AQA Biology and chemistry retake advise-urgent

I will be working independantly to retake AQA biology and chemistry a-levels, what advise do you have me , what resources should I get and how many hours a day should I do of both in order to get A/A*...originally I did horrible

Hello!
I studied both AQA A-Level Biology and Chemistry and achieved an A in both Bio and Chem.
My advice here is after learning and revising some of the content: do as many past papers as you can, you will soon notice a pattern in the way they want you to formulate your answers.
Make sure after you've done a past paper you mark it as harshly as possible, do not be nice and say that's close enough, particularly with A-Level Bio - they are looking for KEY words.
The best thing I did was print out the mark scheme specification and figure out what the marks are actually being rewarded for.
Further after completing each paper, I made a flashcard with the word MARCKS written down the side meaning:
M: maths error (genuine mistake in your calculation)
A: application (you didn't apply the content correctly)
R: reading the question (silly mistake, didn't answer the question with what it was asking for)
C: communication (didn't communicate the answer in the way that was needed e.g. missed a key word etc...)
K: knowledge (just didn't know how to answer the question)
S: statements (maybe the question needed two bullet points/answers and you only put one)
On here I put how many points I lost in the paper and categorised each into one of the categories stated above e.g. 4 marks lost for communication and 13 for knowledge. Here, you can see what you lost marks for!! This is crucial to understanding how to improve - after you have done this WORK on those areas. E.g. if you keep getting lots of marks lost because of knowledge learn the content and revise it through study methods such as blurting (this is an incredible and very effective study method), flashcards etc... Identifying problem areas is the thing that likely helped me the most, rather than just spending hours going over content I already knew. Ensure that you UNDERSTAND the content, not just know it to ensure you don't lose marks on application questions. Printing/looking at the actual specification for the exam also helps, with this you can highlight it red, amber or green to know what you understand vs don't and it tells you everything you need to know so you don't waste time learning stuff that's not even on it! When revising merge the green and red and amber topics together in a study session so you're not just getting disheartened by going over topics you struggle with all at once.
Resources I suggest:
Books-wise, the AQA revision guides for A-Level are good.
YouTube is incredible for A-Level Bio and Chem. (but don't just watch the videos - actively learn from them). Here are some channels I recommend:
BIOLOGY:
@MissEstruchBiology
@Primrose_Kitten
@AlevelBiologyHelp
CHEMISTRY:
@Allery Chemistry
@MaChemGuy
@Primrose_Kitten
With regards to how many hours you should study, I wouldn't worry about meeting a quota.
Rather than focusing on hours spent revising focus on what you're actually learning and how you are doing it.
It's better to do 2hours of very focused learning than 6 hours of stuff that probably won't help you remember anything and stress you out.
The Pomoroda technique is really useful if you haven't tried it, I did 50mins of work then a 10min break and repeated this! But everyone learns differently!
If I was doing a past paper that would count as my studying for the day (after sixth form)! I would complete the paper and then carry out the review method I mentioned above! Being very harsh with my marking or sometimes getting other people who studied it to mark them or even teachers to avoid bias all together.
Hope this helps,
carxlinefxrbes_ 🙂