Jamilah Jawando

I find that going over the content in a simplified manner is the most helpful first step. It allows for a thorough understanding of the key points of each topic before building on the more complex points.

Actively recalling this information is my favourite technique as the more a topic is revisited, the more likely we are to retain and understand the information. I may do this with quick flash-card like questions or asking the student to recall everything they can think of regarding a specific topic.

In my opinion, the key to passing exams is developing a true understanding of how to answer the questions in the exact way the exam board would expect. This may be specific key words or remembering to explain things in a certain way in order to ensure you are collecting all possible marks. With my students I would go over past exam papers, model exemplary answers and help the student understand why the question requires specific answers so they can remodel this in their real exams.

Biology is very content heavy and that is why students tend to struggle. It also requires making connections between topics in order to answer exam questions easily.