Welcome to the subject of Biology. From DNA to the evolution of species to the interaction of all living things on the planet, Biology explores the wonder of life, and it unpacks the remarkable functioning of organisms. I hope this guide gives you some tips and tricks to navigate this content rich course.

Your IA for Biology makes up 50% of your final grade. You will have 3 IAs throughout
the year, a Data Test (10%), a Student Experiment (20%) and a Research Investigation (20%). Achieving your best in the IAs will put less pressure on you during the exam period.

Data Test Preparation

The Data Test focuses on the three of the assessment criteria; apply understanding, analyse evidence and interpret evidence. It is a test designed to assess your ability to complete calculations and identify and draw conclusions about biological data sets. To prepare for this test, completing as many review questions that use datasets from graphs or tables or require you to use formulae to provide a calculated response is recommended. Practise, practice, practise is the best advice.

Student Experiment and Research Investigation

Your teacher will be your best source of guidance for these tasks. Two pieces of
advice I would give you to help you achieve your best with these IAs are:

Use the Unit Overview

Your biology teacher will have a unit overview that you will be able to access to ensure that you are covering the concepts required by QCAA. Make yourself a checklist or mind map and place it somewhere visible so you can list or check off the content as it is covered in class or as you revise it. Success is all about making sure you are confident across all the content you have covered.

Organise your notes

Notes are the best place to start revising. Research suggests that the act of writing
notes is one of the fundamental ways to retain and consolidate knowledge. Using your checklist of what you should know, make sure you have a set of notes for each of the topics. Make use of the resources provided in class to develop your notes: class PowerPoints, the Biology textbook, suggested activities from your teacher.

This will help you focus on what is an appropriate depth of knowledge and avoid wasting time scouring the Internet. Organise and annotate your notes in a way that makes them easy to refer back to when it’s time to revise. It is important you find what works for you. Organisational ideas include:

Review your notes

As you are developing your notes, you will need to periodically review them.
Throughout the year, go back and review the notes you have taken. This may be
reading over them, writing them in summary or having someone ask you questions.
Don’t forget that video resources and animations are often a good way to visualise
concepts. Use the checklist or mind map to keep track of the content you have
reviewed.

Do questions to increase confidence

The difficult part with revision is knowing what you should be focusing on. For the
external exam, you are revising content in case it is on the exam. You have two units
of content to revise so you need a strategy to work with your strengths and weaknesses. You can use your checklist or mind map to identify the content you are confident with and also those areas that you need to work on. Actively seek out questions that will test you on the concepts you need to work on. Practice questions can be found by:

Once you feel confident on a particular concept, move on to the next one. Don’t
forget to do a couple of questions on those areas you are confident as it will help
keep you motivated when you achieve success.

Create a study timetable

In the lead up to the external exam, it would be a good idea to set up a study timetable for all of your subjects. Use a simple calendar template for the weeks leading up to the exam and note when each of your exams are timetabled. Working backwards from your last exam, allocate days and times to study for your exams. You could even allocate specific topics to be covered for each subject.

Reviewing the mock exam

At the end of Unit 4, your school will have you sit a mock exam. This is a really useful
tool to see where you are at in Biology. Approach the mock just like you would the actual external exam. Set yourself a study timetable and review those areas that you are less confident in. When you get your mock exam results back there are a few things you should check:

Study and practise

To achieve your best external exam, you need to review your content and practise
exam-style questions. There are many ways to test your knowledge and it is
important that you find what works for you. Here are a few suggestions.

Perusal Time

Multiple choice questions

Your best friend when it comes to MCQs is the process of elimination. Which
responses can you cross off? Just remember while you’re staring at the
question, scratching your head, the answer is right back at you so if worse
comes to worst, make an educated guess.

Short answer questions

There are several things to be considered when approaching short answer
questions; mark allocation, cognitive verb and biology concept. Here are some
simple questions you can ask when you are completing these questions.

At the end

Timing is important in your exam. If you get stuck on a question, make a note
of the number, and move on so you can come back to it later.