A level biology help pls
I got an A in AQA A-Level Biology and have a bit of advice to share that I wish I did earlier. So, for biology (I'm kinda quoting my teacher on this), you need memorisation, exam technique and understanding.
1.
Memorisation - use flashcards and a whiteboard to test yourself. I used Anki as I got into coding and designing my cards to look a certain way. It also has many add-ons including a pokemon one which really motivated me as I studied. I did this inbetween lectures condensing my notes, exam qs and definitions into cards and doing them every day on the way to/from school.
2.
Understanding - attend your lectures and inform your lecturer ASAP if you are stuck. if they don't help much, highly advise watching youtube videos, such as MissEstruchBiology. FuseSchool and crashcourse aren't UK specific but I find their illustrations easy to understand.
3.
Exam technique - do exam questions! This is easier said than done but the best way of doing this is to do them three times. Do it with your notes, then do them using the markscheme and add this into your notes/flashcards and then finally by memory. Some 4-6 mark exam questions can be summarised into "stock responses" and memorising these can get you lots of marks - go onto physics maths tutor and find these and memorise them to get lots of "free" marks (my teacher curated these herself for our class). Make an exam technique sheet writing difficult questions and their answers so you remember your previous mistakes!
4.
Essay - You need 4 paragraphs minimum and anymore is kinda redundant to get all marks and if you have curated stock responses, this is much easier. Each can be used as either AO1 (the importance) or AO2 (what AO1 is important for). Each topic needs to be a different spec number and these can be found on the specification. Each link has to say "importance of". Each paragraph consists of: short phrase that links AO1 to title, AO1 (topic linked to title), link AO1 to AO2, AO2 (topic linked to AO1) and link AO2 to AO1 to title. Then repeat this 4 times. Make sure each AO1 is specific, detailed and relevant. and AO2 doesn't need to be as detailed. Practice planning and writing these essays - I did once per week around March before exams so you don't need to rush on essays.
1.
Memorisation - use flashcards and a whiteboard to test yourself. I used Anki as I got into coding and designing my cards to look a certain way. It also has many add-ons including a pokemon one which really motivated me as I studied. I did this inbetween lectures condensing my notes, exam qs and definitions into cards and doing them every day on the way to/from school.
2.
Understanding - attend your lectures and inform your lecturer ASAP if you are stuck. if they don't help much, highly advise watching youtube videos, such as MissEstruchBiology. FuseSchool and crashcourse aren't UK specific but I find their illustrations easy to understand.
3.
Exam technique - do exam questions! This is easier said than done but the best way of doing this is to do them three times. Do it with your notes, then do them using the markscheme and add this into your notes/flashcards and then finally by memory. Some 4-6 mark exam questions can be summarised into "stock responses" and memorising these can get you lots of marks - go onto physics maths tutor and find these and memorise them to get lots of "free" marks (my teacher curated these herself for our class). Make an exam technique sheet writing difficult questions and their answers so you remember your previous mistakes!
4.
Essay - You need 4 paragraphs minimum and anymore is kinda redundant to get all marks and if you have curated stock responses, this is much easier. Each can be used as either AO1 (the importance) or AO2 (what AO1 is important for). Each topic needs to be a different spec number and these can be found on the specification. Each link has to say "importance of". Each paragraph consists of: short phrase that links AO1 to title, AO1 (topic linked to title), link AO1 to AO2, AO2 (topic linked to AO1) and link AO2 to AO1 to title. Then repeat this 4 times. Make sure each AO1 is specific, detailed and relevant. and AO2 doesn't need to be as detailed. Practice planning and writing these essays - I did once per week around March before exams so you don't need to rush on essays.
Thank you so much, i’ve been using quizlet and doing all the past papers from 2017 to 2022. but i just feel like nothings going in which is weird because this has never happened to me before i got AA in my other a level mocks with less revision so i just don’t know what to do anoymore lol
Fair enough, my first year had strikes and my lecturer changed mid way so my grades kinda went up and down. Definitely recommend trying to find high mark questions and memorising these as some of the questions get really formulaic with the key words they want you to get - try doing this by topic and looking at the markschemes. When I got lazy, I ended up just memorising the mark schemes for some questions and used this info so I could answer applied questions better. Sometimes the markscheme is just really specific.
yes please lol
Okay great advice thank you so much
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