The DP2 final countdown

As you look to the end of your high school experience, now is the time to begin to organise your notes, roll up your sleeves and start the process of review.

With 10 weeks of preparation and escalating levels of application, burn out will be avoided and  lower anxiety levels will facilitate meaningful prep.

In an earlier post on preparing for mid-terms / mock exams, I suggested that you review the syllabus in its entirety and highlight the topics you really never got. Discussions with your teacher should have ironed out any bumps.

Perhaps watch Hank and his series of Biology Crash course videos if issues remain (or something similar)

[youtube]QnQe0xW_JY4[/youtube]

From there I recommend you organise and collate all your notes, get them in order etc.

You are now ready to make a revision timetable. This must be DO-A-BLE. That is the most important feature and it must include variety (mixing up subjects / topics within subjects) and it must also provide you with time off. Thirty minutes a night on a single subject, might be the most you can do, but thats better than nothing and it will reap benefits at a  later time

Perhaps create word boards using WORDLE from the syllabus note you have, and stick them around your bedroom, bathroom etc.

Progress to mindmapping and a more active form of review using a tool such as Novamind or a pen and paper. (Just reading your notes, is most ineffective).

From the material and the textbooks at your disposal, you MUST start working through past papers and the variety of questions that you will come across in the exam proper (MC/DBQ/ Structured short answer/ Extended free resonse) .

Ask your teacher for past papers to practice with. Your teacher will, most likely, have a plan of how best to implement the papers at their disposal but should have some that you can start with). Very much like training and fine tuning an athlete, your brain requires a steady build up of preparation. For me, the Multiple choice questions come first to establish broad knowledge. DBQ can come soon after to ensure you understand the command terms and are very much a skill unto themselves, visit i-biology.net (see below for direct link).

Work through Extended free response questions as part of the  next tier of review, and finish in the last two weeks with the most current and accessible exam papers. (IN ALL CASES you MUST read and process the mark scheme.)

Collating your notes, establishing an holistic approach of all content for review, ACTivelY reviewing and past papers regardless of the route, is a must for effective preparation (whether you agree with my suggestions or not). That and a good night sleep the night before. Then when you head to the exam hall you can say something along the lines of… “Bring it on !!! I have done all I could, and this is the best I can be”.