Is Biology A level hard?

im predicted a B in science GCSE, and thinking about doing it at A level, not because i enjoyed it but because it gives me more options at uni i think. What do you think of Biology A Level? Thanksa lot :smile:

I dont hate it, it was just never one i took that seriously i guess

Reply 1

Excalibur

15

I really enjoyed Biology AS - the content was far more interesting than at GCSE and you go into a lot more detail. I think there was quite a jump from GCSE - there is a million more jargon to remember, and the A level is basically about memorisation and exam technique (ie. regurgitation that complies with the mark scheme!). I think the main difficulty with Biology is volume, rather than understanding the content (the other way around with Chemistry I think). That's why a lot of people with As at GCSE went down to Cs and Ds at AS - at GCSE you can get away with minimum work, but at A level you really have to put the effort in to remember things if you want to do well.

I don't think Biology on its own will give you that many options, though. If you do it in conjunction with Chemistry, then yes. If you don't really enjoy it, it can be easy to lose motivation so watch out!

Reply 2

Mitch87

5

I got a B at GCSE Biology (mitigating circumstances and simple lazyness...) and got full marks in my Biology A-level; It's a completely different ball-game to GCSE, and whilst most will say its much harder, I think that depends on you personally. I'm not sure about your reasons for taking it, though; if you really arent that fussed on it, then I think its quite unwise to study a Science if you dont want to. However, if your quite impartial and wont deteste it such that you will fail, then fine and you should, if you put in sufficient amounts of work, do well!

Reply 3

Excalibur

15

^ Just out of interest - why did you take both Biology and Human Biology? The subjects overlap heavily and I suspect they weren't treated as distinct A levels by medical schools.

Reply 4

iceman_jondoe

18

well any subject is easy once you revise for it. Bio takes a couple of weeks to get used to, but after that if you "train" for the exams you can pass with A's all round.

Reply 5

Mitch87

5

Excalibur

^ Just out of interest - why did you take both Biology and Human Biology? The subjects overlap heavily and I suspect they weren't treated as distinct A levels by medical schools.

Its about half-overlap - quite a bit easier than just Biology really. I done it because I'm a bit of a geek and quite liked Biology, haha. I didnt do it until second year, and then I just read up bits alone and sat all the modules in June with my other A2's.

Reply 6

Excalibur

15

Mitch87

Its about half-overlap - quite a bit easier than just Biology really. I done it because I'm a bit of a geek and quite liked Biology, haha. I didnt do it until second year, and then I just read up bits alone and sat all the modules in June with my other A2's.

Ah cool. Geek :p:

Human Bio looks quite interesting actually - at least you don't have to do all the plants business :rolleyes:

Reply 7

silent ninja

19

The subject is great, and overall you learn quite a lot. But doing exams can get tedious and like has been said above, its more about regurgitation than anything. I found it the toughest to figure out the exam technique and score well in compared to the other sciences.
The material is pretty straightforward though.

Reply 8

mouse_mat

What exam board do u want to use? Edexcel repeat questions every year, and it is possible get an A by memorizing about 10 years worth of past paper answers to questions, as proven by yours truly with 270/300 for AS.

Reply 9

lizz-a-belle

i too got a B in bio GCSE. My teacher said that i would definately struggle with A Level and would probably only get an E. So i wasnt really sure about doing it, neither were my parents, but i was really keen on doing it. I thought i would struggle with the academic side of it, but, even though there are a lot of fact to learn- and not quite as much fieldwork as i had hoped, i found it ok. i got B for AS (with 7 marks off 100% in mod 2- which i think is quite an acheivement for edexcel). so i proved my teacher wrong there. I found A2 harder but the cw fieldtrip was so much fun (my best week of the whole of sixth form). i got my A2 results last week and i got a C overall- i was annoyed i didnt get a B, but it was much higher than my GCSE teacher predicted me :biggrin:

If u struggle in AS, you can always drop it. but i say give it a go, i found it a lot of fun- and u learn soo much from it.

Reply 10

Swyn

1

I struggled with the practical a lot. I got 63/90 (scraped a B) for AS, so I resat it and got 72/90 (scraping an A) the second time. I got 61/90 (high C) for A2 but I still got an A overall so I'm not bothered. All our class and other surrounding schools did rubbishly in the practical modules compared to the other modules, but that might just be WJEC... There must be a school with BRILLIANT practical results somewhere! Where are you all?

Apart from that, I LOVED biology. Loads better, easier and more interesting than chemistry, even though biology was my worst mark in the end (damn you practicals!). Do it!

Reply 11

Dust-

5

I liked biology, it's fairly straightforowards, like everyone else has said, its just a matter of learning facts, but questions can be open ended and the work comes with understanding what the question actually wants to know and not giving too little or too much (obviously too much won't lose you marks but it takes away some of your time). The practicals were few and not nearly as fun as stuff we did in chemistry but chem. is definately a lot harder to get your head around especially if you did Double award science. Biology doesnt pose the same problem, it's much easier to catch up using textbook notes.

Reply 12

silent ninja

19

mouse_mat

What exam board do u want to use? Edexcel repeat questions every year, and it is possible get an A by memorizing about 10 years worth of past paper answers to questions, as proven by yours truly with 270/300 for AS.

Good luck with A2. Its like the same old crap but twice as much.

Reply 13

RyanY

1

hmm, I found it well hard at first and a huge jump from AS. But, I worked my arse off at A2 and revised thoroughly and managed to get high A's in all my A2 modules, giving me a good A overall. I'd say, don't worry too much about the synoptic paper, I mean, I may of just stroke lucky, I didn't really revise all the AS stuff, but did all the past papers and looked at it from a diff angle. I'd say make sure, you look over the practical markschemes and how to answer analyical/ evaluation based Q.s. That saved me I think. Anyway, best of luck! :smile:

Reply 14

NW8_SW1_EC3

Among the 'real' A levels, its towards the easier side.. definately the easiest of the sciences.

Reply 15

Wangers

16

The content, once grasped is ok enough, the exams follow like a tedious argument....

Reply 16

mouse_mat

silent ninja

Good luck with A2. Its like the same old crap but twice as much.

Thanks, I figured so already. You a shenmue fan [avatar]?

Reply 17

EnglishPride

2

I've only done AS, but it's extremely easy. Chemistry and Maths make it look like GCSE stuff.

Reply 18

icapturethecastle

16

i found that as level biology was just having to learn loads of facts

the concepts aren't really very difficult

if your good at memorising a whole load of information you'll be ok

Reply 19

Supergrunch

10

The vast majority of the work involved was rote memorisation and exam technique, but some of the topics covered were interesting. I think it was the easiest A level I did, and it had the smallest workload. (my other subjects were double maths and chemistry)

Is Biology A level hard?

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