How to Revise GCSE Biology (and get grade 9)

My Background

Personally, I found GCSE Biology a struggle however with focused revision I managed to pass with a grade 9. I found human biology the most difficult in particular DNA as it was a complex topic which required a lot of thought.

The topics I found easier were plant biology and the brain because if you learnt the key facts you could usually score full marks in these questions. Another reason I found Biology difficult was for the simple fact that it was a double lesson and I really struggled to remain focused for this length of time!

One of my top tips for revision is to learn how you learn! I am a linguistic learner meaning I learn through writing things down but everyone has their own learning style so I strongly encourage you to find yours.

Finding a healthy work life balance is also important, I wanted to get good grades but I couldn't afford to sacrifice my mental or physical health just to achieve. I also took art gcse which requires a lot of time and this made fitting in revision even more difficult as I always had a lot of art course work to do. As I enjoyed art I used my revision breaks to complete coursework as it relaxed my brain allowing me to absorb all the information I had just revised.

Here’s the syllabus of the Biology exam board I took. 

By the way, I used The Exam Coach’s Online Exam Preparation Bootcamp to help me through my GCSE year. Now more than ever, students need all the help they can get, and this audio course would be my number one recommendation for you this year. You can also apply a 80% discount if you use the code: BOOTCAMP at the checkout after reading my post (available for a limited time only).

GCSE Biology Classwork

During year 10 my approach to classwork was lazy and I didn't really care about learning the information and thus only achieved a grade 5 in my exam. This low grade made me reset my mind for year 11 and I returned with a more positive approach and listened to every piece of advice I was given. One way I found to keep my brain in gear was keeping my notes well presented as this motivated me to stay focused throughout the lesson. While this worked for me others found it less helpful as they get absorbed in the presentation of their work and stop focussing on what it’s about. Therefore, try this tip: make sure that you still know what you’re writing down instead of just caring about making it look ‘pretty’. 

In year 11 I asked my teacher a lot of questions during class to try and understand every topic. Some may think that it's embarrassing however my view was that I wouldn't talk to most of the people in that classroom in 5 years time so who cares! However, if you do feel self conscious and feel you are asking stupid questions then see your teacher after class in private.

Something else that helped me was reviewing my notes from each class each night. This works with all your subjects not just biology. This was helpful as I was reminded of what I learned. The Exam Coach has also made a video on this technique, it’s called spaced repetition. 

GCSE Biology Revision 

To achieve my grade 9 I used a host of revision techniques such as flash cards, making notes, watching videos and getting others to quiz me on topics. While it may seem like a lot of work to make flashcards they are effective if used correctly (remember to test yourself), so the time spent will be worth it in the long run.

The way I made my flashcards was by looking at the question box in the corner of the page in my textbook and writing these onto flash cards and putting the answers on the back. If your textbooks don't include this feature you could use the Quizlet website provides a lot of flashcards and could give you ideas of what to write on yours or you could use the online flashcards on their website to save you some work.

I also made revision notes which were extremely helpful as they allowed me to go into more detail than flashcards, the details are key to achieving the highest grades.  

The topics I had to work the hardest on where the DNA and genes topics. I did this by watching YouTube videos here are a few suggestions:

• Crash Course Biology 

• Free Science lessons

Both channels are perfect for all your sciences and they contain videos on every aspect of the syllabus. All you need to do to find a video on the topic your having difficulty understanding is search the topic name along with GCSE and the subject the topic belongs to. These videos are great if you're an auditory learner or kinesthetic learner as you can listen and watch what is happening. If you are a linguistic learner like me then you could take notes on these videos. Watching videos like these can really help the information sink in.

Past papers are another great way of revising. For this I printed out past GCSE papers and mark schemes, had a go at them, and marked them myself. This gave me an honest idea of where I was at in my revision and what I needed to focus on. The website Revision World is a great resource to find these papers.

From this I saw that I was scoring full marks on the one and two mark questions but my 6 mark answers were not so great as I was failing to provide enough detail to get all the marks. So I took a look at my revision again and revisited the exam papers I had already done. It was this process of constant review and repetition which eventually helped me begin scoring the highest marks. 

The GCSE Biology Exam

All the revision I mentioned above needs a lot of motivation and doing the right things consistently! This is where The Exam Coach can help out. I’d highly recommend you use the WhatsApp Service to help keep you on track throughout the year and exam season. 

Coming up to the exam time I was extremely anxious (as were most of my friends). Our whole school career had led up to this, while teachers don’t advise cramming I fully believe that going over the key notes just before the exam really helped me in some of the longer answers. In exams, I tend to over stress and under estimate how much I understand. On the day of the exam I ate a good breakfast and had a good sleep the night before to be sure I was ready as staying up late to revise doesn’t work for me. Listening to some WhatsApp voice notes from The Exam Coach during your exams definitely helps settle you down and focus on getting the basics right. 

My technique for working through the exam was working through the questions I found easiest first. Once I have worked through the questions that are easiest I go back and spend more time on the more difficult ones and really think about them. Once I have completed everything I possibly can I go back and check for silly errors - there are always some! Suffice to say, I was shocked at the amount of silly mistakes I had made and I’m glad I checked through and corrected them. 

After all my stress the exam went fine and I think adrenaline probably served me a few extra marks! After my initial panic at struggling with a lot of the first questions I was happy to receive a grade 9, this reminded me of a quote from Matilda:

“The distance the shot put goes depends upon the effort you put into it.” - Miss Trunchbull

Although this quote is said by the villain in the story, I do think it’s true, especially when applied to exam preparation!

GCSE Biology - Pro Tips

• Don’t panic, everyone has weaknesses but with focused revision you can work through them

• Create a clear and balanced exam timetable that you will be motivated to use daily. Here’s a good post called ‘How To Make A Revision Timetable’ by The Exam Coach.

• Use past papers to figure out what you currently know and what you need to revise

• Watch videos to help you revise and mix your revision methods up a bit

• Get motivation and tips on how to revise and prepare consistently and effectively with The Exam Coach

Want some more help from The Exam Coach this year?

Online Exam Preparation Bootcamp

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Learn how to prepare for your GCSE and A Level exams like the top performing students in the UK 🇬🇧

Improve your grades by one and a half grade boundaries (on average). 

This audio programme will make you: 

• More disciplined  

• More motivated 

• Revise faster and better 

For a limited time only, we’re offering you an 80% discount on this course!

Enter discount code BOOTCAMP at the checkout (available for a limited time only). Take a look and find out more about the Online Exam Preparation Bootcamp by clicking the button below.

A Complete Guide To GCSE Spanish and German (and how to get a 9)

For GCSE, I did both Spanish and German. Despite many people thinking that double languages would be overwhelming and confusing, it was one of the best choices I made! Being more familiar with the exam papers, mark schemes and teaching methods helped me to be more prepared throughout the GCSE course. For me, languages not only provide an efficient way to communicate with others, but also allow you to explore new cultures and traditions - giving you a much broader insight to the world.

So here’s some advice to help you learn languages more effectively, in particular, for GCSE. 

The key to success

Immerse yourself in whichever language you’re learning, for example: 

• Read foreign magazines

• Listen to foreign music (Alvaro Soler has lyrics which aren’t too complicated to translate)

• Watch TV series and films in the language you’re trying to learn (Netflix have quite a few- High Seas, Elite and Cable Girls)

Even though you may end up reading the English subtitles, listening to the language makes you pick up new words and phrases. Being passionate and interested about a language really does help fuel your knowledge and cultural awareness for it, although this is crucial for A-Level, it’s great for GCSE! Consistency is also crucial to learn languages (test yourself using active recall) and it ensures that, whilst your language skills are building all the time, you can utilise whatever knowledge of the language you have at any moment.

The Exam (structure)

Most exam boards (I did AQA) test you on four main skills at GCSE languages: 

• Reading 

• Writing

• Listening

• Speaking

Each of these are equally important and are worth 25% of your final mark at the end of year 11. What I love about learning languages is that, for GCSE, every theme or topic will come up in at least one of the four different types of exam (reading, writing, listening and speaking). 

The different themes are: 

Theme 1: Identity and culture

Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest 

Theme 3: Current and future study and employment. 

It’s hard to believe how much progress you make at the beginning of the course through to the end of year 11 - not just with the building bank of vocabulary, but also your grammar skills. For example, when revising, I found it helpful to go back to my early written pieces and add more complex structures and varieties of tenses to improve my work.

The Vocabulary

Vocabulary is extremely important, perhaps even more so than grammar when you study languages at GCSE. This is because you don’t always need to understand the exact translation of something to win the marks in an exam, you often just need to have a general understanding. In many questions this is enough to get the bulk of the marks. I find that websites such as Spanish Quizlet, German Quizlet and Spanish Memrise, German Memrise were very helpful, as long as you use them consistently throughout the course. If you simply search for the sets with the correct exam board, you’ll find topic specific vocabulary which can be used for all the language exams which you sit. After all, there’s no better way to understand others and communicate than having the right words to say it readily available!

👆Quizlet example

👆Memrise Example

The Grammar

Personally, I found German grammar and Spanish tenses quite confusing - as we rarely pay a second thought to the grammar and tenses we use in English! Even when we are using English, it seems as though there are only three tenses: 

• Present 

• Past 

• Future

Yet, without realising it, there are many forms of each time frame which we use in everyday life. For example, the preterite past, present continuous and subjunctive… These are only a few tenses and it still sounds confusing! Initially, it is slightly annoying, and I couldn’t help thinking - why can’t we all just use three tenses? But, as you delve deeper into a language, you realise that tenses are crucial to communication. As a visual learner, I found it really helped me to make a timeline of when to use what tenses (for example: the preterite is for single, completed actions in the past), what endings to include and any irregular verbs.

The Listening Exam

Out of the four sections which are examined, I always found listening exams the hardest: most of the time I could understand what the audio was saying, but transferring it from my ears to the paper in the correct format for that question was slightly trickier. 

So what’s the best way to improve? Sounds simple... but the answer is to just practice! Practice listening out for words in whatever language you’re studying on a regular basis. When you encounter a word you don’t know - write it down (even if it seems irrelevant) anything can come up in the exam. 

Remember to write down things you do not yet remember or understand, it takes time but it works! 📝

Writing and Oral Exam

For both the written and spoken exam, there is so much freedom for creativity, which will help you to use the best language you can and get the top marks. To practice writing and improve my vocabulary, I would regularly write paragraphs for each topic we studied in class. Using a checklist for exams was extremely useful for me, as it ensured I included the best variety and quality of work that I could, for example: 

• Opinions

• Connectives

• Tenses

I used other complex language and phrases, for example, in German - the ‘verb comma verb’ structure:

‘um…zu’ and connectives such as ‘obwohl’.

In Spanish, showing off a range of tenses in phrases like:

‘no podría’ (conditional)

Using the subjunctive phrase

‘cuando tenga…’

Or perfect past

‘siempre he querido’. 

Make sure to have some handy phrases when writing about the past, present and future to impress the examiners and show a wide range of knowledge. 

Opinion phrases are crucial to show your passion and interest when you’re writing in a language (I found that, I believe/ think that, in my opinion, some say…). Connective phrases show fluency in both speaking and writing, and using sophisticated conversational terms helps you sound less like a robot and more like a native!

German grammar can also be quite difficult once you move onto the more advanced (and slightly less relevant) aspects, but my advice is to focus more on the skills you will use. For example, instead of learning multiple versions of the past tense, recognise a few of the important verbs in the imperfect tense - such as ‘ich war’, but make sure you know the basic German perfect preterite tense like the back of your hand. Similarly, in Spanish, make sure you have some good ‘go to’ phrases in different tenses which can be easily used during a writing or speaking exam.

Practice is crucial for any exam: learn the content, vocabulary and basic grammar. Remember, you’ll be improving all the time as you continue to use the language. This also means that whilst you complete practice papers and questions (I get mine here, on AQA's website) you’ll automatically get more familiar with the format as you gain more understanding in the language.

Some of the German GCSE Revision materials I used

For the written exam in particular, it’s important to practice the questions to time. Often, most people finish extremely early, yet still manage to write above the expected word count: I strongly advise not to do this! You are marked on: 

• Accuracy - thoroughly check your work after finishing to make sure the tenses and word order is correct

• Range - include a few impressive phrases or idioms in different tenses as well as having opinions and justifications

• Content - stay relevant to the question, the examiner is likely to mark you down for wandering off topic

The Reading Exam 

Make sure to read the text a few times before answering questions, underlining the key information as you go. And, of course, learn vocab!

Here are a few German words that are key to distinguish ideas in a text:

Doch, aber: but

Jedoch, obwohl, trotzdem: although

Vorgestern: day before yesterday

Neulich: recently

Selten: rarely

Streng: strict

Zuverlässig: reliable

Frech: cheeky

Witzig:funny

Hilfsbereit: helpful

Gelegenheit: opportunity

Geduldig: patient

Chef: boss

Also: so

Note: grade

Bald: soon

And for Spanish:

Mañana por la mañana: tomorrow in the morning

Decepcionante: disappointing

Sensible: sensitive

Sencillo: simple

Aunque, sin embargo, a pesar de, por otro lado: however

Sin duda: without doubt

Por eso, por lo tanto: therefore

Mejor: better

Peor: worse

Cuidar: to look after

Querer: to want

Suelo de: I usually

Acabo de: I have just

Largo: long

Nota: mark

Some Spanish revision notes and guides 🇪🇸

The Real Thing

For the real exam - make sure to be calm and focused. For me, the speaking exam was the most daunting, it seems as there is added pressure because of the one-to-one conversation, but most teachers understand how you feel so support you as much as they can! 

Make sure you stick to the plan which you have prepared, for example, I remember in my German speaking, every time my teacher was looking down at her sheet of paper, I thought she was disinterested (when really she was looking for a new question) - so I stopped answering the question and didn’t add as much detail as I had intended to. Expand and elaborate on your points as much as possible. After all, this gives the teacher less time to ask you more questions which might catch you out, and more time to talk about what you know. You’re in control of what you say, so take the initiative and play to your own strengths! 

The great thing about doing two languages was that my Spanish was significantly less nerve wracking, having recently been in a similar situation for German, I felt much more composed and took my time. Making sure to answer all my questions in sufficient detail, unlike my previous German exam!

Summary

Languages are one of the most essential skills to learn, they provide so many external benefits. The topics explored are culturally valuable and relevant, so they give you an amazing foundation to build your skills on and are compatible with every other subject! At GCSE, make sure you keep on top of the vocabulary and the main tenses that you need to know in order to fluently write or talk to someone. Whereas the more complex phrases have the capacity to boost your grade. It may seem embarrassing at first, but try to converse with friends, family (or even yourself) in the language.

I hope this has been helpful, gracias por leer/danke fürs lesen!