Hey everyone,

I thought I would start this discussion page early for anyone who wanted to get ahead of the bio content in preparation for 2024.
Feel free to ask any questions about the content, tutoring, or the subject in general 🙂

    DomainEducation Just for context, I received a raw 48 in Biology 3/4 in 2022 (the first year of the study design), and am also offering tutoring to anyone interested 🙂

    • haps replied to this.

        Bio is a tricky subject in that there is a lot of content compared to other subjects. However with the right type of preparation, it can be very manageable despite the heavy demands of year 12.
        I completed around 10-13 practice exams total whereas I did more than 20 for some of my others so while there is a lot of content, the questions are fairly repetitive, meaning you can get away with a slightly fewer number of practice exams.

        But as long as you have a solid collection of notes to refer back to throughout the year (because a lot of the content is related and pops up frequently), you should be ok 🙂

        I'll pop up some resources to help get you started

          17 days later

          CamMcC
          In my opinion, the most difficult topics were:
          CRISPR
          Genetic Recombination with Insulin
          Attenuation

          Of course everyone will have different thoughts, but I found myself spending the most time on the content listed above.

              DomainEducation I agree. The complex process based topics are quite hard, and I would also include the immune system in that mix too. That said, depends on what areas of biology/study/learning you find hardest.

                6 days later

                DomainEducation How do you suggest approaching 3/4 biology???? I really wna tto get a high score and believe i can do so so how would you incorporate exam questions/notes into your study timetable for bio?

                    6 days later

                    haps
                    Hey thanks so much for your patience.

                    One of the things you will come to learn about bio 3/4 is that many people don't have trouble with actually learning the content. The part of the course that gets people is their ability to answer questions and include key points in their answer that the assessors are looking for.

                    I achieved a raw 48 in bio, and I did so through spending as much time reviewing marking schemes (VCAA, school, and company) as I did doing the actual exams because they are gold. They will tell you exactly what you need to mention (as you often don't have to write as much as you think you do), and after a while, you will notice patterns in the suggested solutions. This means that future questions will be easier to break down. By the time I got to the exam, I could look at most questions and the number of marks they contained, and pinpoint exactly what points I needed to make before I even started writing. This is what I suggest you practice throughout the year as it will save you time, space on the page, and will make you more confident.

                    As for what I suggest for incorporating exam questions into my notes, I recommend to ensure you have a solid foundation and understanding of the general concepts before you start answering questions to help hone your knowledge. I found that doing questions in this way helped me nail all of the niche, hidden parts of each topic which set me apart from my peers. But the real key is repetition, and constant practice so you don't forget anything before each SAC.

                    Hope this helps 🙂

                        Hey i'm doing 3/4 biology next year and i didn't do unit 1 so i was just wondering if i should revisit all of unit one or just particular topics in order to be prepared for next year.

                          Lauren
                          Hey Lauren, while I did not do biology 1/2, I have heard from several sources that the vast majority of content from units 1 and 2 are not looked at in units 3 and 4. So while there may be a small amount of cross over, this means that it wouldn't take you long to pick it up.

                          So I would not recommend spending a great deal of time reviewing unit 1, as it will probably not contain much information that you will need.

                              a month later

                              Hey there,
                              I was just wondering if you are selling your notes? I'm looking to buy them 🙂 please let me know the prices/who i can contact

                                4 months later

                                Hey, I'm currently doing Bio 3/4 and have started to think about the exams already (yep ik it's still 5 months) because I wanted to gather all the "good" exams. I heard that VCAA tends to be the best option, but knowing myself, I would probably be wanting to do more practice. Are there any practice exams from other companies that would come in handy - hopefully some that are harder than the actual exam?

                                5 days later

                                DomainEducation
                                Thank you for explaining this! Would you say just doing only practice VCAA questions is most helpful to be able to understand what points are needed for common question types? Did you use any other practice tests? e.g. Neap, TSSM, checkpoints, studyclix etc.?

                                • FH replied to this.

                                    lune777 i feel like this is applicable for every subject, but you wont get any better than vcaa exams- trial exams from other companies are never exactly as vcaa would write, because they’re not vcaa!

                                    studyclix is just a compilation of vcaa questions and a few trial exams, only good to use when you want to focus on a specific topic. and checkpoints are a great tool especially for science subjects.

                                      3 months later

                                      Is anyone planning on buying and reselling the 2024 practice exam? Or be interested in buying them together the costs can be split?

                                      a month later

                                      Just a few questions first where would you recommend getting past papers from. how long did you mark your paper for and also did you do the majority of your past papers in time condition?
                                      DomainEducation

                                      • FH replied to this.

                                          S007🌿☁️ i am not a bio student but i do psych and i would like to say same approach should apply.

                                          try using vcaa exams whenever you can, ESPECIALLY in timed conditions. company exams are good to do untimed but with vcaa ones, the question types are similar to what you're getting this year.

                                          for completing/marking: sit the whole 2.5 hours, just like you will during the exam. marking should take around 1-1.5 hours if you do it properly. with your mistakes, identify WHY you have lost marks and fill those gaps in your knowledge- this is why it's quality over quantity.