How to Prepare for Level 3 Applied Science?

Hi, I'm in my first year at college studying ICT, but I've decided that it isn't for me and I've got a place to study Applied Science (biomedical pathway) in September at the same college.

I'm really excited and i got good grades in Science at GCSE, but I'm worried that I'll be behind since I've not studied science in over a year.

I'd like to spend my summer brushing up on my knowledge and getting ready, are there any good resources that current students of Applied Science have that are good for the course? like textbooks, videos, websites, honestly anything that is relevant to the subject.

thank you!

Hi, I am in Y13 doing BTEC Applied Science, nearly finished with my course, just finishing coursework.

There are quite a lot of points and the course is different from school to school, for example, I did my optional units the first year instead of y13 but I'll try condense some good points - apologies if its a bit over the place.

-Firstly, I recommend really working hard in year 12 on coursework as it definitely creeps up on you. The hardest coursework units are the mandatory ones which are 2, 4 and 6. The easiest exam is Unit 1 as it has fewer points to your final grade, and it's likely you will sit this in your first year. Also, in my sixth form we were able to sit some of the other exams like Unit 3 (Science investigation skills) in first year and then again in the winter and the summer again if you want to improve your grade. The hardest exam units are 3, 5, and 7 as they have more points to final grade, and these are the particularly important to do well if you want higher grades, however all exam and coursework Unit 1-7 you must pass to successfully do the qualification.

-A tip I have is keeping all your coursework in one concise place, I did it on OneDrive and created a word template for all of my assignments (you can look for a youtube tutorial on this) which had the space for my title and name, page numbers, reference table, and font all kept the same so I did not have to add them each time I got an assignment and could do them instantly. I then went on the template and saved one for each Unit and learning aim e.g. Unit 2 -> LA A -> Document: ''[My name] - Unit 2 LA A - 1st sub]''. Another thing that helped me was I asked my teachers for the assignment brief for each bit of coursework so the title of the assignment which comes on the assignment brief I could easily add to each of my templates.

-It is pretty standard I recommend getting the Pearson BTEC Applied Science Student books 1 and 2 as well as the BTEC Applied Science revision guide and workbook which has stuff for all the exam units 1, 3, 5 and 7, however, I would ask if your college provides them as I bought revision guide and workbook but my school got them anyways.

-Past papers are lifesavers in BTEC annoyingly a lot of them are blocked from 2019 onwards but you can ask your teacher or BTEC Internal verifier to get access and print them off for you.

-Also, another tip I haven't really heard of is I would use say the digital version of the assignment brief or spec emailed to me by a teacher and then add the marking criteria off of the spec to the bottom of my assignment so I don't have to keep looking back or down at the printed spec. Also, it is good to ask your teachers if they have any marking checklists they use as mine did and it helped.

- Please try doing exams note-making as soon as possible as I was
Some good YouTubers are:
BTEC Applied Science Help
Bioteach
Bryson Chemistry
Sydenham science (good for unit 2 practicals)

They are all a bit hit or miss but can be good for some units and exams for example the first one I used to make my Unit 5 bio and physics notes as well as the revision guide, however in exams I only read the student book as its only written to follow the spec and can be not specific enough or too specific sometimes but good to read to get some general knowledge.

Really it is good to have a good read through the specification which is online, from what I have discussed here it is my experience in the Extended Diploma which is the equivalent to three A-levels and I assume you might be doing the same since you have said the Biomedical science route which I believe is the extended diploma and do 6 optional units, however, if you are doing the double or single it would be different and require different units.
It becomes a lot easier to understand once you begin the course as it was the same for me, and over time become more to terms with how all of it works.

Here are a couple videos which might help in extension to what I have said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyphZxphSyQ&t=20s

https://youtu.be/FlJySRIkYNA

Hope this helps somewhat, and good luck