate how everything links together, which makes it even more confusing when answering exam questions. In only 4 chapters we've learned cells, proteins, carbs, lipids, enzymes,microscopy etc in such detail and I just think how do people get A or A* in Biology, even when you have to remember and understand so much info?


By memorising the revision guide and doing past papers.

All you need is an excellent memory to get an A in Bio.
Original post by Wikia
They work hard, they go over the topics after the lesson at home and they answer exam questions/end of chapter questions to ensure they have the full understanding of the topic.


i've been making flashcards for every topic since the start of the year...the worst part is I use the official textbook to make them and then I watch the Snaprevise videos but in the video they talk about a topic in more detail and then I am not sure if I need to know this or not and in the book there's alot of waffling...its just overwhelming.
Reply 4
Original post by Blue_Cow

All you need is an excellent memory to get an A in Bio.


This is not true at all for A-Level Biology, the exams are all about application and understanding the question. The questions in the paper are very demanding and they're not straightforward, they require you to think outside the box/link topics together. You could memorise the entire book and still find you can't do well in the past papers, exam practice is the most difficult thing about A-Level Biology.
Original post by Wikia
This is not true at all for A-Level Biology, the exams are all about application and understanding the question. The questions in the paper are very demanding and they're not straightforward, they require you to think outside the box/link topics together. You could memorise the entire book and still find you can't do well in the past papers, exam practice is the most difficult thing about A-Level Biology.


exactly...its crazy you have to remember and understand all that info then use extra brain power during the exam to answer the questions.
Original post by Wikia
This is not true at all for A-Level Biology, the exams are all about application and understanding the question. The questions in the paper are very demanding and they're not straightforward, they require you to think outside the box/link topics together. You could memorise the entire book and still find you can't do well in the past papers, exam practice is the most difficult thing about A-Level Biology.


I have some of the *****iest application skills (imo) yet managed to get an A this year with the new-spec A-Level by memorising the textbook and memorising patterns in mark schemes.

With a good memory, you'll eventually remember what words the examiners are looking for in your answer (the underlined ones in mark schemes) in most cases and score marks.

Physics is where the real application is.
(edited 6 years ago)
YES ME. i hate it so much

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