HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR A-LEVEL BIOLOGY GRADE: USE THE SPECIFICATION

Ready to learn all the information on your specification, how you should be using this to revise, and how to learn more effectively to get you higher grades? Good! You’re in the right place. The specification is a great tool to use to improve your overall grade in a simple way, and throughout this blog post, I’m going to teach you exactly how to do just that. 

THE SPECIFICATION AT A GLANCE 

Your specification should look something like this, with different columns/documents divided and organised so they are easily accessible and understandable. The specification gives you an overview of what to expect throughout your A-levels. You have your core content neatly divided by topic, so you can quickly skip to whatever topic you may be currently learning, as well as your AS assessments, and A-level assessments. 

WHY YOUR AS ASSESSMENTS & A-LEVEL ASSESSMENTS MATTER 

Your AS assessments and your A-level assessments are amazing tools that you can utilise to help prepare for your exams and bring up your grade. Through the specification you learn what you are expected to know for all three papers. For example, we can see the questions in Paper 1 are going to include 76 marks, with a mixture on short and long answer questions, and 15 marks worth of extended response questions; this is true for Papers 2 and 3 as well. Knowing this information helps you in many ways.

3 MAIN WAYS INCLUDE:

1. It helps you prepare for each exam
2. It helps you know the types of exam questions to practice
3. You’re able to figure out the timings, marks, and weightings

This knowledge lets you go into exams knowing exactly what to expect. Based on this information, you can then adjust your revision plan to spend more time studying which type of questions to answer, identify what you may need to spend more time reviewing, and the techniques that will help you the most based on whether the questions will be comprehension, or application, etc.

The next thing your specification helps you with is…

EXAM STRUCTURE AND ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES 

Your teacher may or may not refer to assessment objectives in their lessons, so if you would like to learn more about this in much more detail, please watch this YouTube video for help.

Your assessment objectives should look something like this:

In brief terms, your AO1 is understanding and knowledge, with almost half the questions are assessing your knowledge, ⅓ focusing on application, and almost ¼ practical skill. In AO2 almost half the questions are application, and AO3 links to the practical side of A-level biology. For each of the exam papers, you can see what proportion you can expect for those different skills. In addition this, 10% of your overall A-levels will be based on maths skills, equivalent to level 2 or above (this is referring to your GCSE higher paper). 

This different weighting allows you to once again recognize how you should be revising, and what types of questions you should be preparing for based on when you are writing each paper.

THROUGH THIS KNOWLEDGE YOU CAN:

1. Understand the skills you are being assessed on
2. Know the proportion of each skill on each paper
3. Know the quantity and challenge level of mathematical questions to expect
4. Know the quantity of practical skills questions to expect

You can then use this knowledge to your advantage, prepare accordingly, feel more confident going into your exams, and raise your grades by knowing what to expect! Now onto the most important part of the specification:

THE SUBJECT CONTENT 

This is a key part of the specification and looks as such:

The subject content is where for every topic there is a clear outline of what you need to learn. 

AS YOU CAN SEE, THERE IS A CODE FOR YOUR SKILLS DEVELOPMENT:

• AT  – apparatus and technique
• Students should… – application questions and required practical skills
• MS – mathematical skill
• PS – practical skill

Your “AT” is where you’ll have an opportunity to be assessed on what equipment or what technique you should be using for those practicals. “Students should…” section is where you’ll likely have an application question, so if you know you struggle with application questions, it’s a good idea to focus on this area. The “practical skill” helps you to understand the purpose of the experiment, and be able to explain the results. Then we have mathematical skill, which will tell you the types of maths questions you could get linked to this theory. 

TO USE THIS INFORMATION TO HELP YOU STUDY, I SUGGEST YOU DO THE FOLLOWING:

• Flashcards of keywords
• Mind map to summarise the topic
• Highlight key points in notes
• Know exactly what to revise & the level of detail
• Know what you could be asked as application questions

Doing this allows you to prepare yourself fully when it comes to your exams, minimises your chances of surprise when it comes to taking the test, and allows you to feel confident and prepared.

MATHEMATICAL REQUIREMENTS 

Your required mathematical skill in your specification will look something like this:

As I said earlier, mathematical skills are 10% of your A-level assessments, based on level 2 or higher. This will tell you exactly what the skill is and provide an example of how it could be linked to the biology so it’s definitely worth having a look through.

To help with revision, I would recommend this revision guide called Essential Maths Skills for A-Level Biology.

The book is rather small, and it links to the specification, so all the math skills are covered! If you don’t want to reach from a book, you can also take a look at my Math Skills YouTube slides study resource or my 100% free A-Level Math Skills Bundle. 

IN CONCLUSION…

I hope these tips help you feel confident and better prepared – follow these instructions and you’ll boost your grades in no time! Be sure to keep an eye out for my blog post next week, where I’ll be tackling the practical skills section of the specification in more detail. 

MORE OF A VISUAL LEARNER?

If you would like to watch my Youtube video on how can use the specification to raise your grade you can do so here. If you’re looking for other tips on how to successfully revise, tips on acing your A-levels, or having any other biology questions, be sure to check out my channel anyway, even if you don’t need the specification video! I make new videos weekly 

Comment down below – what kind of YouTube video would you want to see next?