How to get an A1 in biology, chemistry and physics

her0fire

Hey, I'm just heading into 5th year this year and I have all 3 sciences picked as my subjects.

Do you guys have any tips on how to get A1's in these 3 subjects?

Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks in advance

finality

I got A1s in bio and chem.
For biology, I didn't really do anything specific- kept up with homework and studied the night before class tests for most of fifth and sixth year. The night before the exam I didn't sleep, I stayed up and read the entire book and I think this really helped- a lot of things were fresh in my mind. I wouldn't recommend this if you're not used to that kind of thing though, I had two exams that day and pretty much wished I was dead during them. :L
For chemistry, I'd suggest making your own VERY short summaries of the experiments as you do them. Leave out all the unnecessary information, like "10ml of..." or "a clean, dry beaker". This won't get you any marks and I found it made me procrastinate as the sheer amount of information looked very intimidating. But when you cut it down to around half an A4 page per experiment it's very manageable. I found writing out my own chapter summaries was very helpful for chemistry. I went from a C2 in my mock to an A1 in the real exam by making chapter summaries. You'd be surprised how much you remember just by writing out the main information. Again, try to cut it down to the important points and leave out the filler. I did all this summarizing between the mock and the leaving cert, and that probably wasn't the best strategy. If you break it down and summarize a chapter when you do it in class, I think it would seem a lot more manageable. Practice exam papers too, once you've covered a fair amount of the course, because the question types are very repetitive.
I did physics too but got a B1 and didn't really put the work that I should have in so I can't give you many tips there. All the maths in it is very similar, rearranging formulas mostly, so it's important that you know what all the symbols in the formulas mean as there's a lot of easy marks to be had if you're mathematically minded.

reznov

Past papers.
Do each and every paper until you churn definitions in your sleep. Once you get sick of repetition, you're on the right track. Ensure you revise before every exam. Information management with 7+ exams is not easy. Organise your own notes. Nevermind ready made notes. Pick up Rapid Revision book for chemistry.

FaoiSin

I didn't do Physics but I got an A1 in Bio and Chem. Biology is easier in my opinion. The book I used was Revise Wise Biology and it had more than enough information. My teacher gave great notes and summarised the info into diagrams which were easy to remember. Would recommend giving that a go Erm Chemistry... Well I just used to break up the course into sections and study them now and then in blocks... eg. Block 1: Rate of Reactions, Water, Fuels and Heat of Reactions. Block 2: Water, Organic Chemistry, Equilibrium etc. :P

I'd also recommend papers I suppose but I wouldn't bother predicting ^^

Rokeefe

her0fire wrote: »

Hey, I'm just heading into 5th year this year and I have all 3 sciences picked as my subjects.

Do you guys have any tips on how to get A1's in these 3 subjects?

Any help will be appreciated!

Thanks in advance

I got an A1 in physics this year, if u want an a1 then do all the questions in the book. That's what I did and the questions in the test felt like ordinary level questions. They were no where near as challenging

mathstalk

For Physics, just write a neat set of notes splitting the course into defined sections:

1. Definitions (139 of these)
2. Mandatory Experiments (24 of these, but they're repetitive and easy to learn in bulk)
3. Demonstrative Experiments (16 of these)
4. Bulky Pieces of Information (About 70 of these)
5. Derivations (11 of these)

I recommend getting the Revise Wise book. The 70 "bulky pieces of information" includes stuff like The Photocell, The Cathode Ray Tube, Semiconductors etc. Once you have the Revise Wise book (or any shortened revision book), just go through the chapters reading topics until you understand them and writing your own version of each topic in the "Bulky Information" section of your notes. Do the same for the Demonstrative Experiments, Mandatory Experiments, Derivations and Definitions. Most of the stuff you learn in Physics tends to stick well except for the Maths and the Derivations. For these, practice is key. The coverage of Maths in your Real World Physics book is really good so just go through all the questions in the book. Later on if you're a bit hazy, go through the questions again. Finally, remember that Callan invented the induction coil and Walton split the nucleus and you should be fine.

iiHyPeRize

Biology is an awkward subject, interesting but at times quite hard. To get an A1 just stick with study and homework and old exam papers.

her0fire

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Sunny!!

I dont do physics but i did do biology and chemistry. From viewing my scripts on both yesterday the marking is very specific. No vague answers and definition must be learned to a tee.

An example yesterday was explain variation. I said differences in species instead of between and got 0 marks. It was a similiar situation with chemistry.

and to get A's nothing can be left out and no predictions!!

good luck:)

fizzyorange

I did biology HL and got a B2 and physics OL and got an A2.

For both I suggest doing all of the experiment questions in the exam papers. The essentially ask the same things over and over again for these.

For physics I'd say pick a topic, like mechanics, and then pick a smaller topic within that, like acceleration due to gravity, then learn it and do all the questions on it.

For biology learn entire sections as they are easy enough, like ecology, then do all the ecology q's in the exam papers.

Also shorten chapters, make notes on key ideas and definition, and enjoy yourself! Since you picked the three sciences I'll take a stab and say you like science, so if this is the case you will probably enjoy these classes.

msruby

i got A1's in biology and chemistry..marking schemes are essential in both subjects particularly chemistry!! i printed out my marking schemes during the LC because they would be close to hand!! do out previous exam qtns and then correct yourself against the marking scheme!!

Tweej

Physics - Know what's in the log tables. That'll get you about 20% (at least) of the exam by just writing down what's in there.