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AQA A-level Biology Unit 1 26th May 2016

**THIS IS ONLY FOR ALEVEL BIOLOGY UNIT 1 - RESIT - NOT NEW SPECIFICATION**
Hi Im new to this and I cannot find any thread for this one so I decided to create one. Anyways how you guys feeling about this exam? Please share revision tips and feel free to ask questions and post whatever you like here as long as it is related to this one.

Here are some revision notes I find useful:
- Mr Pollock - YouTube
- VBiology - http://vbio.weebly.com/aqa-unit-1-revision-pack.html-
https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B8...dmd6Mjk3WVRLZw - (I found this somewhere from this website)

Good luck :smile:
(edited 7 years ago)

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Original post by Ordo
I cannot find any thread for this one so I decided to create it :P
Anyways how you guys feeling about this exam?


Cramming everything about the digestive system at the moment.
What about you?
Reply 2
Original post by Namita Gurung
Cramming everything about the digestive system at the moment.
What about you?


I made condensed revision notes and will be doing past papers soon
Original post by Ordo
I made condensed revision notes and will be doing past papers soon


Don't know if you've been on the physics and maths tutor website or not but it's amazing - there's past paper questions on each topic.
Reply 4
Original post by Namita Gurung
Don't know if you've been on the physics and maths tutor website or not but it's amazing - there's past paper questions on each topic.


I've heard this website before but I rarely used it.
I like vbiology website though.
Original post by Ordo
I've heard this website before but I rarely used it.
I like vbiology website though.


Oh wow - first time seeing this website. Thanks.
Is this new spec or resitting? I'm resitting unit 1


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Reply 7
Original post by Sacred Ground
Is this new spec or resitting? I'm resitting unit 1


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This is AQA A level Biology (2410) specification, not new one.
Original post by Ordo
This is AQA A level Biology (2410) specification, not new one.


Ok cool, I'm sitting this exam then. I got 82 in this exam last year so resitting for 90+ UMS. Thought I may aswell resit because I don't really need to know anything extra (need to know everything for unit 5 anyway.) I found the exam last year very difficult tbh for unit 1 but I'm ready for this years; hopefully they don't make it 76% data interpretation like last years.


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Reply 9
Original post by Sacred Ground
Ok cool, I'm sitting this exam then. I got 82 in this exam last year so resitting for 90+ UMS. Thought I may aswell resit because I don't really need to know anything extra (need to know everything for unit 5 anyway.) I found the exam last year very difficult tbh for unit 1 but I'm ready for this years; hopefully they don't make it 76% data interpretation like last years.


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Same. It's worth to resit to boost grade up and to remind yourself in unit 1 contents which is useful for synoptic question in unit 5. Last year I did well in unit 2 but not unit 1, probably because I was awful at application questions. Hopefully this year the paper is not too difficult. Good luck anyways :smile:

Any revision tips on this?
I only made some notes with answers from past papers (I've done 6 papers so far). Then I condensed it to simple bullet points. Im currently using vbiology website for questions in each topic.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Ordo
Same. It's worth to resit to boost grade up and to remind yourself in unit 1 contents which is useful for synoptic question in unit 5. Last year I did well in unit 2 but not unit 1, probably because I was awful at application questions. Hopefully this year the paper is not too difficult. Good luck anyways :smile:

Any revision tips on this?
I only made some notes with answers from past papers (I've done 6 papers so far). Then I condensed it to simple bullet points. Im currently using vbiology website for questions in each topic.


That's exactly what I'm doing - condensing notes and past papers. What did you get in unit 1 last year? The only issue we have is that only people resitting will be doing unit 1 due to the new spec and so the grade boundaries are gonna be sky high because there's no AS candidates to pull them down
Original post by Sacred Ground
That's exactly what I'm doing - condensing notes and past papers. What did you get in unit 1 last year? The only issue we have is that only people resitting will be doing unit 1 due to the new spec and so the grade boundaries are gonna be sky high because there's no AS candidates to pull them down


Or perhaps a lot of A2 students will assume they don't need to do much revision for it since its only unit 1 and not do so well?
Original post by BigDaddy97
Or perhaps a lot of A2 students will assume they don't need to do much revision for it since its only unit 1 and not do so well?


Lol hopefully
Does anyone have any predictions for those longer questions at the back?

I didn't do so well at those last year! I still got an A overall because I did well in unit 2, but I got 75 ums in biol1 and os my teacher said it was worth resitting to pull my mark up and also because like someone else said it helps for unit 5 too :smile:
How do you guys prepare for data questions in general? I mean they make up like 60% of the paper nowadays


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I got 90 something on this paper last year, my biggest tip for all of you is recording the ms answers somewhere as they are very repetitive and I really suggest the physics math tutor website that someone mentioned above it made the difference for me as I went through topic based question the day before the exam and it felt like I have seen every question during the exam and knew exactly what the ms will say about each question. Goodluck everyone!
Does anyone have a link to the unit 1 specimen paper? I can only seem to find the mark scheme for it and my teacher couldn't find it either. So wondering if anyone here has it or knows where to find it?
No couldn't find that link maybe aqa have taken it down 😒 Would have been useful


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Reply 18
I actually have a printed copy of it here
But my teacher gave it to me last year
Reply 19
Original post by Oliver_1_2
Does anyone have a link to the unit 1 specimen paper? I can only seem to find the mark scheme for it and my teacher couldn't find it either. So wondering if anyone here has it or knows where to find it?

I have a hardcopy of the paper here. Dont know where it is online though.

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