Tips for AS-level Biology?

I am currently studying AS biology on the AQA exam board and finding it quite difficult. Its not the content I am struggling with, in fact I find it quite easy to memorise and understand it, its the actual exam questions. I can never figure out what it is the question is asking for and lose lots of marks for not using the correct terms. Any Advice? I'm aiming for an A.

Reply 1

own

Original post by Shannonscott96

I am currently studying AS biology on the AQA exam board and finding it quite difficult. Its not the content I am struggling with, in fact I find it quite easy to memorise and understand it, its the actual exam questions. I can never figure out what it is the question is asking for and lose lots of marks for not using the correct terms. Any Advice? I'm aiming for an A.

Look through a few papers and make a note of the questions and read the mark schemes. What you will find is that for longer questions, the mark schemes tend to be very similar between papers, it's just the questions are dressed up in a different way. Once you've read a few it becomes quite easy to figure it out and you can just spool everything off. I had the same problem with chem, As long as your learning is good, you should be fine! You've still got.7 months, it'll come it just takes time... :smile:

Reply 2

daniel1005

4

Original post by Shannonscott96

I am currently studying AS biology on the AQA exam board and finding it quite difficult. Its not the content I am struggling with, in fact I find it quite easy to memorise and understand it, its the actual exam questions. I can never figure out what it is the question is asking for and lose lots of marks for not using the correct terms. Any Advice? I'm aiming for an A.

When I started AS biology I had the same problems with exam questions. What I found best is using exam style questions answers, when you go through past papers make notes on similar questions that pop up each year or so and learn the answers. I made notes on the mark scheme and learnt the answers together with using CGP revision guide and I got an A. Learn the content to a certain depth then learn how to manipulate this into exam answers.

Reply 3

Shannonscott96

OP

2

Thank you both so much I think in will try learning it from the mark scheme as well as my notes. :smile:

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Reply 4

Veqz

4

Original post by Shannonscott96

Thank you both so much I think in will try learning it from the mark scheme as well as my notes. :smile:

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Be specific when answering. For example, I lost marks for writing "rare species" instead of "endangered species". Seems fairly obvious now but at the time I thought they were the same thing. Apparently not :K:

Reply 5

Shannonscott96

OP

2

I have done that a few times already. I also have trouble when there is a lot of information as I cant quite tell what the question is asking for and describing graphs.

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Reply 6

username1042689

21

Eat the textbook, past papers and the scarily specific mark schemes, then vomit it all up onto the exam paper = A+

Reply 7

Jooooshy

17

Learn to apply knowledge

Reply 8

username984585

20

Original post by paradoxicalme

Eat the textbook, past papers and the scarily specific mark schemes, then vomit it all up onto the exam paper = A+

Fabulous advice!! :biggrin:

That's basically what I did. I ended up with an A at AS, doing A2 now. :smile:

Reply 9

Ben Kenobi

memorise all the markschemes answers and read examiner reports.

Reply 10

JackTheNerd

7

Original post by Shannonscott96

I am currently studying AS biology on the AQA exam board and finding it quite difficult. Its not the content I am struggling with, in fact I find it quite easy to memorise and understand it, its the actual exam questions. I can never figure out what it is the question is asking for and lose lots of marks for not using the correct terms. Any Advice? I'm aiming for an A.

I think a lot of people are in this position, I was last year too. I found that, especially in biol1 the same style of questions come up, so you can just learn mark schemes and know what you need to get those marks.

For the HSW sort of questions, again there are parts that are repeated - why you repeat the test, define reliabilty/validity, what the control experiment could be etc. I find that just doing questions from textbooks,( you can find Nelson Thornes' examination style question answers here somewhere) and doing all the past papers on the AQA website, then going back to the old spec papers ( some of the content is similar, and question style). Just keep on practicing regularly and a lot, and make sure you learn from your mistakes and you'll improve gradually. Good luck!

Resources
- xtremepapers.com - old spec papers

Absolutely amazing resources for biol1 and two -
- http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2157602
-http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2159981

Tips for AS-level Biology?

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