URGENT!!!!!!!!!most effective way to study biology chemistry A level

A level biology help on youtube will be your best friend for aqa bio in terms of hitting those key terms she narrows topics down to the level of detail you need to know and then just do lots of past papers to really know what the mark scheme requires and what the ‘type’ of question requires! and obviously review ur older notes and tests to see what u were doing right and wrong. maybe re do some tests to see if there are significant changes in marks.

Original post by cr7090121

hi guys I am a retake student planning to retake biology and chemistry which I achieved CC in and honestly the workflow I put in last year was minimal I was quite arrogant and I was getting nice grades practicing by myself maybe a month before the exam I was revising nicely probably what got me the Cs. but I don't know why a week before exam I had no intention to revise , I am kinda unsure of how to revise aqa bio and ocr chemistry for the retake next year as I am revising it independently I was thinking of doing every exam question I find on every single site and if I don't feel confident then I revise the module / topic using unlearn or YouTube resources , Is my method correct for me to achieve the two A* or is it ineffective because I am testing my knowledge on outdated exam questions please help me as I am really confused and I hate being that unsure about something

Reply 3

OP

Original post by Scotney

I would look at some YouTube videos that explain how the wording of questions helps you put in the correct level of information.So if it is a 6mark question you know how to pick up all 6 marks.Could you afford a few tuition sessions at all?This would help you with topics you find difficult.

I can indeed afford tuition sessions but I find pretty much useless most of the time Idk why

Reply 4

OP

Original post by xyzxyz2004

A level biology help on youtube will be your best friend for aqa bio in terms of hitting those key terms she narrows topics down to the level of detail you need to know and then just do lots of past papers to really know what the mark scheme requires and what the ‘type’ of question requires! and obviously review ur older notes and tests to see what u were doing right and wrong. maybe re do some tests to see if there are significant changes in marks.

thank you very much just looked at the channel right now the Videos look promising btw I also have uplearn for bio and chem you think useful? also should I focus on exam questions or revise for couple months and then do questions (this is my main concern honestly) ?

Reply 5

Scotney

20

Original post by cr7090121

thank you very much just looked at the channel right now the Videos look promising btw I also have uplearn for bio and chem you think useful? also should I focus on exam questions or revise for couple months and then do questions (this is my main concern honestly) ?

You have to learn the content first.Son says just learn whole biology text book!Make notes and flash cards and mind maps.There are no short cuts here.Youtube will help you apply that knowledge to questions Tutor can work with you on topics you are struggling to understand concepts of.But hard work is the answer I am afraid.

Reply 6

TypicalNerd

18

As above, consistent hard work and use of active recall are the ways to go for both subjects as they are very memorisation dependent.

By OCR chemistry, I’m guessing you mean OCR chemistry A. In terms of resources, I recommend Davies A level chemistry (for walkthroughs of past exam papers), Allery Chemistry, MaChemGuy and Mr Murray-Green Chemistry Tutorials (to cover the content) and Physics and Maths Tutor (for notes, exam papers and questions).

Reply 7

xyzxyz2004

I definitely would say for A level chemistry as I was taught too, do like a topic for example group 7 learn it and then do a bunch of questions and then mark them and re learn areas you’re doing wrong. chemistry is much more easier to understand if you do questions right away with the right amount of practice over time you will be able to do questions without even having to look over your notes. definitely learn a topic and then do questions and then go to the next topic and repeat this process. same with biology, you never truly know if you understand it unless you do exam questions. dont revise a bunch of stuff for the first couple months and do questions later, ur exam will be questions so get a habit of doing them recognising question types familiarising with different levels of difficulties for similar question types!

Original post by cr7090121

thank you very much just looked at the channel right now the Videos look promising btw I also have uplearn for bio and chem you think useful? also should I focus on exam questions or revise for couple months and then do questions (this is my main concern honestly) ?

Reply 8

xyzxyz2004

another thing to add, print out ur spec and tick each topic u do as u go along. textbooks contain overwhelming amounts of information try using ur spec and textbooks simultaneously to understand what you should really be looking at. our college never gave us textbooks they made their own booklets using the textbook as a guide. side note: MISS ESTRUCH on youtube is amazing too! thanks to her so many people knew what the essay was going to be she predicted both correctly for this year! and yeah up learn is good for notes, u can use savemyexams for notes there are notes on physics and maths tutor too! (sorry just want the best for u bombarded u with info)

Original post by cr7090121

thank you very much just looked at the channel right now the Videos look promising btw I also have uplearn for bio and chem you think useful? also should I focus on exam questions or revise for couple months and then do questions (this is my main concern honestly) ?

Reply 9

kaorimiyazono

19

Do as many exam Qs as possible. Study mind and Physics and Maths Tutor have a ton. Make sure you mark them and identify the wording used in the mark schemes and practice doing them under time pressure, closed book. Go over topics that you score badly. Good luck!!

Reply 10

OP

Original post by xyzxyz2004

another thing to add, print out ur spec and tick each topic u do as u go along. textbooks contain overwhelming amounts of information try using ur spec and textbooks simultaneously to understand what you should really be looking at. our college never gave us textbooks they made their own booklets using the textbook as a guide. side note: MISS ESTRUCH on youtube is amazing too! thanks to her so many people knew what the essay was going to be she predicted both correctly for this year! and yeah up learn is good for notes, u can use savemyexams for notes there are notes on physics and maths tutor too! (sorry just want the best for u bombarded u with info)

no do not worry what you said is what I am doing right now maybe Miss Ostrich is a new one and the spec thing , as of right now I am revising a whole topic / module and do all questions in pmt and by February I should've finished everything and from February I will start doing every questions I see on study mind because their pdf are long so it will take me a lot of time finishing them.
thanks for the advice I really appreciate it

Reply 11

OP

Original post by kaorimiyazono

Do as many exam Qs as possible. Study mind and Physics and Maths Tutor have a ton. Make sure you mark them and identify the wording used in the mark schemes and practice doing them under time pressure, closed book. Go over topics that you score badly. Good luck!!

yeah I think I need to include a stop watch maybe I will start timing in February when I start doing questions from study mind as the pdf there are huge for each topic like amount of substance pdf was like 100 marks , but right now I will just focus on learning topics and do questions from pmt each time I finish a topic do questions hopefully I get them A*
thanks

Reply 12

OP

Original post by Scotney

You have to learn the content first.Son says just learn whole biology text book!Make notes and flash cards and mind maps.There are no short cuts here.Youtube will help you apply that knowledge to questions Tutor can work with you on topics you are struggling to understand concepts of.But hard work is the answer I am afraid.

Honestly I am working my hardest ever right now ,but learning all the content first and then doing exam questions after I finished everything isn't that a bit useless because that would just mean I am going to have just revise / learning content without testing my skills its not efficient however its very good for active recall that's why my plan is to combine what everyone said here which is for example, do topic 1 bio learn content and do all questions in pmt and so on until I finish every topic in both bio and chemistry I am expecting to finish all topics by the 1st of February the latest after finishing everything I will start doing all exam question on study mind which have some of the best detailed questions ive seen 100% better than pmt is that a good plan ? what do you guys think

Reply 13

kariaxx

Original post by cr7090121

hi guys I am a retake student planning to retake biology and chemistry which I achieved CC in and honestly the workflow I put in last year was minimal I was quite arrogant and I was getting nice grades practicing by myself maybe a month before the exam I was revising nicely probably what got me the Cs. but I don't know why a week before exam I had no intention to revise , I am kinda unsure of how to revise aqa bio and ocr chemistry for the retake next year as I am revising it independently I was thinking of doing every exam question I find on every single site and if I don't feel confident then I revise the module / topic using unlearn or YouTube resources , Is my method correct for me to achieve the two A* or is it ineffective because I am testing my knowledge on outdated exam questions please help me as I am really confused and I hate being that unsure about something

honestly don't blame you for retaking, the exams for both were awful!! literally do all the past physics maths tutor past exam qs on them all, elliot rintoul on youtube gives the best chem explanations and super specific to spec!! just keep it organised and tackle whats hard. i know it hard to motivate yourself for the more challenging topics but thats the best way. also if you can teach someone else or make notes in a way someone else would understand is always fun. mind maps on websites like miro too for bio are amazing!

Reply 14

OP