AQA Biology

One unique element of AQA A level biology is the essay found in paper 3 - unlike all other exam boards, students are expected to develop their extended writing skills. Biology paper 3 consists of an extended 25-mark synoptic essay. 

This synoptic aspect is important to note: AQA have emphasised that students who write in detail about just one single area will not gain many marks, Instead, it is essential to draw together a variety of concepts from throughout the course.  

A couple of years back, AQA released a graph that showed the typical mark distribution on the paper 3 essay. It tends to look something like this, with a proportionally small (but notable) number of students able to achieve 25/25. 

To secure 25/25, you must include examples from outside the specification that are "at or above A level standard". Using GCSE biology, or things that "anyone who has not studied A level biology would know" is not appropriate. The guide below has an example of this, as well as the available essay plans. 

I (Ojas) sat Edexcel biology. Recognising the importance of this exam,  I have looked for a tutor with a lot of experience with essay-writing skills to offer some advice on how to routinely score 25/25. Hannah is a student at the University of Oxford and one of our tutors with copious extended essay-writing experience, having achieved 25/25 in AQA biology, as well as 50/50 in EPQ and equally impressive results in Oxford essay examinations.

She will be discussing this on the 'A levels' group chat with you at some point, and has also put together a PDF of advice on how to score 25/25. I do recommend reading this at some point before your paper 3 exam. 

To be successful in any essay-based examination, whether at A level or university, it is important to make essay plans. I have seen a fantastic video explaining this on YouTube that you may wish to watch. If you have prepared. Hannah has kindly offered to share a set of 7 predicted essay plans and fully written, teacher-marked 25/25 essays. 

It will likely be helpful to use in order to:

AQA A-Level Biology- Advice on Paper 3 Essay Writing.docx.pdf

See the guide as above. If you would like to purchase the set of 7 predicted essay plans, you can do so by paying with the link below and then filling in the Google Form with the same email address that you used to pay (this is important). 

The Google Form that you need to fill in after paying can be found here.