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Biology, Psychology & Geography A level

I'm doing A level biology, psychology and geography. Anyone got any tips for any of these subjects? :smile:

Reply 1

Hi! A few tips from a Psych. teacher - first, double check yourself on the concepts - make sure you can explain them verbally first; 2) recognise the command words in a question, be selective with the content in your answer; if you recognise the command words, then it is indicative of AO1/2/3; 3) there is a difference how you outline, describe and explain any concept or theory; 4) make sure you write your evaluation paragraphs according to Point/Evidence/Explain/Link to a main question of your essay. As a recap, you may want to watch this for the approaches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T94T8Gx4L1g&list=WL Good luck!!!
Original post
by Leyton1790
I'm doing A level biology, psychology and geography. Anyone got any tips for any of these subjects? :smile:

I did gegraphy.
I always found past papers very useful.
Keeping notes of stuff was a good idea too.
Hello!

I'm a current final year psychology student at the University of Bath. I also did psychology and geography a-level and did very well - now I tutor it as a subject!

For Psychology:
Here are my top tips for you:

past papers are your friends, they give you practice as well as guidence on what to expect; however, use them as if they are actual exams (otherwise they won't be as helpful if you're looking at your notes while answering them!)

quizzing yourself is an excellent way of memorising, I did this by reading a page of notes and then turning it around and testing how much I remembered. I would write whatever I missed in a different coloured pen (and next time I remembered what I missed!)

a method that worked for me, not sure how well this would work for others, is colour-coding. I colour-coded every topic in A-Level Psychology, and when it came to exams, questions about specific topics were easier to answer because I remembered the specific colour I assigned to that topic.

understanding the difference between AO1,AO2,AO3 is vital for exam technique

writing in PEEL until you do it automatically is excellent practice

for any 16 marker, give yourself 5 mins minimum to plan your essay

use research methods and issues and debates for evaluation!

For Geography:

start with mindmaps to see if you understand the subject fully

explaining it to others if you can shows what you know and what you are still unsure about

flash cards for case studies work amazingly - writing factual information about your case studies and memorising it is vital

key terms should always be highlighted, these should come straight from the specification

again, colour-coding worked amazingly for me, but I'm aware it won't work for everybody.

same as psychology, quizzing yourself is a really good method of memorisation.

active recall is a scientifically-proven method of memorisation; the more you practice remembering knowledge, the greater the likelihood of actually remembering it later. I completed my A-Levels in 2022 and I still remember random bits of statistics or facts about random geography-related things because of this!

I hope this helps, happy to answer more questions.

Best wishes

University of Bath
(edited 1 month ago)

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