Hey,
That sounds really frustrating!
Thanks for also listing some of the things you've tried - those are good ideas and it's shame that they haven't worked out for you. One reason you might not be seeing great results from practice papers is that this can be powerful in for example a) identifying areas to focus on b) applying after you have understanding.
From your description of memorising I think a potential issue here is that brute force memorising is hard and more likely to leave gaps compared to strong conceptual understanding - this tends to especially show up in longer mark questions. If this is the case for you, I recommend trying to get to a different source of bio info, ideally one focused on HSC but even if not it may still be useful. Beware of KhanAcademy as their bio content tends to focus on interconnections with chem (unlike HSC, VCE, QCE etc.) but otherwise even random YouTube videos to get a different explanation or a bio podcast might be helpful here.
I cannot tell you the number of students I have had who think they understand photosynthesis and ceullular respiration (for example) and then after they're given reasons for WHY rather than just memorising inputs, outputs, location etc. it's much easier for them.
Other things that could also be helpful:
- diagram focus - this is to highlight interconnections between and within topics, show how processes work etc.
- making sure you're getting enough sleep etc. - not having this often makes things MUCH harder
- things like the 5 minute rule (if you reallllly don't feel like studying try to do it for just 5 minutes) to help bio seem more manageable
Fingers crossed for you and I hope this helps.
