A-Level Biology Week 5 Exam Preparation Tips

Over the past 5 weeks, let’s face it, we have been through A LOT! So, let’s take a breather and realise how great of an achievement that is. You have come such a long way, and just a little more to go. LET’S GET THIS DONE!

The problem most students have is stress and anxiety during the exam, and it’s completely natural. Even now, I still get that funny feeling in my stomach during tests. What I want to focus on today is another exam room technique to help you get through it as painlessly as possible!

Last week, we looked at a few past paper examples on how we can effectively manage our time in the exam. I want to take this a step further. Not all questions in the exam are easy and not all of them are hard. The exam board tries to keep a healthy balance. As part of time management during the exam, we should also be able to categorise the questions given to us based on difficulty so we know what to tackle first and to make the most use of our time.

Exams are structured to include 5-10 minutes of extra time. You may use the extra time how you like - what worked for me was that I spent the first few minutes just reading the paper and digesting the questions which they had given. While I read these, I used to put one of three symbols next to the question:

1. :)

2. :/

3. :(

Why did I do this? Well, I wanted to categorise all the questions in the paper in levels of difficulty for me. Happy face questions would be first, followed by mild, and then sad. It does not matter what order you do questions in the exam - there is no rule saying you have to go chronologically for example. You have the opportunity to customise the exam to your liking, and this is one way of doing it.

You might be thinking about how you can go about categorising the questions? This is based on your criteria and what makes a question hard or easy for you:

· Easier questions might be short answer ones or those which are long answers but on easier content. In that extra time, I would put a happy face next to these sorts of questions

· Those which seem harder might be because of the length of the question or have content I found more challenging. The point is to make the most efficient use of the time you have. If these questions are too hard, it may be worth spending more time on the questions you find easy first and then coming back to the hard ones towards the end. I would put a sad face next to these questions

· Odd questions might have a mild face, the questions which are kind of in the middle. You may feel that these are neither easy nor hard.

By categorising the questions and attempting them in order of difficulty, we may be able to reduce stress during the exam. When you are going through the exam, you can complete the happy face questions first and quickest, which might be the easiest one’s for you. The easier questions will feel more like an achievement every single time you finish them and can help you build the courage to move on to the more challenging questions.

Another common problem is suddenly forgetting content in the exam, and you may not even be stressed! How does this happen? The simple answer is a lack of practice using the information before the exam. This was a common occurrence for me where I would be so confident in memorising all the information needed, but when it came to the exam, I would completely blank out.

The reason why this would happen to me was because I never realised how helpful past papers were, especially doing them under time constraints. When I finally started doing this, however, I became a lot better at practically recalling information which I have memorised. Time constraints helped me feel the same pressure I would have faced on exam day. Honestly, I started thinking of it as a sport, where if I would train more under time limits, I would become better at it. Remember that practice may not always be through past papers- it can be through a textbook or a past mock exam paper.

The point is to always look back and reflect on previous attempts on any form of assessment. It is not always about revision. Sometimes, you need to look back at your previous attempts to see how well you did and where you can improve.

There are many ways of doing this, such as looking back at previous attempts and possibly reading over the feedback of your teacher or instructor. Compare these with your answers or even with the mark schemes. A very helpful resource, in this case, are mock exams, which usually include past paper questions in them. Your teacher’s feedback can earn you a few more marks in the final exam, which can possibly be the difference between two grades!

It is with a heavy heart, however, that our revision series has come to an end this week. To those of you starting your exams, all the best and know that you have my full support. You honestly deserve the best grade possible, and I really hope you outshine yourself in the upcoming exams!

Have any questions about how to prepare for your A-Level exams? Having problems with any hard to understand content or tricky past exam questions? Then ask Syed. Syed will be hosting a series of Q&A webinars in the 2 weeks before final exams. Post your questions here, and Syed will answer them in these sessions.