Biology Year 12 2013

[Tirana]

Is there any advice from current Year 12's doing Biology, for Biology Year 12 students next year? What resources are useful? As well as any general advice to do well in the subject. Any advice would be appreciated!

[peterpan101]

sorry to intrude but I also have a question,
is study on a good resource and is check points a good one, if you plan to do the exams (meaning you have already seen the questions?)

[thushan]

Did Bio 3/4 in 2010.

First tip, start learning NOW. There is a lot of content to get through, and the more you are exposed to it, the better.

Second tip - these resources are extremely useful:

1. TSFX lectures (Ian McDonnell is a BEAST)
2. Douchy's Podcasts (these saved me in the exams!)
3. Nature of Biology (Jacaranda) is a damned good textbook, I highly recommend it.

Third tip - make sure you understand the principles involved and the vocabulary, because the examiners are very very picky.

Fourth tip - enjoy the damned subject!

[PsychoM]

sorry to intrude but I also have a question,
is study on a good resource and is check points a good one, if you plan to do the exams (meaning you have already seen the questions?)

U should try doing the review questions in checkpoints because they are some really good questions.

[bluehorizon]

3. Nature of Biology (Jacaranda) is a damned good textbook, I highly recommend it.
Fourth tip - enjoy the damned subject!

thushan has developed a damned strange vocabulary (and check his profile on the damned good drawer too)

[Russ]

What, don't start learning now, it's still mid November. Start after Christmas sometime, work through the glossary stuff
I'm trying to get some bio stuff together for next year anyway, what are some of the topics people found most annoying to learn this year

[thushan]

Haha Russ, I disagree, the earlier the better. It doesn't have to be hardcore, just light reading.

And damn you blue horizon.

Ah damnit I said it again.

DAMNIT I said that again.

ARGH.

[peterpan101]

What, don't start learning now, it's still mid November. Start after Christmas sometime, work through the glossary stuff
I'm trying to get some bio stuff together for next year anyway, what are some of the topics people found most annoying to learn this year

I'm only
Year 11 but something I struggled with was hard questions about diffusion and osmosis

[Tirana]

Thank you very much guys! Much appreciated

[peterpan101]

Does anyone have any things that they wished they did or didn't do ?

[curry_bro]

thushan is right. start reading stuff now, so as to familiarise yourself to the content. biology is a very difficult subject, with a lot of content as well as the content itself being somewhat difficult to understand. also, it is a subject about precision and being concise, in which your answers need to be as specific and accurate as possible (this only comes with intensive effort and large scale reading). tsfx and jacaranda are great, but you should also get biozone and have a flick through it before sacs and exams.  i was expecting a 70+/75 on the midyear exam, but got only a 67.5/75 because of tonnes of half marks being lost throughout the exam, because my answers werent specific enough, and my wording was too englishy.  i had done about 45 prac exams before hand and had completely finished all questions in the jacaranda, heinemman and tsfx books before the exam, as well as corresponding biozone pages. i just wanted to illustrate how difficult this subject really is (i personally find chem only slightly harder than bio mind you).

just dont underestimate the subject, study hard, DONT STRESS, learn to be specific and concise and you all should pull a 40+, if not a 45+

[curry_bro]

i found immunity hard due to its complexity and i found human evolution hard due to its ambiguity and inconsistency between textbooks. i found cellular respiration and photosynthesis relatively easy, as well as dna stuff in unit 4

[Edward21]

I'd say, acquire and do as many past papers and ones from other companies (practice exams) because, even though I love biology... it throws curve balls at you. VCAA loves giving you questions that are so different from the ordinary. In my midyear this year some of the immunity questions about an infectious disease required logic, you could not study for these questions. Exposure to these stupid questions is the most important (I got the right, yay) I was unlucky to being doing 3/4 bio in 2012... both exams were easier than average and thus A+ range was much harder to get into as most of the state found it easier

[NoAngels]

As VCE biology teacher, I would say study now but be careful the study design has changed alot!


Also does anyone have a collection previous past exam papers.. just realised I might be teaching year 12 next year

[thushan]

Oh! That wasn't the impression I got from reading the new study design - I thought that the extra points were simply to specify what exactly you needed and did not need to know, rather than new content. However, I saw that there were some minor changes to the study design.

As for previous past exam papers...I don't think you'd be able to find them here, we can't distribute copyrighted material, sorry!

The VCAA ones can be found on the VCAA website though.