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Why am I so bad at biology?

I do so much revision making flash cards and reading the textbooks and I think I understand it but when it comes to an exam or past paper questions I just do terribly and only know the really simple answers. I find it really hard to apply my knowledge. how can I improve at biology? at gcse I got an a* but a level is something else !
(edited 6 years ago)
I'm in yr 12. I started on a D/C, and then went to a C. I got an A at GCSE, so this was demotivating.
So in the Christmas holidays I looked at some old spec past papers and saw which topics were relevant. I then did all the past papers, (copied the mark scheme,) I could find and memorised them all. I got an A in the recent tests. Focus more on memorising past paper answers rather than learning content for Alevel. For GCSE, try to do past papers and copy out mistakes you made onto a separate paper and memorise them. If you get it wrong once, you're bound to again.
Original post by TCFactor
I'm in yr 12. I started on a D/C, and then went to a C. I got an A at GCSE, so this was demotivating.
So in the Christmas holidays I looked at some old spec past papers and saw which topics were relevant. I then did all the past papers, (copied the mark scheme,) I could find and memorised them all. I got an A in the recent tests. Focus more on memorising past paper answers rather than learning content for Alevel. For GCSE, try to do past papers and copy out mistakes you made onto a separate paper and memorise them. If you get it wrong once, you're bound to again.

thanks for the reply. where did u find the past paper old spec questions ? also whay exam board are you on
I'm on AQA. I used physicsandmathstutor and mathsmadeeasy to find past papers. The first website let me look through old specs topic and cross reference to the new spec.
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21
I am in an extremely similar situation, and I did that what was said above.
Original post by jonjoshelvey21
I do so much revision making flash cards and reading the textbooks and I think I understand it but when it comes to an exam or past paper questions I just do terribly and only know the really simple answers. I find it really hard to apply my knowledge. how can I improve at biology? at gcse I got an a* but a level is something else !


Omg omg omg I am EXACTLY the same... I’m so glad it’s not just me!
I’m the same! I found that doing past papers then going through them and annotating corrections in different colour pen really helps as it allows you to see what the mark scheme is looking for, so when similar questions come up you will have an idea about what it is looking for.
Original post by TCFactor
I'm in yr 12. I started on a D/C, and then went to a C. I got an A at GCSE, so this was demotivating.
So in the Christmas holidays I looked at some old spec past papers and saw which topics were relevant. I then did all the past papers, (copied the mark scheme,) I could find and memorised them all. I got an A in the recent tests. Focus more on memorising past paper answers rather than learning content for Alevel. For GCSE, try to do past papers and copy out mistakes you made onto a separate paper and memorise them. If you get it wrong once, you're bound to again.

that is a brilliant idea! I will have to start doing that! thnk you!
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Sagul
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Original post by jonjoshelvey21
I do so much revision making flash cards and reading the textbooks and I think I understand it but when it comes to an exam or past paper questions I just do terribly and only know the really simple answers. I find it really hard to apply my knowledge. how can I improve at biology? at gcse I got an a* but a level is something else !


If you are able to understand and answer really simplistically then you need to move onto stage 2

look at the mark scheme and see how you answered differently to full marks
what did they include that you didn't?
what keywords are used in the question that you failed to input

thirdly- Biology is MEMORY BASED
luckily for you- understanding is done and duster
now it is time to make a list of things to ROTE LEARN
then you can use this extra bit of information when writing out answers

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