Most of you who know me (and I’m sure not many of you do), know me for predicting study scores
. But today, I wanted to do something a little different, and give some advice regarding study and not merely numbers. As a person who values hard work moreso than the end result, I haven’t posted as many helpful study tips as I would’ve liked to be entirely honest.
Anyways, I’m sure a good number of you are about to commence VCE biology next year, whether as your first VCE subject in year 11 or as one of your several in year 12. You may be confident, indifferent to, or kind of intimidated by the subject. You may want to get a 25, 30, 40, 45 or 50 in it, and may hate or adore it. Regardless of what your situation is, I’m here to try and lay out a basic study structure that you can implement over the holidays so as to potentially start the year strong.
Now, I personally don’t think it is even remotely necessary to try and finish the course before the start of the year. I think that is a little overkill, and you guys are young and full of life. Spending your holidays cooped up in a room surrounded by a mountain of books is not healthy, enjoyable or required for even the highest of marks. So rest assured, if you want to get a 50, there are more effective ways of doing it than completing hundreds of biozone questions a day haha.
STEP 1: Refresh –
Begin you study for VCE biology with a quick scan over units 1 and 2 content (with more emphasis on unit 1). If you have already done units 1 and 2, feel free to skip this. If you haven’t, you can also skip this step, but I would recommend otherwise. Spend a day or two on doing this, becoming familiar with relatively accessible concepts such as organelles, enzymes, basic cell anatomy and function. I’d recommend you start doing this around early January, simply because it’s better to start it closer to school time, but early enough so that it’s not overwhelming
If you’d prefer, you CAN potentially ignore unit 2, but I personally did go through it again for a couple hours, since some of the terminology reappears in unit 4 while covering evolution.
STEP 2: Read –
Find out from your school which text book you have been prescribed. Is it Heinemann, Nelson’s, Jacaranda etc? Whichever it is, try getting your hands on it, and read (very lightly – you don’t need to absorb everything yet) the first 3-4 chapters at a steady pace. Don’t try attempting the questions as of yet. Just read the content, and try to understand the raw concepts. Tackling VCE biology requires 3 skills (which can be learnt, so don’t stress
; Memory, Conceptual application and Specificity. This step aims to hone in the first and second facet of this triad at a fundamental level. If you feel a little confused about any of the concepts, try consulting a khan academy youtube video, or a Douchy podcast, which were really helpful for me during my “biology adventure” (I’m sorry I’ll never say that again haha XD).
Specificity comes with practise questions, which you’ll get to later on.
STEP 3: Test yourself –
Now, from those 3-4 chapters, try attempting as many question as you possibly can. If you can’t do one, skip it and ask your teacher about it (or post it here) and move on. This will really get you to grapple with the concepts on a more conceptual level. Chapter Review questions tend to be better at this, so put more emphasis on those, if you can. The questions within the chapter itself tend to more knowledge building, while those at the end of the chapter tend to really challenge you, so strike a personal balance and try doing some of both.
STEP 4: Organise –
I said earlier than I wanted to provide you with some tips about how to start the year strong. I personally believe there is more to that than meets the eye. Organisation is imperative to doing well in any subject, since an organised student typically also has an organised mind. Now, there is no single way of going about this, so you can easily adapt this step to your own personal needs, since I’m sure all of you have your own way of doing it. So, first get your hands on a clip folder, plastic pocket folder, USB etc. Whatever you like, but it should be your dedicated destination for all your notes, questions, past papers etc. Having everything in one place is really beneficial. Organise the clip folder using dividers, the USB into separate files etc, and make specific sections for your notes, past exams etc.
And also get yourself a log book, where you will eventually record all your mistakes/misunderstandings in the one place, so that you can sequentially (later in the year of course) work through it and drill away your weaknesses.
Doing all of this shouldn't take longer than a week and a half or so, whereby you dedicate an hour or two a day, so it’s not too intense
Now, doing this is not entirely necessary, and it is only what I did to get the mark that I got. So by no means think that if you don’t do this, and so something else, you wont be able to reach your goals, because you will if you have to resolve to achieve them
Peace out and stay shiny AN peeps
~OiD
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