VCE Biology 2011 Roll Call

[eeps]

Who is this guy, Douchy? Is he a teacher? and can someone link me to his site or watever =D

http://vcenotes.com/forum/index.php/topic,23630.0.html

Has all the relevant information there.

[Bing 101]

Yep

Just a question, which is the best textbook to work from?

[HERculina]

Nature of Biology apparently.
im using nelsons though.

[stonecold]

I don't know about others, but after a chapter of textbook questions I was all meh, and just stopped doing them.

[lexitu]

Yeah, same here stonecold, very unrealistic, annoying questions.

I think NoB is slightly better than Heinemann, however it's poorly laid out and you need to filter away a lot of unnecessary information. I used both texts for reference. Stonecold also used Biozone (and I've used some of their worksheets). They're really in-depth, but sometimes they're too in depth.

Nelson, I have never tried, but word is that it's pretty basic.

[Greatness]

Agreed with what has been said about chapter questions, not really worth doing. You may as well just do exam questions.
But if you do buy the biozone book it's worth doing some of the questions in there

[pi]

Do Neap questions as well, there are a lot in those booklets (written by chief assessor as well)

[Jdog]

i disagree with Neap, i think they have a lot of poor questions,

the chief examnier does not write the exam he simply is the one who makes the marking scheme after its been written

[pi]

i disagree with Neap, i think they have a lot of poor questions,

the chief examnier does not write the exam he simply is the one who makes the marking scheme after its been written

There were a few ambiguous MC questions, but I though that some of the short-answers were pretty challenging and 'out-of-the-box' (eg. the octopus eye one in unit 4 NEAP). Worked for me, but it may be a personal thing...

[ruchika5]

Whatever you do- please don't use the Nelson text book, if your school is using it I'd highly recommend using Heinemann or Nature of Biology alongside it! For unit 3, I felt as if the Nelson text book left out heaps of important information whereas the other textbooks were more thorough! Good luck for next year guys, aim high

[stonecold]

Whatever you do- please don't use the Nelson text book, if your school is using it I'd highly recommend using Heinemann or Nature of Biology alongside it! For unit 3, I felt as if the Nelson text book left out heaps of important information whereas the other textbooks were more thorough! Good luck for next year guys, aim high

+1

NoB is the way to go.  I thought Hein was kinda average, and it left out important gene tech stuff and evolution in it is a joke.

NoB goes so in depth it is really good.  Plus there is a free copy on here for download. 

http://vcenotes.com/forum/index.php/topic,8366.0.html

This, BioZone and Douchy.  You are set for 50!!! 

[ruchika5]

Whatever you do- please don't use the Nelson text book, if your school is using it I'd highly recommend using Heinemann or Nature of Biology alongside it! For unit 3, I felt as if the Nelson text book left out heaps of important information whereas the other textbooks were more thorough! Good luck for next year guys, aim high

+1

NoB is the way to go.  I thought Hein was kinda average, and it left out important gene tech stuff and evolution in it is a joke.

NoB goes so in depth it is really good.  Plus there is a free copy on here for download. 

http://vcenotes.com/forum/index.php/topic,8366.0.html

This, BioZone and Douchy.  You are set for 50!!! 

Speaking from experience, I see haha
I found that from all the subjects I did this year, Biology was my favourite, it's really interesting

[thushan]

Textbook: Nature, hands down. Excellent resource which precisely explains the concepts in depth. However, like all textbooks it does have its errors and missing parts. I used Nature as my main textbook and Heinemann (which is quite detailed in some respects, yet extremely brief in others) as a supplement.

Supplementary resources: A+ Notes are excellent, Lisachem Biology 12 Student Study Guide, BioZone

Lecture Programs: TSFX. Ian Macdonnell is an excellent lecturer; he taught in such a way that it was fun to listen and you learn a heap. The notes were my main resource for study.

As I said in another thread, Andrew Douch is a brilliant teacher, and his podcasts were quite detailed and clear - the main reason I did well in biology. Listen to him on your iPod in the train - seriously. You find that in SACs and the exams his voice sometimes goes through your head.

Past Papers: STAV ones are very good, NEAP decent, LisaChem decent, TSSM atrocious. For unit 3, do VCAAs from 2006-2010 (I'd do 2006 last, it was the most difficult unit 3 paper, A+ was 72%) and for unit 4 from 1997-2010, as the course hasn't changed. The 1997-2001 papers your school may give you, or you can find on VCEnotes.

Keep an ear out for exam technique, because in Biology wording is extremely important and the examiners are pedantic.

[shivesh]

Yeah I'm doing biology next year as well. 

[jane1234]

I'm doing bio
Hopefully I can get high 40's, if not 50