A Level SNAB Biology - am i going the right way about revising?

ill try keep it short

im in yr12 doing biology edexcel snab
at gcse i just made flashcards from the cgp book and that was enough to secure me an 8 - important to note i did no practice questions unless it was in class

at a level ive received the advice of doing a similar approach but doing many many many practice questions to familarise myself with the wording and specificity of the mark scheme

basically im planning to do :
flashcards from markscheme and notes from teacher powerpoints
practise qs from all exam boards

does this suffice for securing an A*??

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 1

TSR Jessica

Sorry you've not had any responses about this. :frown:

Are you sure you've posted in the right place? :smile:

Here's a link to our subject forum which should help get you more responses if you post there. :redface:

Reply 2

LightHades

There are two steps to getting an A/A* in Bio at A-level. 1) Know your content back to front. 2) Be able to apply it in unfamiliar contexts. If flashcards help you memorise stuff then that's absolutely fine. But for no2, PPQs are crucial and you seem to be doing those so that checks out too! I would advise against using other exam boards, however, because they may word things differently and stuff like that. If you somehow run out off PPQs Edexcel have loads of sheets and questions in their textbook which you might already have access to - if not, ask your teacher.

One last thing, if you're shooting specifically for that A* there's, you have to be able to draw together all your knowledge from across topics. I.e. don't think of the course as split into topics, rather, you're learning biology and all these topics intertwine. Doing PPQs, you'll see how the exam board forces you to bring together all your understanding - another good way to improve this skill is by doing supercurricular work for biology. I.e. read the occassional STEM article or biofactsheet. A good exercise could be to choose a heading, like idk, proteins, and see how many links you can make between topics. E.g. for proteins: protein synthesis, protein trafficking, cystic fibrosis, clotting cascade, facilitated diffusion, genetics etc. These will all help you think about biology more holistically as opposed to compartmentalised topics.

Reply 3

younicelau

Original post by sammiek2

ill try keep it short
im in yr12 doing biology edexcel snab
at gcse i just made flashcards from the cgp book and that was enough to secure me an 8 - important to note i did no practice questions unless it was in class
at a level ive received the advice of doing a similar approach but doing many many many practice questions to familarise myself with the wording and specificity of the mark scheme
basically im planning to do :
flashcards from markscheme and notes from teacher powerpoints
practise qs from all exam boards
does this suffice for securing an A*??

I am currently in Y13 also doing SNAB and I would say unless absolutely necessary (like you really have nothing better to do with your time), don't do exam questions from other exam boards. The SNAB mark schemes are so annoyingly specific that sometimes despite your answer being perfectly logical, you don't get a mark. Try putting your focus on making sure you can nail every single point about the topic, even when it isn't in the mark scheme of the paper you are working on, as often times a point might not get you a mark in one paper, but it could in another.

Reply 4

joed124816

Original post by younicelau

Hi how did you manage to revise then? Managed to crack year 12 but A2 is a lot harder and this exam board has barely any resources- ddi you manage to find other exam questions (I have done the pmt ones)