Hello!!! Im am going inot Year 12 in 2024 and Im hoping for biology to be my top subject. I am willing to put a lot of extra efforts inot biology to do really well and was wanting to hear from some people who scored 45+ on some advice and how you went about it.
How did you organize your notes?
When/how did you incorporate practice questions into your study?
Do you recommend getting ahead? How far ahead?
Best pre-exam/pre-sac study?
Hardest topics that I should focus on?
Key tips you learnt that helped you

TIA XXXXXX

Hi,
I've just completed bio this year and obtained a study score of 45. I am telling you what I personally did; this may not be good advice.

Question 1: I personally did not use my notes and I resorted to using cue cards. But, I took information from a textbook (edrolo) and added additional information I obtained from my teacher (nelson textbook). This is so I would have a strong foundation of information, as in some cases nelson would miss out on information, vice versa.

Question 2: I have always incorporated practice questions into my study. I recommend from day 1 spoon feeding yourself exam questions (this is super underrated). Whilst you may be worried about wasting exam questions, you likely will not remember these questions you picked (I didn't), and it is better to build a foundation on how to structure responses earlier rather than later. I only started practice exams two months post-exam.

Question 3: You must always stay ahead of content if you are planning to score 45+. I recommend at least 2 chapters ahead, but over the summer holidays I completed the whole of unit 3 and was very comfortable with the content (I felt that this was a bit extreme).

Question 4: For pre-sac study I started revising 2 weeks before the actual sac. I did practice exam questions and cue cards. For pre-exam, I revised all my cue cards 3 months pre-exam and stopped using cue cards 2 months pre-exam. For the remainder of the time, I did practice exams from vcaa and other company exams; try to complete between 25-40 exams before the actual exam. For a 45+ you should only be loosing a minimum of 10 marks per exam (this is the amount of marks I lost on the actual exams; however, I really only lost 0-6 marks on average per exam, so try to aim for less than 10).

Question 5: I personally found evolution the hardest topic, though others say it is the easiest. It is very divisive as parts of it are purely common sense and cannot be taught. But, generally, the hardest topics are considered to be attenuation for the trp operon, insulin recombination and transformation, and possibly CRISPR. However, the aforementioned topics, excluding evolution, are all memorisation based, so once you memorise these processes (which are very long), you'll be sweet.

Question 6: I cannot emphasise this enough and not enough people know about this, but you MUST use the biology FAQ document. It ensures that you do not learn content that you do not need for the exam, sacs are different. This saves so much time and is arguably more important than using the study design.
I know this may sound contradictory to the aforementioned point, but extend yourself beyond what VCAA requires. Now, whilst the content you are learning may not appear on the exam, it further fortifies your understanding on how different concepts interlink with each other, strengthening this basis will only make you score higher. On a year-to-year basis, the difficulty of the exams fluctuates (for example, this years bio exam was extremely difficult), you want to prime yourself so you can adapt if VCAA decide to pump out another hard exam.

Hope this helps!

    stevendort
    Thankyou so much for all of this!!!!! It all sounds great!!!! And congrats on your 45!!

    Just out of interest did you just finish year 12 or are going into year 12 and accelrated bio?

        5 days later

        haps Sorry about this random reply. But another tip randomly came into my mind that I think is essential. Use AI to ask questions about the content or just an exam question in general. This carried me hard during biology as it helped deepen my understanding for all topics. However, I always recommend crosschecking the responses you get from AI, as they are not always 100% accurate.
        Check this out also, pretty useful: https://archive.atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=193592.msg1186100;topicseen#msg1186100

            a month later

            Hey,
            I did biology accelerated this year and got a 49. Some things that helped me were:

            1. Concepts > memorising: i found the content in bio super interesting so i always focused on understanding the concept i.e how this works in our body before trying to remember any facts. You don't need to memorise every name of everything just understand the general process (e.g. for cellular respiration know the basic concept of electron transport chain where electrons move through a membrane ect. but don't get caught up in details like names of proteins) as a lot of these details are actually outside the study design and not examinable just their for your understanding (and if these details are needed to answer a question they will be in question stem)
            2. know where the marks are: biology is actually so easy to get marks in. the examiners give marks for almost any response with the right key words. some text books go into wayyy too much detail (my school used edrolo which was mostly good but did go into a lot of detail on some topics). once you understand the concepts go back and look at what you need to include in your answers to get marks (my teacher does marking for VCAA so she was excellent at this, and if you have access to any VCAA markers for sure talk to them but the examiners report is also good for this.)
            3. the questions are WORDY: almost every single question in an exam is applying it to a scenario, so it is so important to practice this from day one.
            4. ALWAYS get teachers input when your not sure how correct your answer is: when correcting questions you should be making sure youve got all the information you need not checking how accurate what your saying is (some people will disagree with this but i think it's important). If your not sure if your on the right track with what your saying get your teacher to read what you wrote and re explain the content if your not applying it right.
              My schedule for learning content was notes BEFORE class (always before), use class to consolidate and try and get some basic textbook questions done, then straight away applying it to exam style questions with scenarios. this will help you not only practice structuring answers but also make sure you understand concepts enough to justify answers.
              For getting ahead, my key advice would don't go too far ahead. It's hard to say without knowing your classes routine but I would probably say 2 weeks ahead on content MAX. I usually did all the subchapters in the chapter before the first class on that chapter (ie before we started 2A, I would have A,B,C and D done)
              As for the content: Unit 3 area of study 1 starts off not too bad but progressively gets harder as you learn about DNA manipulation techniques, its a lot of content towards the end but just focus on concepts and these questions are always asked in similarly ways so i usually have a set structure of dot points to explain the steps of the technique., Area of study 2 seems really content heavy but for photosynthesis and cellular respiration you ONLY have to know inputs, outputs and location. It's helpful to briefly know how the concept works but dont bother memorising enzymes, or molecules that aren't inputs/outputs.

            Hope this helps 🙂

              sandraa Your tips are so helpful but I wanna ask how did you know what content is outside the study design?

                  10 days later

                  Sxy As i said my teacher was a VCAA marker so she was incredible at breaking it down to exactly what you needed to know for exams, but some other resources which would be helpful for this are:

                  • study design: i would go through it after each area of study as it provides a good indication of how much you need to know. if it says 'general'- you need to know very little, but some will have a list of terms with it these always seem to be somewhere on the exam so good dot points to make sure you know all those terms. heres some examples:
                    • the role of Rubisco in photosynthesis, including adaptations of C3, C4 and CAM plants to maximise the efficiency of photosynthesis
                    • the factors that affect the rate of photosynthesis: light availability, water availability, temperature and carbon dioxide concentration

                  • examiners reports: bio has gotten super into questions worth a lot of marks (4+), I ALWAYS dot point these answers and usually they are on a process like CRISPR, transcription/translation or insulin production so I would use previous examiners report to see what each mark was for so you don't waste time writing unnecessary information and have a rehearsed set of dot points for big concepts like that where they like to include big mark questions

                  • VCE Biology 2022–2026 – Frequently asked questions: this document is a god send. It's on the VCAA website and it basically clarifies exactly what you need to know for each of the seemingly heavy ones. If you're feeling overwhelmed with one where there's so many details, try and find the topic on this document and just learn what it tells you.

                      Incorporating practice questions into your study routine is highly recommended. It helps consolidate your understanding and identify any areas that require further attention. Start by answering questions related to the basket random topic you've learned and gradually increase the difficulty level as you progress. Practice regularly throughout the year to build your skills and confidence.

                      10 months later

                      Hello Bio-Lovers! 🌱🔬

                      I'm currently studying Biology Units 1&2 and was hoping to get some advice from those who have already excelled in this subject. Do you have any tips, tricks, or strategies for acing VCE Biology?

                      I really enjoy general biology, but I'd love some guidance on how to approach the content, stay organized, and prepare for assessments. Any words of wisdom or inspiration from experienced learners would mean the world to me!

                      Thanks so much in advance - your help is truly appreciated! 😊

                        8 days later

                        -MindsAhead-

                        hello!!
                        Bit of a full circle moment seems this was my original post from a year ago lols but i was very appreciative when people helped me out so im happy to share some tips that helped me get a raw 47 in bio last year!

                        I would recommend trying to aim to have gone over each lessons content before the lesson. Whether you want to stay one lesson ahead or one week ahead is up to you🙂 Coming up to sac time I would always aim to do all the practice sacs I was given, plus anything else I could find, and id get it all marked by my teachers and would go over it in depth with them. As we all know the biology marking scheme is definately a pain, so to get advice from teachers and examiners who have a lot of experience makes answering future questions much easier, as they give you the mindset of an examiner.

                        For exam period i started by going over semester 1 content in the september holidays and once i was happy with that i started doing some of the company practice exams. I think i got like 55% on my first bio practice exam because I was very harsh on myself to ensure i was targetting every apsect of the marking guide. I think in the end i did around 20 bio practice exams, finishing off with the vcaa exams from 2016 onwards and going over them with my teachers. All the current study design ones i did timed and got them fully marked and very heavily went over them.

                        Im happy to answer any other questions you have, and i hope this helps a bit!

                            haps20

                            Thank you so much for your detailed response and for taking the time to share your advice – it’s super helpful and inspiring to hear from someone who’s done so well in Bio!

                            I’ll definitely take your advice about staying ahead of lessons and getting into the habit of reviewing practice SACs and exams with teachers. It’s so true what you said about understanding the examiner’s mindset – the marking scheme can be tricky!

                            I’m curious – Were there any topics in the Units 1&2 syllabus that you found especially challenging? If so, how did you overcome them?

                            Thanks again for your kindness and generosity in sharing your tips – it really means a lot! 😊

                                5 days later

                                matureagedstudent

                                oml what are you on about. Can you stop replying to all my posts with this random stuff???

                                  -MindsAhead-

                                  I cant remember any specific parts of 1/2. A few aspects were less engaging but overall werent too bad.

                                  If there was ever anything I wasnt greta at (like in 3/4 it was evolution and experimental design) I spent the last few dyas before the exam just focusing on them. I did nothing on any other aspects, I just focused on those parts which I found was definately useful!

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