AQA A-Level Bio help

athena120964

Hello! Does anyone on here do AQA Bio? I've just finished my AS exams and I'm still struggling with bio. I have memorised the content but somehow I cannot answer the questions in the exam. Does anyone have and tips and tricks?

Reply 1

BankaiGintoki

Original post by athena120964

Sorry since just finished with OCR A Biology. But I can still give you advice. The advice is best said by my chemistry teacher ‘It is a grind of 50% knowledge and 50% exam experience’, so memorising content is only half the battle. It is being able to apply your knowledge to questions, understanding what you need to specifically write to get the marks. This can only be achieved through experience… past paper, reading examiner reports, checking your answer to the key points in the mark scheme, understanding the command word in the question…

As my biology teacher described, ‘your pen is a weapon’, so when you see a question, first put your pen down, think about the command word and what the question is asking, write some key words you would put in your answer around the question, just think what you would write, than pick up the pen. You are at your best when you are in a calm mind.

I just want to note that there is a difference between memorising and understanding. To test this, try to imagine you are going to explain the topic to someone in your class. Speak it, draw diagrams, link the topic to other modules in biology.