VCE Biology

[irachand]

Hi there,

I am a year 10 student currently doing VCE Biology (1&2 as Head start), and I do have a few questions:

1. What would you say is the best way to take notes in a content-heavy subject like bio without writing pages and pages of words that will be hard to know prior to exams? -

2. The Best way to revise for upcoming sac's and exams?

[angelabean]

Hi! I totally know what it feels jumping to a Year 11 subject as I am doing the accelerated pathway on Bio except I'm in Units 3/4 now (In Year 11).
I'll share some of my biggest mistakes undertaking Unit 1/2 Biology and tips that worked particularly well for me.

You asked about the best way to succinctly take notes. I'd like to preface a good set of notes is imperative for exam revision so for you - the mid and end of year exams. So ensure your notes are in detail, with the definition, an example, features and why it is important (because Bio is mainly asking why things are important and why concepts happen). I suggest typing your notes (+ printing if possible) rather than physically writing the content especially because of how content heavy biology is and how flexible it is to move and change things around on your notes digitally as opposed to physically. Additionally, physical note taking is time consuming and while note taking is important to initially learn the content and for a future reference, that time you could have spent writing your notes you could have dedicated it to doing practice tests and questions (further consolidating it) which is the most effective study technique based on science. Just remember to physically complete your practice questions and test, so you can train your hands to write fast!


As I mentioned above, practice questions and tests are one of the most effective learning habits. It allows you to actively recall the information and make connections between Biological concepts, as opposed to just rereading notes and putting the info into your head when it has no way to retrieve it to answer questions. I really enjoyed teaching others and using a whiteboard to draw diagrams of the biological concepts which helped me retrieve the information out.


The biggest hack I'd say is pre-learning the content before the class, so you are equipped with a base line of the content before you actually learn it. Hence, in class you can get a deeper understanding and ask questions about the content. The more you are exposed to the content, the more you'll remember and understand it.

To succeed into Bio, you really just need to understand rather than memorise. Knowing the content back to front, and linking topics together as MOST if not all concepts have some sort of correlation to one another!

Good Luck!

Hope you found my tips helpful in your Bio studies!

[irachand]

Thank you VERY much! I will definitely start writing my notes digitally, and thank you for everything else, I will for sure take all of it on board.