Master HSC Biology before Trials

From past papers to YouTube videos, we’ve got your Biology study covered

Explore our study tips which will make revising so much easier before your Trial Biology exams, suggested by our Mentors and past Talent students.

Use acronyms and mnemonics

Biology is a very content heavy subject, which requires students to memorise lots of different theories across all HSC modules.

The best way to memorise a lot of this content is by using acronyms and mnemonics, especially if you’re trying to cram before Trials.

What are these techniques and how can you adapt them to Biology study?

Acronyms: This is an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word itself. For example, EGF: Epidermal Growth Factor

Mnemonics: These are learning techniques which aid information retention of retrieval. For example, relating terms in Biology back to a word or phrase that you can easily remember.

We also recommend using other short-term memory tricks such as flash cards, mind maps and of course, handwriting your notes repeatedly until you start to memorise the content.

Draw diagrams

Another great way to write your Biology study notes is by using diagrams and flow charts. This particularly well if you’re a visual learner, since you will remember content by the way it is presented on a page.

We highly recommend using different colours to differentiate each topic, so you can identify the content whilst studying.

Past Papers

You’ve probably heard this tip ad nauseam, but it’s a tip which truly works! Get together all of the relevant past papers you can find, and dedicate a time to answer as many questions as you can. Turn off the TV, close all those other tabs, turn off your Spotify and focus on the paper – you need familiarise yourself with exam conditions.

After finishing your papers, we highly recommend giving them to your tutors or teachers so they can mark them and provide relevant feedback. If you’re just doing a bunch of past papers and not getting them marked, it’s pointless since you don’t know your strengths and weaknesses.

RELATED: Study Techniques For All Learning Styles

Familiarise yourself with key phrases

Learning the basic terms will make it that much easier for you to understand the topics you need to study. Understand what the question is asking you – this will ensure that you don’t lose marks on silly mistakes.

Let’s take a look at some basic terms from the 2019 HSC Examination, and what they mean:

Practice a few different questions which test your understanding of these key terms in HSC Biology, and won’t leave you feeling surprised in the Trials.

RELATED: HSC Glossary of Keywords You Should Know

Refer back the syllabus

The syllabus is your go-to guide for everything that will be tested – it would be a wise decision to mark off everything that you’ve studied relating back to the syllabus dot points.

Write better notes

One tip we can give to all students is some tips to write better and more effective notes.

Rather than writing notes which are copied straight out of the textbook, personalise them as much as you can so you can remember the content. This could mean adding symbols, summarising concepts with bullet points, and writing in short and concise sentences.

Need some extra help? We’ve got you covered at Talent 100

All of our Sydney learning centres are now open in Term 3 (Burwood, Chatswood, Epping, Hurstville & Sydney CBD), so you can brush-up on your Biology skills before exams start.

We also have online classes available for students in NSW – so you won’t miss out on any valuable Biology time this year! Take advantage of our 1-1 classes where you can get your past papers marked, ask questions about homework, or just speak to one of our HSC Biology Mentors.

Click here to find out more about our HSC Biology tuition courses.