The Biology blues: Why A level Biology content is difficult to remember and what you can do about it.
A level Biology is a beast. It eats the dreams of smart, well motivated students. The good news is that it can be defeated, and the solutions are all well researched, well resourced, and well within your capabilities. In this short article I’ll show you the common problems in A level Biology learning, and the most effective solutions that I’ve discovered through teaching this subject to thousands of students. Read on and find out how to excel in this sometimes tricksy subject.
Diagrams are often the key to helping abstract, invisible processes make enough sense that students can apply the fundamental ideas to the dreaded application questions
Problem 1: The vast syllabus.
A-level Biology covers a wide range of topics, from cellular biology to ecology, genetics, and human physiology. The total amount of material to learn is quite simply ‘huge’. In addition, very few students are excited by every part of it. The breadth of content requires students to remember an extensive amount of information, with quite different ways of thinking and central concepts in each part of the syllabus.
Solution:
As you’d expect, there is no quick fix. The solution is a combination of methods. None of them are trivial, and some students find them easier to master than others. If they are naturally tidy and organised it won’t feel like such a big upheaval, although with enough effort I’ve seen even the most chaotic of students get to grips with it.
Organisation
The ability to stay organised is critical in A level Biology. Students need to:
Carve out at least 3 hours per week, out of lesson time, to spend going back over what they’ve learnt in Biology class.
Have a clear list of all the material they need to know. The textbooks all do this well with chapter summaries. Their school or college may already have a revision list.
Mindset and enthusiasm
If they think it’s boring, it will be boring. Here’s the alternative:
Accept they’ve signed up to study all of life, not just the bits they're interested in.
A good teacher or tutor who can show them why a nano-machine that makes itself from mud and air while apparently breaking the laws of physics (a plant!) is really interesting.
OR
Work on mindset and goal setting so they see the point in persevering through the bits they don’t enjoy.
Systems
GCSE and A level learning are different skills. Here’s what they need to accept:
There are better ways of learning which are more time efficient, you’ll find some examples below.
The techniques and methods of study they’ve used until now may not be the best for the new challenge ahead. They can get better at studying.
There are loads of study skill resources on the internet and in books. This YouTube video on how to learn absolutely anything is a good place to start.
Have an open mind, ask their teacher or tutor, give things a proper go.
Obviously this takes time, so we return to the most important solution of all:
Start early, plan time, timetable and do at least 1 hour of independent study per hour of class time.
Problem 2: In-depth understanding is required
Simply memorising facts isn't enough; students need to understand complex processes and how they interrelate. This depth of understanding is necessary for 2 reasons.
Firstly, almost no one remembers facts - they remember stories. If a new fact isn’t bedded into a previous story it’s not very ‘sticky’. If you can fit new ideas into older understanding and mental models, the facts stay put and don’t just leak out of your head. This is the principle of the ‘memory palaces’ used by magicians.
The second reason is that only a tiny fraction of the marks in A level are for recalling facts. Most of the marks are for applying knowledge to different contexts. If you don’t understand the concepts, processes, or principles behind the ‘facts’ you won’t recognise what sort of Biology the questions are asking you about.
Solution:
This is the advice I give to my students when they’re struggling with the complexity of A level Biology:
Use blurting and dual coding to make stuff make sense. Watch Youtube to see processes like DNA replication as animations. Don’t try to remember isolated facts.
Explain the biology to someone else. My tutees all send me powerpoints. Nothing is as effective in ensuring you understand something than trying to teach it to someone else.
Form a study group with like minded, motivated, up for it people. Make the study group a system for testing each other's understanding by explaining things to each other. Mark each other's work. Be ‘generous’ of spirit but ‘miserly’ of marks. You are helping each other get better, so the testing needs to be a realistic test and it needs to be supportive.
Use Anki App or another flashcard app such as Quizlet so that you can go over terminology, processes, structures etc many, many times. The magic sauce of spaced repetition is built into these apps.
If you don’t know what blurting, dual coding, and spaced repetition are, you need to. Research how learning happens. You need to become an expert learner before you can become an expert A level Biology student.
Problem 3: Complex terminology
The subject is filled with specialised vocabulary and scientific terms that can be difficult to memorise and understand because they are made up of Latin and Greek words. Often it’s a real struggle to pronounce the words and words you don't sound-out in your head have very little ‘stickiness’ for your memory.
Solution
This is what I recommend to students who have difficulty with the vocabulary aspect of the course:
Have a go at pronouncing everything, don’t fudge it. It doesn't matter how anyone else says ‘carbaminohaemoglobin’, what matters is that you sound it out so you stand a better chance of remembering it.
Make sure the terminology fits into understanding.
Use Anki App/Quizlet to have spaced repetition on your side. If you review each term 4 or 5 times over a few months it becomes difficult to forget them!
Problem 4: Abstract Concepts.
Many concepts in Biology, such as molecular and genetic processes or Nitrogen cycling or evolution are not directly observable in everyday life. This abstraction can make it difficult for students to relate to and remember the material.
Solution
These are the methods I use with students to get the abstract concepts to stick:
Draw everything. Google ‘facilitated diffusion diagrams’, ‘facilitated diffusion animation’ etc., look at the diagrams, decide which you like the best and adapt them so they work for you. Abstract ideas can be made much more real using visualisation.
It helps if you think of metaphors and similes for the ideas, structures etc. Here a good, experienced, teacher is priceless, because it is in finding ways to make the abstract real that good teachers shine. However you can get into this habit yourself as well. For example: Dynamic equilibrium = running on an escalator, spending money as fast as you make it, running the bath with the plug out.
The more abstract and ‘non-real’ the process or principle is the more it can be applied to different contexts AND the more likely it can be applied to an application question. For example: ‘Energy’ is about as abstract an idea as you can get, and it crops up in all sorts of biology from the molecular (denaturing enzymes, active transport across membranes, electrochemical gradients of H+ ions in respiration, photosynthesis and translocation of assimilates) to ecosystems.
Keep records with mind maps or other graphical organisers of where abstract concepts or principles crop up. Cell signalling, co-transport, flow of information, limiting factors… The more an idea looks like chemistry or physics the more application it will have.
The more you pay attention to where it crops up, the more likely you are to recognise it in an application question in the exam.
Read the extension boxes in the textbooks. They show you other applications of the important ideas. You don’t need to know the specific examples, but you need to know how to recognise the important, foundational ideas in new contexts.
Problem 5: Interconnected Topics.
Topics in Biology are highly interconnected. Understanding one concept often depends on understanding another, which can be challenging if foundational knowledge is shaky.
For example, if your knowledge of transport mechanisms across membranes isn’t spot on, you're going to find transport in animals and plants, excretion, and nervous communication really difficult.
Solution
When students find it hard to see the connections, I recommend the following:
The foundation molecular modules at the start of the syllabus are absolutely vital.
Keep records of which ideas repeat - protein structure is an obvious example. How many proteins are there in the specification? Transport proteins like the Na+/K+ pump, aquaporins, cotransport proteins for H+ and sucrose… antibodies, cell signalling receptors, enzymes, structural proteins, actin and myosin in muscle fibres…
Use mind maps to show connections between parts of the specification. Mind maps are NOT useful for learning detail but they are great for seeing how it all connects.
For example:
The control of heart beat by the SAN in Module 3 of year 1 returns with more detail relating to hormonal and nervous control of the SAN in Module 5 of year 2.
Transcription and translation in module 2 of year 1 returns in all sorts of guises in modules 4 and 6.
Biology is difficult, but it’s a long way from impossible. The mother of all solutions is to start early, plan time, learn how to learn, timetable, and do at least an hour of independent study per hour of class time, from day one of year 12. If you’d like some help to get back on track and bring Biology back from the dead, book a free 15 minute strategy call with me.
