How to revise for Synoptic Paper (Unifying Concepts)

This paper, as my teachers have said again and again, is the hardest one. I know what they mean, trying to understand the whole of the AS modules and Central concepts PLUS having to have certain skills eg linking concepts...
How do I revise for it??? I am so scared. I don't want to do past papers yet, I'm saving that for closer to the exams. I know I need to learn content from the whole of AS, so how do I revise for the skills I need to answer the questions??? Im scared! :frown:

This paper is going to be HARD!

Reply 1

Jackathon

I'm scared too, but its not supposed to be that bad. Its not the entire of the AS modules is it? Is it not marked out like the GCSE revision guides used to be? Heres hoping. :frown:

Reply 2

shenzys

OP

17

No, apparently its not, but I saw my teachers today and theysaid yu do need to know whats been covered in AS, basically everything...Aaaaah!

Reply 3

Jackathon

Oh deaaaar. Well I just retook health and I know that okish, and I'm going to retake foundations so I'm going to have to revise that anyway. We can't have to know it all in huge detail. That'd be unreasonable!

But, this is the same unreasonable exam board that make me do Chaucer without a book. So, they could quite well make us do it all.

Reply 4

Laura25

5

I did AS two years ago so can't remember anything! I'm really not looking forward to the Unifying exam.

Reply 5

Sean3000

8

Dont worry about it, if its the hardest people will score the lowest and grade boundaries will come down accordingly. As for having to revise all of AS again, you will find that the test is less about testing your memory on the specifics, but more about the 'being able to think like a biologist'. I have found that A2 biology incorperates most of the AS stuff anyway (particulaly active transport mechanisms).
Maybe im sad but I actually enjoy these papers, I find them to be similar to a puzzle whereby you can link together different aspects of biology.
but like I said dont panic, you dont need the specific, fine details of the individual modules just the concepts.

Reply 6

iainmacn

10

Have a dig around on the bio forum and there's a list of possible questions (many taken from past papers) that we came up with last year.

My approach was to draw spider diagrams (making sure I brought links in across topics) and then I used this as a rough essay plan. If essay writing isn't your strong suite then I'd recommend writing at least some of the essays from the spider chart.

Any past papers you can get are useful too - I do think it's helpful to review the AS stuff. Last year the mod 3 paper only had limited coverage and then they stuck more of it on the mod 6 paper - I was glad I did the AS and A2 in one year, but some other people struiggled to remember the AS stuff as they hadn't done it for a year

Reply 7

VAI2007

1

I didn't, I just did past papers.

Reply 8

vi_26

iainmacn

Have a dig around on the bio forum and there's a list of possible questions (many taken from past papers) that we came up with last year.

My approach was to draw spider diagrams (making sure I brought links in across topics) and then I used this as a rough essay plan. If essay writing isn't your strong suite then I'd recommend writing at least some of the essays from the spider chart.

Any past papers you can get are useful too - I do think it's helpful to review the AS stuff. Last year the mod 3 paper only had limited coverage and then they stuck more of it on the mod 6 paper - I was glad I did the AS and A2 in one year, but some other people struiggled to remember the AS stuff as they hadn't done it for a year

if you could give us the link for that discussion i'd be so grateful. Even if you can remember the name?

I resat foundation and HHAD so that's pretty much in my head and i'm re-sitting foundation AGAIN. Only went up by 1 ums mark so very annoyed with that. I'm determined to get an A

Reply 9

AmyJamie

Hey, i did my paper in january and got 88/120 which was a B, and the way i revised was to go over all of AS and A2 content (central concepts and bio1) and the day before the exam because i left it last minute just went over papers, i think the papers are good to go over cus u get how to answer questions, but yeah that paper is tricky speically the 7 marker they can make it easy or really hard ? .. but i think if u do get all of the content u need u shood b fine :-) x

Reply 10

zayzay20

AmyJamie

Hey, i did my paper in january and got 88/120 which was a B, and the way i revised was to go over all of AS and A2 content (central concepts and bio1) and the day before the exam because i left it last minute just went over papers, i think the papers are good to go over cus u get how to answer questions, but yeah that paper is tricky speically the 7 marker they can make it easy or really hard ? .. but i think if u do get all of the content u need u shood b fine :-) x

Oh my god!
Thank you soo much for this! I was really scared about unifying concepts which I have in a few days time! This makes me feel more confident about it! Thanks so much! Lol!

Reply 11

juicyfruit

16

The paper is out of 60 right? Then your coursework is out of 60 also right?
I got 56/60 on the coursework... meaning I only need.... 34/60 on the paper to get 90/120 which is an A grade right? If that is the case I feel an awful lot better now as have been getting in the 40's on practise papers :smile: