Edexcel IAL A2 Biology specification

Edexcel IAL A2 Biology 🔬 Specification

Edexcel A2 Biology Complete Notes
  • IAL Edexcel syllabus Unit 4 📘

    • Unit 4:

     1 Photosynthesis

     2 Ecology

     3 Sampling Techniques

     4 Succession

     5 Global Warming

     6 Evolution 

     7 DNA Profiling

     8 Forensics

     9 Non-specific Immunity

     10  Specific Immunity

     11 Viruses & Bacteria

     12 Measuring bacterial growth

     13 Antibiotics

  • IAL Edexcel syllabus Unit 5 📕

    • Unit 5:

     1 Aerobic Respiration

     2 Anaerobic Respiration

     3 Muscles

     4 The heart muscle

     5 Regulation of heart rate

     6 Regulation of breathing rate 

     7 Cardiac output & the spirometer

     8 Animal hormones  

     9 Homeostasis

     10 The kidney

     11 Osmoregulation

     12 The nervous system

     13 The synapse

     14 The eye

     15 Reflex actions

     16 Coordination in plants

     17 The human brain

     18 Brain disease

     19 Gene technology


    Download the A2 biology syllabus

  • IAL Edexcel syllabus Unit 6 📙

    Unit 6:

    Includes all practicals from all previous units 

    (including Units 1 and 2)


    Download the A2 biology syllabus

  • About the IAL Exam 📝

    Edexcel IAL Exams (3 units)


    Unit 4: Energy, Environment, Microbiology and Immunity (WBI14)

    Written examination: 1 hour and 45 minutes

    Availability: January, June and October.

    Total: 80 marks 

    40% of the overall percentage of the A2 grade

     

    Unit 5: Respiration, Internal Environment, Coordination and Gene Technology (WBI15)

    Written examination: 1 hour and 45 minutes

    Availability: January, June and October.

    Total: 80 marks 

    40% of the overall percentage of the A2 grade

                                                          


    Unit 6: Practical Skills in Biology II (WBI16)

    Written examination: 1 hour and 20 minutes

    Availability: January, June and October.

    Total: 50 marks

    20% of the overall percentage of the A2 grade

  • Upcoming exams 🗓️

    Unit 1:

    Monday 08 January

    Unit 2:

    Monday 15 January

    Unit 3:

    Friday 19 January

    Unit 4:

    Thursday 11 January

    Unit 5:

    Wednesday 17 January

    Unit 6:

    Tuesday 23 January

How to score an A* in A-level Biology?

  • Make a checklist ☑️

    Use the specification as a checklist to guide you on what to study and what is not relevant  Textbooks contain extra details that are not required for your exam. Make sure that you only learn what is needed from the specification

  • Brief notes 📒

    I usually see students gathering information from different resources and making their notes

    Don’t waste time on this,  you’d rather invest that time solving past exam papers

    You still need to write a few notes, try to find ready-made notes that fully cover your syllabus and annotate them with your thoughts 



  • Practice while studying 🙇🏻‍♂️

    Don’t leave the past papers until the end, solving classified exam papers while you’re studying, preferably after each section. This will enforce your learning. You also need to develop the skill of writing long answers, which must be developed early before your exam. This is what I have done for my students, I classified exam questions for each topic and solved those questions

  • Don't memorise at the beginning 💡

    Memorisation is part of learning biology, you’ll eventually learn all the little details if you keep solving past papers. So, do not waste time trying to memorise at the beginning,  focus on understanding the big ideas first

  • Good explanation 🧑🏻‍🏫

    A-level biology can be tricky especially when it comes to practicals, you probably didn’t have the chance to do all the core experiments required by your exam board. Try to find a series of lectures to clarify the content. Those lectures have to be specific to your syllabus, otherwise, you have to collect the information from  many different resources which is a waste of time

  • Start with older past papers 📄

    You have done the notes, solved classified questions, and eventually, you must solve full past exam papers. Start with old papers (those are relatively easier). Solve first with an open book starting with 2019 papers (those are the first papers in the new syllabus)

    If you have enough time then start with 2016 papers but ensure that you cancel questions from the old syllabus

  • Time your practice ⏰

    When it comes to the last 3-4 full exam papers you need to pace yourself to finish on time. This is one of the most critical issues when it comes to biology exams, many students know all the answers and yet do get the chance to reach to the end of the exam paper. Your target should be to finish the exam paper and have 10 - 15 to revise your exam paper

  • Highlight your mistakes ✏️

    Bookmark or highlight your mistake while solving full papers, this will become your last-day revision sheet, it’ll have to improve weak points and give you more confidence

  • Be fair when grading 🤓

    Mark your answers after each paper. Don’t be lenient while marking, examiners are quite strict, and you really need written answers to compare your answers to. Check my solved exam papers, I have basically solved almost every exam paper and classified those for each topic

  • Write more than asked ✍️

    One good exam technique is to write up all keywords related to the question in pencil and then write a statement about each keyword. You need to write more statements that what the question is asking for, this will ensure that you are covering all the mark scheme points. Ideally, if the question is for 3 marks you need to write 4 or even 5 points

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