Tag Archives: exams

Term 4 Exam Revision

My class have identified three areas in each of Unit 3 and Unit 4 that they would like to do more work on before the exams:

Unit 3: Signatures of Life

Unit 4: Continuity and Change

Exam Revision

Welcome back and thanks for your patience while I have been on study leave. There are only two weeks left before the Unit 3/4 Biology exam on Friday 30th October, so you should have already done the following:

  1. Written out a clear and concise set of study notes, outlining the main concepts in each Area of Study.
  2. Completed practice exams (available at the VCAA website) and identified areas where you need to do further revision.
  3. Joined the Elevate Education #elevatebio Video Series at http://bio.elevateeducation.com/
  4. You may also like to join the Study.com site for a five-day free trial and access their Immunology resources.

Some students have mentioned that they are having most difficulty remembering the cells involved and sequence of events of the cell cycle and immunology. These quick videos and other resources may assist with your revision:

VCE Biology Revision

Darwins_first_tree

With about five weeks until the final end-of-year examination for VCE Biology on Friday 31st October (9.00am to 11.45am), you still have time to prepare an effective study timetable that will assist you to achieve your best result. It is important to balance your commitments at this time of year and avoid getting stressed and anxious, because that won’t help your revision process. You may like to consider some of the following ways to support your exam revision:

Much of your success in this subject will depend on your knowledge of scientific terms, definitions and concepts and how to apply these concepts in new situations. Spend some time identifying key knowledge in each Area of Study, perhaps using the Exam Revision Audit I sent around recently. I have sent a link to a collaborative Google Document for you to complete a specific section, so that the whole class will have a set of online study notes. Please add some information about the concept, an example and a link to more information for each term.

Quizlet is an online tool where I have created sets of terms and definitions for each area of study. You can use these Quiz sets in different modes (Learn, Flashcards, Scatter, Quiz etc) and edit them to add your own terms.

Mindmaps are great to connect different terms and concepts. Create your own using lots of colour to group ideas. Try completing this mindmap about the evidence for evolution. The benefit for learning is in creating your own – the colour and movement stimulate your brain to remember the text. You can also create them online using Bubbl.us and other free software.

Slideshare is an enormous resource with many of my teaching resources uploaded. You can find slideshows on almost any topic and there are several specifically for VCE Biology revision.

Past Exams are available on the VCAA website, but be aware that there is only one example (2013) of the current format – (120 minutes) with 30 multiple choice questions (worth 1 mark each) and 90 marks worth of short answer questions. Keep working hard and contact me by email, Twitter (@brittgow) or phone if you need assistance.

Congratulations!

Fireworks celebration

Image Source

Well done on completing your mid-year Biology exam. It was a real test of everyone’s knowledge and understanding of Unit 1: Cells and Functioning Organisms. The degree of difficulty is an indication of the Unit 3 and 4 course, so you will need to continue to work hard to do well. Please complete the student survey by clicking on the Survey tab at the top of this page. The purpose of this survey is to assist me to improve my teaching and your learning.

I have given those students who did not sit the GAT a list of words from the end of each chapter in Unit 2. Each student is required to create a worksheet to distribute to the whole class to assist each of us to understand these words. You could use a crossword, word search with definitions, ‘fill-the-gaps’, concept map or flashcards. Try Puzzlemaker, Tools for Educators, Wordsearch Generator or FlashcardsDB.

Chapter 9 – Melissa

Chapter 10 – Stephanie

Chapter 11 – Chloe

Chapter 12 – Monique

Chapter 13 – Tara

Chapter 14 – Emily

Chapter 15 – Charlotte

Chapter 16 – Catherine

Chris and James, your job will be to read Chapter 9 and prepare a unit of work to teach the class. Each pair of students will be required to do this for one chapter. You will still be required to answer all the chapter review questions and this is a good place to start to ensure you have a full understanding of the concepts. Have a great long weekend and see you Tuesday!