Help with A-level biology :(

Hi,

I've recently been struggling with biology. In Year 12, I got an A in almost every test and mock, my lowest grade was a B, although the excitement of starting A-levels motivated me to put loads of work in, which I am perhaps not doing now. I am predicted an A, but now in Year 13 I barely scraped a B in the mocks (3marks off), and I got put on intervention where I have to do a past paper every week.

So far I have done two and my scores have gone down, earning me a B and a C. To be honest, I didn't revise for them as I have been busy with year 13 content and chapter tests etc. But it's getting really frustrating- all of the past papers I've done are Yr12 content, so I wonder if it's just slipped out of my head or something. I feel lost at what to do.

Any advice on how to make year 12 stick whilst trying to understand year 13, and how I can improve my grade to get the A that I want?

I am AQA spec if that helps.
Thanks :smile:

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 1

flowersinmyhair

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Study Forum Helper

18

Original post by 176253

Hi,

I've recently been struggling with biology. In Year 12, I got an A in almost every test and mock, my lowest grade was a B, although the excitement of starting A-levels motivated me to put loads of work in, which I am perhaps not doing now. I am predicted an A, but now in Year 13 I barely scraped a B in the mocks (3marks off), and I got put on intervention where I have to do a past paper every week.

So far I have done two and my scores have gone down, earning me a B and a C. To be honest, I didn't revise for them as I have been busy with year 13 content and chapter tests etc. But it's getting really frustrating- all of the past papers I've done are Yr12 content, so I wonder if it's just slipped out of my head or something. I feel lost at what to do.

Any advice on how to make year 12 stick whilst trying to understand year 13, and how I can improve my grade to get the A that I want?

I am AQA spec if that helps.
Thanks :smile:

You need to make sure you are revising the past content alongside the new content. It may also be useful to make links between content you learned in year 12 and the content you are learning now (that's how the A-level course I'm doing works, but I do a different exam board).

Reply 2

totallyfine

9

If you can find key word lists for AQA, I would ensure you memorise these. This, and exam question technique, is very important.
Although it is difficult to do yr13 and also the yr 12 intervention work, it is essential in keeping on top of the content you will need to know by June.
Good luck, I know this stage of the course is really hard but keep working and it will come back. The A grades last year show you get it, so it is down to memorising it now.

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 3

jacobelordilover

3

Anyone know any good websites to help revise biology im also strugglin and the fact my teacher hasnt been in for the past 3 weeks and i had a mock today didnt help. I lit cried in my mock lollllllll defo got a C at best

Reply 4

176253

OP

11

Original post by jacobelordilover

Anyone know any good websites to help revise biology im also strugglin and the fact my teacher hasnt been in for the past 3 weeks and i had a mock today didnt help. I lit cried in my mock lollllllll defo got a C at best

Hi, since I posted this I managed to SCRAPE an A in my mock. Literally one mark less and I would be a B but at least I finally got my grade up. I just watched Miss Estruch biology videos or read the textbook as a recap, and then went on the Physics and Maths Tutor website to get past paper questions. I have learnt that exam technique is definitely the most important, rather than agonising over knowing all of the content perfectly.

Good luck and hopefully we both get the grade we want in the summer :smile:

Original post by 176253

Hi,
I've recently been struggling with biology. In Year 12, I got an A in almost every test and mock, my lowest grade was a B, although the excitement of starting A-levels motivated me to put loads of work in, which I am perhaps not doing now. I am predicted an A, but now in Year 13 I barely scraped a B in the mocks (3marks off), and I got put on intervention where I have to do a past paper every week.
So far I have done two and my scores have gone down, earning me a B and a C. To be honest, I didn't revise for them as I have been busy with year 13 content and chapter tests etc. But it's getting really frustrating- all of the past papers I've done are Yr12 content, so I wonder if it's just slipped out of my head or something. I feel lost at what to do.
Any advice on how to make year 12 stick whilst trying to understand year 13, and how I can improve my grade to get the A that I want?
I am AQA spec if that helps.
Thanks :smile:

Hi @176253,

It can get really difficult to manage your time and attention to studying Y13 content whilst still making sure you don't forget Y12/AS content at the same time. Here are a couple things I did during my a-levels that helped me out:

1) Using specification points: this may sound obvious, but it’s often overlooked. I made sure I constantly referred with my spec points every time I revised to ensure I was sufficiently covering the content of each topic. The spec points tell you exactly everything you need to know, nothing more and nothing less.

2) Summarising chapters: For biology, with the help of the spec points I found it really helpful to go through each chapter and make a summary for each topic. I used the Cornell note method to summarise each chapter. In the summaries I also tried to encapsulate what the examiners will want to see from our answers. I identified this by reading through examiners reports. By the time it was my final exams in A2 it was so helpful to have these summary sheets for me to look back at when I needed a refresh.

Hope this helps,
Danish
BCU Student Rep

Reply 6

Rohan007best

15

Original post by 176253

Hi, since I posted this I managed to SCRAPE an A in my mock. Literally one mark less and I would be a B but at least I finally got my grade up. I just watched Miss Estruch biology videos or read the textbook as a recap, and then went on the Physics and Maths Tutor website to get past paper questions. I have learnt that exam technique is definitely the most important, rather than agonising over knowing all of the content perfectly.
Good luck and hopefully we both get the grade we want in the summer :smile:

hi what exam board ru and which textbook did u use

Help with A-level biology :(

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