A Level Biology

How I Use My Notes

Posted on July 20, 2019 by Serena

I found Bio the hardest to study for because of the huuuuuuge amount of content we had to memorise. It took ages to finish making notes and took just as long to learn them by heart. Along the way, I’ve developed my own way of studying which made life slightly easier. At least I had a routine I could follow so I didn’t have the “where do I begin” feeling anymore. If you need to get over this feeling, read on! Hopefully these tips will help!

Step one: Make notes. (Check out my last post for details on how I make my notes!) I’d suggest to make notes as soon as you finish a chapter in class. Finish as in, when you complete all the exercises and move on to the next chapter. I used to make notes before we did exercises, but later I found out exercises have lots of useful information. I ended up having to add them to my already made notes which were nearly full to the brim, literally there was no white space left. Later I decided to wait until we completely closed the chapter before I made them. But don’t make them any later than that! My number one A Level tip: Never let work pile up!! Resist the urge to do it later!! Resist!

Step two: Underline the keywords in your notes. I like to treat this step like “light memorising”. I usually do this a few days after I make the notes. I’ll go over the notes and underline the keywords with a coloured pen. Sometimes I’ll also put a box around the sub topics, to add some visual interest #visuallearner. This step is like a nice reminder for the whole chapter, without requiring too much brain power.

Step three: Memorise! Honestly, I really don’t like using the word memorise. It makes me seem like I’m just stuffing things into my brain then regurgitating it. Though, for Bio its kinda true, that’s kinda what you have to do. (But make sure you understand what you are memorising! ) So what I’d do is go section by section. I’ll read the first section, which is the top left one, then cover it, and try to recite it from memory. I try to picture the diagrams, the underlined words to help me remember. After I remember it, I move on to the next section, and the next and the next until I know all of it by heart. Some people rewrite their notes from memory, #blurting. I’ve tried it before, but for me it just takes too long and I start to get impatient so I recite it instead. If writing helps you remember, you might want to try blurting instead of reciting, everyone has a different way of studying. I do this “heavy memorising” most probably a few days before a test, depending on the length of the chapter and how difficult I find it.

A Levels

How I Make My Notes

Posted on July 17, 2019 by Serena

I’ve mentioned before I use notes as my main revision resource, especially for Biology. My note making style is kind of a cross between traditional notes and mind maps. I like to use the mind map style to compartmentalise the info, I find it easier to remember that way. The colour helps me too. Like for respiration, I will recall information by thinking of what I wrote on the top left corner of the purple page. Today I’m going to share how I make my notes for anyone curious! Hope this helps!

So first of all, I like to make my notes “pretty”, because that motivates me to make them, since it is kind of like art for me, but you totally don’t have to be so extra like me if you don’t want to. First I choose a colour for the topic. For respiration, I choose purple, so for the titles and keywords, they’ll be in purple, while the main texts will be in black.

Then I get my plain paper and punch out holes, so I don’t end up punching out my writing after I’m done. I prefer plain paper to lined paper because I can fit more in a page and since I’m a visual learner, I don’t get distracted by the lines. Before I start note making, I read through the textbook to get an idea of what sub topics there are and how much information is in the topic, and I also get out my exercises that has information I want to add.

I start by writing the title of the chapter in the middle of the page. Then I draw my first arrow from the title to the top left corner and write the title of the first sub topic, in this case “ENERGY”. Then I start writing the contents in bullet points. It is helpful to have an “arrow system”, to keep things organised, this is mine, but feel free to make your own. (It’s ok not to stick to it exactly, as long as you stick to it most of the time and you know what you are writing)

Don’t be afraid to use symbols and short forms! They can help shorten your study time and make your notes easier to read. For me, @=at, cuz=because, ∴ =therefore. And don’t write full sentences! Just take the key points!

Then you repeat the process for the next sub topic, “ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE”. I use my arrows as separators for different sub topics. Try to always write the sub topics in the same direction each time. So for example, my sequence is, ENERGY, ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE, RESPIRATION, GLYCOLYSIS, then LINK REACTION, KREBS CYCLE, so anti clockwise, then clockwise. This is so you now what sequence to read your notes in. When you fill up the first page, just flip to the back and continue. The only difference is I write the page number below the center title, so ENERGY & RESPIRATION (2).

If you want to make a summary, you can add a box like I do on the side. For extra info just use an arrow to point to an empty spot. And that’s all there is to it!

Many of my friends told me they can’t do mind maps because they’ll mess it up, but for me actually, I don’t really mind. The “imperfections” actually stand out more and I tend to remember them, haha. So there’s no such thing as mess up I think. Just do it, you know, you’ve gotta write what you’ve gotta write. Stay tuned for the next post! I’ll be sharing how I actually use them for studying!

A Levels

A Level Biology

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Serena

Ahh Biology, my favourite subject. But my least favourite to revise (oh the irony…). Going into A Levels I knew I wanted to take biology because it’s necessary for my course at university, so I never doubted my choice of taking it. Though I have some friends who didn’t enjoy it and ended up dropping biology. I think everyone has a love hate relationship with bio, keeping it is a matter of loving it more or hating it more (I love it more hehe). So, what was my experience with A Level Biology? Read on to find out.

What can I expect?

For the jump between high school and A Levels, personally I didn’t find it very big at all. Our first chapter was about cells so it was a nice warm up chapter to recall the things we learned before. We learned many similar topics as in IGCSE just in greater detail. But… well, I’m not gonna sugar coat this. Expect loads of stuff to memorise. Loads. That’s probably the most significant difference between high school and A Levels. Don’t mean to scare you or anything, just being honest. I found it quite overwhelming at first. The notes I made for each chapter was literally so packed with information, there was barely any white space left. After I found a study method that worked for me, things did become more manageable so it wasn’t all that bad. Just make sure to keep up with work so things don’t pile up!

How many papers are there?

At AS, there’s Paper 1, 2 and 3.

Paper 1: 40 MCQ questions, 1 hour
Paper 2: Structured questions, 1 hour 15 minutes
Paper 3: Practical paper, 2 hours

At A2, there’s Paper 4 and 5

Paper 4: Structured questions, 2 hours
Paper 5: Written practical, 1 hour 15 minutes

How’s the workload?

Biology took the most time compared to my other subjects just because there’s so much to memorise. For me, making notes for a chapter would take +/- 4 days, memorising it would take maybe half a day. Then I would have to go over my notes a few more times after that to make sure I really remember it. Past paper wise, I find they help jolt your memory rather than help you learn the content as with other subjects. They are still very important though because in Biology there are some really interesting(?), out of the box(?), funny(?), questions, so you’ve gotta train your brain to be flexible in that sense. Oh, a tip for revision: Make your notes/flash cards ASAP after you finish learning a chapter, even if you don’t plan on memorising right away. That way you can just focus on memorising them when exams roll around.

What’s the practical paper like?

So in Paper 3, I almost had a break down because my enzyme solution wouldn’t change colour! It was supposed to turn clear but nothing happened???? (I almost cried haha) After I came out of the lab my teacher told us that the way we present the data carried the most marks so we shouldn’t worry too much. In Paper 5, I had another mini heart attack. The question of planning an experiment was about a computerised reaction test, which we never learned before! Then the second question was about sperm count…which we also never done. In my opinion, bio practicals can be very out of the blue. They can ask what seem to be out of syllabus but they actually aren’t. What to do? Step one, do not panic like I did. Step 2, make sure to know all the possible experiment methods, even if they seem unlikely to come out, like quadrat sampling etc. Step 3, try to link those funny questions to what you know. It’s in your brain somewhere!

How’s the jump from AS to A2?

I felt the jump was bigger than from high school to A Levels. Our first A2 chapter was on respiration which involved a lot of biochemistry. I wasn’t used to it so I found it really difficult. Though as things always do, after awhile I got the hang of it and things were back on track.

Biology may be very intimidating (just look at my mountain of notes), definitely not for the faint of heart. But if you really want to, go for it! Workload aside, I really loved the content, the topics were all so interesting, my favourite was on genetic engineering and conservation. To be honest, A Level Biology helped me get a feel of the different branches of biology, which I am really grateful for! It helped me decide on my university course. For anyone with an interest in biology, I 10/10 recommend A Level Biology (though with a warning sign about the workload!).

A Levels

Biology Notes

Posted on June 15, 2019June 15, 2019 by Serena

Next up in my A Level notes series: Biology notes! I made notes for all of the topics since there’s sooooo much to memorise for bio. I did not upload all of them though, because for the first few topics, my lecturer gave us a key points sheet to fill out, so I used that as my revision resource. After awhile, I realised that wasn’t really working for me so I made notes in my own way (which is the same way I make my Chemistry notes><). Once again feel free to use these notes to help with your revision! Best of luck with your studies !! ❤

*I did CIE A Levels in 2018-2019 so the content may not be the same for other exam boards / syllabuses.