A level- which is more useful: revision guide or spec? For bio and chem aqa

Does the revision guide have too much info and possibly un useful info as it misses key mark scheme words? Spec is straight to the point no?

Reply 1

roxygen.o2

i bought the cgp revision guides and practice question books for bio and chem (also aqa). the biology one was good at simplifying complex ideas like photosynthesis and respiration (the bane of my existence :s-smilie:

) . i wouldn't recommend getting the chemistry revision guide because the mechanisms aren't too great. in the exam you get asked about the reagents and conditions and the book isn't very clear about it. personally, i think that the revision guides give more of a summary so just hope you already understand the content and you're not using a revision guide to actually teach yourself. the question booklets for both are VERY good though and are worth buying. i would recommend buying them off ebay instead of full price new ones that add up to a hefty sum.

the revision guides won't give you the exact answers for questions and you might lose marks for not having specific words in your answers. many times i've had to go through my revision guide (especially for bio) and cross out things they've said and replace it with the aqa mark scheme answer.

because of this, i strongly advise you to use the spec and the mark scheme from previous exams. you start to see a pattern and most application questions have embedded model answers. you'll see the underlined words that you need to get the mark and we all know how specific aqa can be. the spec is useful for making sure that you have all the material and you don't miss anything that might come up. for example, in my bio class we only briefly went over lipids and proteins being used as a respiratory substrate and i didn't think much of it. but looking at the spec and seeing exactly what i need to know for it was really helpful. it'll also help you know what waffle you don't need to waste your time learning. IF IT'S NOT ON THE SPEC, DON'T BOTHER!! there may be a few general knowledge things you should know. like knowing that sickle cell anaemia or cystic fibrosis is caused by the recessive allele. i think that kind of stuff would be a part of assumed knowlege. just a reminder though, the spec will give you a general idea of what you need to learn (like those learning objectives you had in primary school...or maybe just me). also the suggested practicals in the right column are really helpful because if you learn them in depth, you'll find the horrid experiment questions easier. seeing the words "a student investigated" used to give me sleepless nights!!

honestly my strongest advice would be to do past papers because there are questions that repeat but reworded for a different situation (e.g. "the dog is blue. what colour is the dog?" and "the cat is red. what colour is the cat?"). i hated getting that advise because the first few times you don't do as well as you think because of that pesky mark scheme but once you know exactly know what they want, you're in the heads of your examiners