My thoughts to do well in Biology (for future students)

[kenhung123]

This year in year 11 I completed my first VCE unit 3 and 4. I would like to share some thoughts on how to do well. Firstly, don't rely on study guides. No study guides can replace your textbook unless you just want to get a 30. Study guides are good, however, to increase your knowledge beyond the textbook. They are also a good resource to use if you don't understand some concept well. If you want to do well, don't think all you need to do is study the theory. A lot of the time, the theory doesn't cover knowledge needed for answering questions. It's about putting your knowledge into practise too. The definitions and questions in checkpoints are good to make you think. Read and study the theory as soon as you can. Before a SAC you should be just doing lots of questions. Before the exams you should go over the theory and do about 20 practise exams from all companies.

[simpak]

Can I just say; Biozone.
Keeping up to date really helped me.
And when it gets to the exams and SACs, I've always resummarised and rewritten everything, THEN done questions etc.
Hope it was okay for me to give some input

[minilunchbox]

Can I just say; Biozone.
Keeping up to date really helped me.
And when it gets to the exams and SACs, I've always resummarised and rewritten everything, THEN done questions etc.
Hope it was okay for me to give some input

Biozone was the only text/workbook for bio I had. It's really informative and also a good guide on how to answer exam questions. But if you have it, make sure you actually use it and not leave it to the night before the exam to read over the stuff in it.

[boysenberry]

Biozone was the only text/workbook for bio I had. It's really informative and also a good guide on how to answer exam questions. But if you have it, make sure you actually use it and not leave it to the night before the exam to read over the stuff in it.

I never really liked biozone. It was a bit irrelevant to the VCE course and didn't leave enough room to answer the questions properly.

[LFTM]

Can I just say; Biozone.
Keeping up to date really helped me.
And when it gets to the exams and SACs, I've always resummarised and rewritten everything, THEN done questions etc.
Hope it was okay for me to give some input

Biozone was the only text/workbook for bio I had. It's really informative and also a good guide on how to answer exam questions. But if you have it, make sure you actually use it and not leave it to the night before the exam to read over the stuff in it.

I've had this book all year and it's like completely blank. I should have done some of it though.

[mandy]

Same here, I've had it all year, but most of it is blank.

[shinny]

Biozone was the only text/workbook for bio I had. It's really informative and also a good guide on how to answer exam questions. But if you have it, make sure you actually use it and not leave it to the night before the exam to read over the stuff in it.

I never really liked biozone. It was a bit irrelevant to the VCE course and didn't leave enough room to answer the questions properly.

It's slightly irrelevant as it's actually applications of the coursework. So although the specific things in its exercises are often irrelevant, it prepares you well for the actual exam itself which we've all seen is a little 'irrelevant' itself.

[kenhung123]

Don't hear much about biozone: But here are my thoughts on major textbooks for biology
Heinemann: Good detail less explanation, covers everything straight to the point
Nelson: About same detail as heinemann but its explains a lot (some people find it easier to understand) and also has some irrelevant additional info.
Nature of biology: Very detailed, very precise and covers everything

Not sure if this applies to all textbook but heinemann had really good examples that appear on the exam. They tend include some common exam used examples (like some disease or something). Studying the examples are worth it and will definately benefit you.

[simpak]

Nature of Biology r00lz.  Except it's so big I kept it at home all year
Biozone is good if you pick out things that are really helpful.
Page 207 of this year's was brilliant for the cell cycle.
Our school assigns work you should have done by the end of each week to keep up to date, they don't check it or anything, just so you can organize your own study.
I made sure I had always done all of the exercises on the list.
So that means my Biozone is probably 7/8ths done.

How many of you guys got complex books of notes for each area of study?
I found that to be heaps helpful.
My school has a biology website tooooo, that like, anybody can go on >.>
Maybe I'll just post the link.

[minilunchbox]

My teacher gave us a set of notes every time we did a new area of study so we never used a textbook. It was useful because everything was ordered and straight to the point but I kept wondering how much paper she had to use since the booklets were ridiculously thick. I ended up ~acquiring a version of Nature of Biology for unit 4 to cross-check a few things that I didn't think were explained all too well in her notes.

[ninwa]

Our school assigns work you should have done by the end of each week to keep up to date, they don't check it or anything, just so you can organize your own study.

Mine did that too, except we got a checklist after we finished each topic and we had to make notes based off the checklist, which was handed in and marked for mistakes. (Would anyone be interested in me scanning & uploading them or do most schools have something similar already?)

When it came to revision I just read that - it was a looooooot smaller than the textbooks! Also I second Biozone - really great textbook/workbook set.

[hard]

this is what i suggest is the best way to learn biol, well for me at least.

At the beginning of the year go to as many of those lectures, for biol they help. Then summarize at least the first 3 chapters of your book into your own notes and really know them well. As your class progresses throughout the year you'll be 3 chapters ahead and when the begin to learn new concepts you'll be revising and will have more time to focus on the details when you're finished rather than do a brief summary of the course because you're cramming last minute.

I would also use biozone however i only really got to see the benefits of it half way through the year.

Do all the q's from your text book they helped. I really liked Nelson despite the comments others made. I believe it is much better than nature and has some really relevant example that have been used in the past exams. Another thing, a tutor would help for biol no doubt. If you can afford one you will be given an upper hand with a tutor since biol is one of those subjects where it really helps to have one.

[Greggler]

We had Nelson in conjunction with loads of notes out teacher had stolen from various lectures and textbooks; also he had all the other textbooks so if you wanted to go over something you just asked him and he'd photocopy it from another book if you wanted it to be.

My overall advice is just to finish the coursework and learnt the stuff asap. i didnt really do this for unit 3 although i did chapters 1-3 over the summer holidays, i sort of just went along, and studied for SAC's as they came, however during the second term i knuckled down and did like 2 prac exams each week.

However i learnt alot from the unit 3 exam, and therefore during the midyear holidays as much as i could, which allowed me to finish off AOS1 (genetics) during the holidays and get a start on aos2 before my class had even started.
Then by the time i had finished the coursework, i basically started prac exams about two weeks before the recent holidays.

Overall i'd just say get the coursework done, and learn all the material you can and try and get a whole unit summary done asap. then get into the prac exams