Biology HL - Can I actually pass that exam?

[Naida]

Unfortunately, I am a Biology HL student. Choosing Biology HL was actually against my will; I had to take it, because I had B&M and German B, both SL, no HL. Given that I didn't want to change B&M or German to any other subject, I took a chance and chose Biology HL. I regret it 24/7. I have no desire to study either Medicine or Biology, or anything else closely related to Biology, for that matter. However, my teacher is not very devoted to us (yes, there are only 2 HL students, including me) and I have to learn everything by myself. Has anyone got any tips? Anything that could assure me I can pass this freaking exam? And yes, my Biology exams are on 17 & 18 May. Lucky me.

Edited December 22, 2011 by Naida

[Award Winning Boss]

Drink a magic potion... it's sold in every good book store

Revise efficiently and actively.

1. Make mind maps
   
2. Use flash cards
   
3. Practise questions
   
4. Make things into a short story
   

What i'm trying to get across is that you should revise actively and not just read through the text book to ensure you retain as much as you can

Ohhh and start early.

Aha here's another thing. Pull this face every time you get ready to revise biology

[Guest Animistic Anaemia]

What is your current score? And of course you can pass, everyone can with a little dedication

I'm actually don't agree with the post above. Biology needs dedication just like any other subject. But, the thing is, the subjects you like the least should be the one you should put most effort in as they will be the ones you'll tend to do worse.

Any natural science is about learning the mechanisms. Now, this might involve two distinct academic processes: memorising or understanding. If you want a 7, it's obvious you need both but memorising is a good path while understanding is a safe one. One thing does not prevent the other actually.

I personally understand and memorise Biology but I must tell that it's the subject that most fascinates me. The reports' conclusions you do are also a good indicative of how well you understand the subject as they need a core background to get a good score.

Everything is important in studying a subject, so practicing exercises also naturally plays an important role in doing well in it. But with biology, the essential is to know the syllabus. Make sure you have the syllabus aside you and go point by point

[Award Winning Boss]

What is your current score? And of course you can pass, everyone can with a little dedication

I'm actually don't agree with the post above. Biology needs dedication just like any other subject. But, the thing is, the subjects you like the least should be the one you should put most effort in as they will be the ones you'll tend to do worse.

Any natural science is about learning the mechanisms. Now, this might involve two distinct academic processes: memorising or understanding. If you want a 7, it's obvious you need both but memorising is a good path while understanding is a safe one. One thing does not prevent the other actually.

I personally understand and memorise Biology but I must tell that it's the subject that most fascinates me. The reports' conclusions you do are also a good indicative of how well you understand the subject as they need a core background to get a good score.

Everything is important in studying a subject, so practicing exercises also naturally plays an important role in doing well in it. But with biology, the essential is to know the syllabus. Make sure you have the syllabus aside you and go point by point

What is there in my post that you don't agree with... i'm confused.

[Guest Animistic Anaemia]

the making things short story. sorry I didn't specify it. In Bio you have to know word by word every process and mechanism, synthesis doesn't work specially on Section B in Paper 2

[Award Winning Boss]

the making things short story. sorry I didn't specify it. In Bio you have to know word by word every process and mechanism, synthesis doesn't work specially on Section B in Paper 2

You must not understand it then... i do that for sciences too. I did that for white blood cells. It worked for me so it might work for her too.

[Guest Animistic Anaemia]

no, you understand the process at the same time as you thoroughly know it. Understanding something means that you're able to explain it to another person but for that, you obviously must know it?

[Award Winning Boss]

no, you understand the process at the same time as you thoroughly know it. Understanding something means that you're able to explain it to another person but for that, you obviously must know it?

Ok that made no sense to me. However, it does not matter to me in the slightest. Different things work for different people.

[Sandwich]

Learn the syllabus off by heart (and understand it, of course).

Find somebody who loves you enough to be bored stiff by you and make them listen to you reciting the syllabus points. When you're reciting them perfectly 95% of the time, mission accomplished. So yeah, step one is reading it, processing it and making sure you understand it (because all Bio makes sense and it's a hell of a lot easier to remember when you understand it - also, understanding it allows you to answer data interpretation questions!). Step two is committing the details to memory. This can be achieved only through hard slog, no cheating.

Biology isn't the hardest subject by any means - it's not that complicated, but there is a lot to learn. Fortunately quite a bit of it is interesting.