Resource Recommedations

[thenuttyprofessor]

What resources do you think are best for 3/4 Bio in Yr 11?
Textbooks, notes, topic tests, practice exams, books etc.

Anything would help, thanks!!

[FrankieDens]

Hello! 

(I'm also doing Biology 3/4 as a Year 11 btw)

Textbook

• Nelson Biology: 2.5/5
  This is the main textbook my class uses but a majority of us agree it is not exactly the best textbook because of its lengthy descriptions that sometimes goes beyond the study design. However, the diagrams are great and the chapters covering U3 AoS 1 is pretty comprehensive.
• Heinemann Biology 2: 3.5/5
  Used Chapter 6 to learn about Cell Signalling and it was a really good resource because of its review questions. It goes by each concept step by step with clear paragraphs and actually lists the steps to certain processes such as Apoptosis. In addition to that, we used Heinemann when learning about 'Earth's Geological History' and 'Evidence for Evolution'. Basically the chapters that my teacher thought were lacking in Nelson would be replaced by Heinemann.
• Nature of Biology (Jacaranda): ?/5
  You hear a lot about this in ATAR notes but sorry I don't have any personal experience with it lol.

Notes
*Just a small note: Please consider how well you understand content from writing notes compared to buying pre-made notes. I have bought a lot of resources but the practise tests and SACs that I did the most well in were often the ones were I made my own notes. Sure TSFX is good and all to save time and focus on exam questions but I have this slight feeling that I don't understand the content as well as I could have if that makes sense.*

• TSFX U4 Notes: 3.5/5
  I went to the Winter School programme and it was very comprehensive depending on the lecturer you get and the notes are pretty good. However, they are not exactly 'summary notes' as sometimes they provide random images with no caption/explanation at all and includes too many examples rather than the actual Biology content.
• Connect Education: 5/5
  YES! I only used their Immunology and Science Poster notes but they are so easy to understand, straight to the point and structured really well. All you have to do is go to their 'Downloads' section on their website and it's FREE! Also, the diagrams actually add to the content rather than randomly placed by TSFX
• ATAR Notes Summary: 4/5
  I didn't do Bio 1/2 so I bought the ATAR Summary Notes for those units. A very condensed set of summary notes written in student language and I like using it for light reading hehe.
• A+ Biol Notes: 3.5/5
  I mainly used this for U3 AoS 2 because of its really good diagrams and its even way more condensed than the ATAR Notes one. But it also provides practise questions that are actually pretty hard sometimes. Also, the part covering scientific investigation is really good if you want to actually understand formatting experiments and reading types of graphs.
  

Tests

• NEAP, LisaChem: 3.5/5
  These were provided by my teacher. LisaChem's questions are a bit more to the easy side with some of the answers being a bit wack. However, still pretty good. On the other hand, NEAP has really good questions that make you think.
• Checkpoints: 4.5/5
  I understand there is a bit of a debate about this as it 'spoils' VCAA exams... but exams isn't Avengers Endgame and I believe its very important to have your exam skills under your belt as you learn the content. Really good because the questions are already organised into topics so you can focus on your weaker areas. (However, I understand that it's really expensive for just VCAA exams with a coloured cover so if you have the time you can also personally sort out exam questions by yourself.) I really liked doing 5 multiple questions a day and I often left the Short Answer Questions for last. For example, if Checkpoints had 20 Short Answer Questions and there is 6 days left for my SAC, I will aim to do 4 questions each day as part of my revision.

Well that's it from me and I really hope it helps you! All the best for revising for exams!  [/list]

[PhoenixxFire]

Don't forget about all the free resources available either. Definitely no need to go out and buy a heap of resources for a subject like bio where there's so much available online. Would recommend checking out Douchy's bio podcast for an overview of the course and the summary notes on AN for condensed course notes.

Also worth checking with your school before buying things, some schools keep copies of multiple types of textbooks in their library.