A Level Notes

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.

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!

Tag: A Level Notes

How I Use My Notes

How I Make My Notes