sec 4 biology help needed

strife. SG

How do you ace biology? I know have to memorise and understand the structures, but i always fail to score for essay questions. My mcqs and structured qns are considered good, but my marks are always pulled down by essay questions. Any help will be appreciated!

BenBenDeZhu SG

you every subject also wan to ask izzit

Darkness_hacker99 SG

For me I feel that there are 4 parts to study:

-MCQ
-Structured Question
-Structured Essay
-Practical/SPA

And each way of studying is different.

MCQ
For MCQ, try exposing yourself to the maximum possibilities of questions which will come out in exam. Try out different TYS or assignment book. Do and do until you understand and get correct for each and every question.

Time management is also very important! One must reach a level when he sees the question at first sight, and the next moment answer is pop up in the mind. This will save precious time in the exam and allow you to double/triple check.

Structured Question
Read the question carefully. Try to recall if you have seen any of the question in TYS or during your revision. Do they look familiar? Seriously speaking, Cambridge have run out of ideas already. Those questions you see in your O exam are probably taken from past year. Their creativity juice has run out.

It's best to read and understand the content of your text book and make note for it. Have you heard of the 80/20 Rule? It states that out of the whole chunk of information you have, 80% are non content words, while the another 20% is the information that you really need. If you were to make note, you'll save A LOT of time on your later revision.

Keep doing the Past Year Papers, Prelim papers, Mid Year Paper and TYS. Where there is a source of question, just do it. Expose yourself to more question, and it will really help you in exam.

Do the easier question first. Then revisit back the question again and ponder for an answer. Wink

Structured Essay
This is the part where you need to memorize a lot of essay. At what I have said, Make Key-Point Notes! Key-Point Notes are those notes with just the key point of the content. Then in your mind, link these points together to show it's relevancy.

No doubt you'll have to memorize quite a lot for this part. Be glad, There's only a few essay to study per chapter.

Well, it all boils down to your understand. After memorizing, you should be able to tell if you can understand the content or not.

Practical/SPA
Probably the lab are closed now for preparation. Revise the notes your teacher gave you. Also read up your textbook for more information. Remember Biology practical is one of the most easier component out of the four.

You must be able to do tests. Like Food Test which consist of four test. You MUST follow the instructions . If you missed any steps or do anything wrongly, the overall result will be different. Usually this will apply to Plants, where they'll ask you to do something to it.

Drawing. Try practice drawing all the fruits LS and TS. You must know where is the line of axis(growth direction). You'll be also required to draw things which you'll never draw before. Weird stuff can range from ginger to longgag, from chilli to mangosteen. Aww.. Drawing will be an unfair advantage to art students Laughing

Your drawing lines must be clear and concise. No shading! Don't add 3-D effects

Darkness_hacker99 SG

Extracted from one of my previous post. Tips for studying Sciences, Biology.

strife. SG

lol no la just want to score better for these subjects. thanks darkness_hacker99 for your tips! I really appreciate it

escadaraindrops SG

Do past year papers. Especialy if it's from midyear or prelims. I did my school past year midyear paper 2005 2006 and 2007 and during my bio exam 2 days ago, 2-3 open ended and one structure essay was similar.

Also, work on answering technique. If for example they ask for "how does a plant support itself." (4marks)

you will have to cover 2 main reasons why cause it's 4 marks. 2 marks for each point.

The cell wall(impt words) of the xylem thicken with ligin as they mature, help as structural support, prevent plant from collasping.

-Turgid cells. This is because there is a higher h2o potential and hence water will enter the cells by osmosis. The plant cells will therefore be turgid and be erect and upright. This helps the plant support itselves, especially in young plants as they need to grow upwards and be upright so as to recieve maximum sunlight for photosynthesis.

You have to kinda throw all u know inside the essay Q. this is so that the teacher cannot - 0.5 marks so u can get the full 4 marks (:

All the best!

deathmaster SG

get those type of tys with all the answers for its structured qsns. (some they leave out the ans for the hard qsns &^%$)

if you can't study from textbook, go do the tys by copying directly from the answer sheet. take time to go remember what the markers are looking for for while you are copying. it helps you focus on scoring relevant points.