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AS SNAB Edexcel Biology
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Frankiej
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#1
Just wondering how everyone is finding it! Biology has gone from my favourite subject, to my least this year. I reaallly don't like the topics we are studying (risk factors etc) and all the jumping about we do! And it our luck, our biology teacher has been off for the past 4 weeks due to a 'serious illness' and so we are having to teach ourselves doing cover work whilst our cover teacher sits and observes us 
This includes the core practicals....Our actual teacher has told us she wont be back till next September at the earliest :| It's the subject that is worse done at AS and A level at our school which scares me a little hahahah But maybe it gets better as we move along idk 
How are you guys finding it?
This includes the core practicals....Our actual teacher has told us she wont be back till next September at the earliest :| It's the subject that is worse done at AS and A level at our school which scares me a little hahahah But maybe it gets better as we move along idk 
How are you guys finding it?
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Waqar.
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#2
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#2
I did my AS Bio and got C, i found the risk stuff boring, but the mitosis stuff is kinda interesting although slightly confusing. im not sure if you/your school knows but you can go onto the edexcel SNAB website and it basically has a load of questions and info. i think my school couldnt afford to create an account but i know my friends in another school have. good luck
http://www.snabonline.com/ - try it out, maybe it will help?
http://www.snabonline.com/ - try it out, maybe it will help?
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workhardplayhard
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#3
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#3
I'm doing the SNAB course too and I think it's good however the book provided by salters has very little content in comparison to how much we will need to know for the exam 
. I don't have a good teacher really she keeps taking time off for no reason and she skips important parts like the fluid mosaic model so I guess like you I'm studying the CF side on my own :P. Are you finding you're really behind btw?
. I don't have a good teacher really she keeps taking time off for no reason and she skips important parts like the fluid mosaic model so I guess like you I'm studying the CF side on my own :P. Are you finding you're really behind btw?
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InadequateJusticex
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#4
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#4
Terrible. I have two teachers and they're both average, with one sometimes not explaining the work enough. I'm scared for this exam, the mark scheme is really specific... 
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workhardplayhard
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#5
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#5
Yeah, I'm scared for the exam too, I'm going to try and study as much as I can on my own during half term
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Stryder402
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#6
workhardplayhard
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#7
Stryder402
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#8
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#8
yeah youll eventually get to unit 2 !, its a pretty good set of notes , covers everything
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wrighty1994
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#9
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#9
Hey there,
I took the AS last year, and got a high A out of it; that was mostly through work that i did, such as looking at Past Papers, and how the mark schemes are structured in order to get the marks for a specific question by adding all the key terms and phrases they want to see.
To be honest, you don't lose marks in the exam for getting something wrong, you'll just get zero, so on the longer answers, just write the entire sequences for the practicals or mitosis, etc. and you'll be fine. The grade boundaries for SNAB seem to be lower than the other Biology A-Levels, in my opinion, but the SNAB course is helpful as it helps you apply your knowledge to different scenarios.
Some people struggle with this course a lot, but others seem to fit in with it better. In my class last year, there were 2 A's and a few C's, but most of them were U's and Es: so it all depends on the person really; im really well suited to this course, because i'll put the extra work in, whereas some people will not.
If you put in some extra work and read around the topics a little, you'll be absolutely fine.
Hope this helps
PS: The coursework is horrible, by the way, so i'd follow any advice you can get on it; whatever it may be.
I took the AS last year, and got a high A out of it; that was mostly through work that i did, such as looking at Past Papers, and how the mark schemes are structured in order to get the marks for a specific question by adding all the key terms and phrases they want to see.
To be honest, you don't lose marks in the exam for getting something wrong, you'll just get zero, so on the longer answers, just write the entire sequences for the practicals or mitosis, etc. and you'll be fine. The grade boundaries for SNAB seem to be lower than the other Biology A-Levels, in my opinion, but the SNAB course is helpful as it helps you apply your knowledge to different scenarios.
Some people struggle with this course a lot, but others seem to fit in with it better. In my class last year, there were 2 A's and a few C's, but most of them were U's and Es: so it all depends on the person really; im really well suited to this course, because i'll put the extra work in, whereas some people will not.
If you put in some extra work and read around the topics a little, you'll be absolutely fine.
Hope this helps
PS: The coursework is horrible, by the way, so i'd follow any advice you can get on it; whatever it may be.
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InadequateJusticex
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#10
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#10
(Original post by wrighty1994)
Hey there,
I took the AS last year, and got a high A out of it; that was mostly through work that i did, such as looking at Past Papers, and how the mark schemes are structured in order to get the marks for a specific question by adding all the key terms and phrases they want to see.
To be honest, you don't lose marks in the exam for getting something wrong, you'll just get zero, so on the longer answers, just write the entire sequences for the practicals or mitosis, etc. and you'll be fine. The grade boundaries for SNAB seem to be lower than the other Biology A-Levels, in my opinion, but the SNAB course is helpful as it helps you apply your knowledge to different scenarios.
Some people struggle with this course a lot, but others seem to fit in with it better. In my class last year, there were 2 A's and a few C's, but most of them were U's and Es: so it all depends on the person really; im really well suited to this course, because i'll put the extra work in, whereas some people will not.
If you put in some extra work and read around the topics a little, you'll be absolutely fine.
Hope this helps
PS: The coursework is horrible, by the way, so i'd follow any advice you can get on it; whatever it may be.
Hey there,
I took the AS last year, and got a high A out of it; that was mostly through work that i did, such as looking at Past Papers, and how the mark schemes are structured in order to get the marks for a specific question by adding all the key terms and phrases they want to see.
To be honest, you don't lose marks in the exam for getting something wrong, you'll just get zero, so on the longer answers, just write the entire sequences for the practicals or mitosis, etc. and you'll be fine. The grade boundaries for SNAB seem to be lower than the other Biology A-Levels, in my opinion, but the SNAB course is helpful as it helps you apply your knowledge to different scenarios.
Some people struggle with this course a lot, but others seem to fit in with it better. In my class last year, there were 2 A's and a few C's, but most of them were U's and Es: so it all depends on the person really; im really well suited to this course, because i'll put the extra work in, whereas some people will not.
If you put in some extra work and read around the topics a little, you'll be absolutely fine.
Hope this helps
PS: The coursework is horrible, by the way, so i'd follow any advice you can get on it; whatever it may be.
Btw, what books did you use to revise and when did you start?
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MedicalMayhem
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#11
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#11
Anyone found the risk factors section not just dull, but really ambiguous to what we have to learn? :/ As I find the heart section (unit 1) alright, but then the teacher just went over the risk section really quickly, but what were the actual key points that we should gather from it?
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Frankiej
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#12
Lol yeah that's the thing, if the exam was based on the content of the textbook, a good grade seems possible, but sadly it's not and our teachers really don't help guide us in the right direction as to what we actually do need to know D: But the stuff in the texbook seems a bit rushed (can't think of the right word XD) I mean, it barely touches on a topic before moving on to the next D:
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wasting-time
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#13
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#13
thought I would just say I love biology but I hate ****ing SNAB biology. The course is crap and the textbooks are ****.
Got a high A last year aswell (hoping for A*) but I will be so glad when I get to uni and do actual biology not this crap.
lol sorry for venting I just really dislike the course.
Got a high A last year aswell (hoping for A*) but I will be so glad when I get to uni and do actual biology not this crap.
lol sorry for venting I just really dislike the course.
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*GoLdSeQuIn*
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#14
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#14
I did SNAB for my bio A level. It seems easy enough when you look at the textbook but it's the exam papers that tend to screw you up! The mark schemes are soooo specific so while you need to know your core facts from the book/extra reading , the best way to make sure you know what to do is to do practice papers one after another. Look at what you wrote and compare them to what the mark scheme wants and within time you'll get the hang of answering the questions clearly and concisely because that's what they are generally looking for. Know the mark schemes inside out because realistically there's only so much they can really ask you given that the textbook isn't overly detailed. I found they tend to reword questions year upon year. Practice papers are far more important in the last two topics of AS and especially A2 because they require you to apply your knowledge instead of reciting facts. In case you hadn't guessed already, grab past papers and mark schemes for as many years as you can get hold of!! Oh and the website helps with their annotations and stuff.
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Tench
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#15
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#15
Im in A2 doing SNAB Biology at the moment
I agree on ppl's points on the textbooks. Like most context-led courses, the textbooks emphasise quite a bit on applications and not enough on the knowledge
Also, it seems as if the authors thought it was a good idea to place a huge emphasis upon the most boring part of Biology (C'mon, you all know which topic....) and not give any consideration to the students who have to tolerate it before getting to the good stuff.
However, the mark schemes are FAR from specific (OCR are specific, Edexcel are just picky)
I agree on ppl's points on the textbooks. Like most context-led courses, the textbooks emphasise quite a bit on applications and not enough on the knowledge
Also, it seems as if the authors thought it was a good idea to place a huge emphasis upon the most boring part of Biology (C'mon, you all know which topic....) and not give any consideration to the students who have to tolerate it before getting to the good stuff.
However, the mark schemes are FAR from specific (OCR are specific, Edexcel are just picky)
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Angel123
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#16
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#16
I'm doing A2 SNAB as well
Which book do you think is better? the green one or the orange one
At AS i revised from the green one and didn't even get enough past papers done because i was trying to cover all the tiny details which is like so much :| its crazy...this year i think the orange one is much better wht do you guys think?
Which book do you think is better? the green one or the orange one
At AS i revised from the green one and didn't even get enough past papers done because i was trying to cover all the tiny details which is like so much :| its crazy...this year i think the orange one is much better wht do you guys think?
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workhardplayhard
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#17
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#17
I prefer the green one- I'm that kind of person who prefers to have the knowledge before the application. I think I'll use the green one and then do a lot of past papers to put in the application. I just find the orange one either has too little information and so it feels as thoguh I've missed out information when it comes to exam papers...
Sorry I'm doing AS atm x
Sorry I'm doing AS atm x
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wrighty1994
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#18
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#18
(Original post by InadequateJusticex)
Well done on your A Btw, what books did you use to revise and when did you start?
Well done on your A
Btw, what books did you use to revise and when did you start?
I started revising around three weeks before the exam.
I read through the SNAB revision guide quite a bit, which is a lot more helpful than the textbook.
I did a lot of past exam papers aswell, which really helped me to understand the way the mark scheme is structured, and how to get the best possible marks by using the correct phrases
Hope this helps
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Tomatochuckers
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#19
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#19
(Original post by InadequateJusticex)
Well done on your A Btw, what books did you use to revise and when did you start?
Well done on your A
Btw, what books did you use to revise and when did you start?
After going through the content- do past papers and look at the markschemes- especially useful when seeing how to structure the answers to the core practicals. Also learn how to answer graph questions- as there are many of these.
Many people lost marks in the coursework, so make sure you do exactly what your teacher (if they are good) says- and do not leave it late.
I myself hated SNAB at the beginning of yr 12- but then it got better and better as I used the CGP book and SNAB one together.
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MedicalMayhem
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#20
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#20
(Original post by workhardplayhard)
I prefer the green one- I'm that kind of person who prefers to have the knowledge before the application. I think I'll use the green one and then do a lot of past papers to put in the application. I just find the orange one either has too little information and so it feels as thoguh I've missed out information when it comes to exam papers...
Sorry I'm doing AS atm x
I prefer the green one- I'm that kind of person who prefers to have the knowledge before the application. I think I'll use the green one and then do a lot of past papers to put in the application. I just find the orange one either has too little information and so it feels as thoguh I've missed out information when it comes to exam papers...
Sorry I'm doing AS atm x
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