AQA A level Biology extremely difficult

Hi , I was wondering if I could get any tips on Biology A level. I have mocks next month and Im growing really frustrated. I do past paper questions and I know I know the content but I just don't think like how the examiners/mark scheme want me to think.

Atm I write down the answers exactly from the qs I get wrong from each topic but I'm still getting new ones wrong. I really want an A but it just seems so far out of my reach. I take chemistry as well and I find it easier than bio, don't get me wrong Im not amazing at it but the way things are going I think its more doable to get an A in that than in bio.

Any help would be appreciated xx

bump

Thats the thing that is really annoying me about Biology. The mark schemes are way too specific and mean that even when your answers are correct, you will lose marks just because you haven't said it in a certain way.

Reply 3

arielynjoan

Original post by Goldfish4343

Exactly, its like they don't want any candidates to do well

Reply 4

Dizgurl

Personally I'd recommend looking and learning through mark scheme answers to see how they want you to word a particular answer and then apply those to the different questions they ask.
So for enzymes, I do OCR A, and I know for a fact that a mark will come for saying 'the substrate shape is complementary to that of the active site of the enzyme, and thus an Enzyme substrate complex can form.' However, I know I have to word it like that specifically, because that is always how its written in the mark scheme.
Biology is all about application of knowledge, so when I get a question, I always look for connections with other topics ( usually some of the questions are actually worded in a way to hint that they want you to combine knowledge from multiple topics). Obviously it won't be explicit, but once you see it, you'll realise how the question is guided to use knowledge from more than one topic.