Strategies to Handle Your IBDP Biology Exam

Written by : Carly T.

As the IB exam season approaches many students will be beginning their exam review sessions, on their own, with their teachers and classmates as well as with their tutors. It is my hope that this blog post will give you a bit of guidance about three key strategies to be successful on the IBDP Biology exam, knowing the exam and what to expect; preparing for the exam, tips and tricks and finally writing the exam and maximizing your score. The information I am sharing with you today comes from my years of experience as an IBDP Biology teacher, IBDP Biology examiner as well as from the IBDP Biology guide. I hope you find it helpful!

 Strategy #1: Know the Exam

 Paper 1: Multiple Choice
 The first paper of the IB Biology exam is designed to test the breadth of the content covered in the course, it is the shortest component of the IB exam, taking only 45 minutes for SL students and 1 hour for HL students. It is worth 20% of the overall IB Diploma score for both SL & HL students, the same value as the IA, but less than Paper 2. The tables below list the approximate number of questions from each topic for SL & HL students; this can be a useful tool to help you ration your time as you prepare for the exams.               Paper 1 questions always have four answers and are testing Objectives 1 (Knowledge & Understanding), 2 (Application) & 3 (Formulation, Analysis & Evaluation) with a ratio of 1+2:3, so Objective 3 is much more important on this Paper. You will need to demonstrate higher order thinking skills as well as memorization of facts to be successful on this paper.

 Paper 2: Data Analysis & Connecting Topics
Paper two is the most important paper of the IB Biology exam, it is worth 40% of the students grade in SL Biology & 36% of the grade in HL Biology. This is also the longest paper of the exam, it is 1 hour and 15 minutes in length for SL students and 2 hours and 15 minutes in length for HL students. When preparing for this paper it is wise to think about it as three separate sections:
Section A (34 marks SL & 40 marks HL) includes:

• Question 1 a data-based questions (12 marks SL & 15 – 18 marks HL)
• Remaining questions are short answer, structured questions which often connect multiple subtopics and may include drawings or calculations

Section B (16 marks SL & 32 marks HL)

• You will always have a choice in Section B
• SL students much choose one from two groups of questions, each group containing three questions, one of which is worth 7 or 8 marks
• HL students much choose two from three groups of questions, each group containing three questions, one of which is worth 7 or 8 marks
• Each group of questions is worth 15 points with an additional point for the quality of the writing, if an examiner only has to read your response once then you will most likely get than extra point!

 Paper 3: Laboratory Skills & Options
The final paper of the IB Biology exam is designed to test your knowledge of the required skills and laboratory Practicals in Section A (usually 3 questions) and then your chosen Option in Section B (usually 4 or 5 short answer questions per option). You will only need to complete one of the four option sections, based on which option you studied. Paper 3 is middling in length, it is allocated 1 hour for SL students and 1 hour and 15 minutes for HL students. It is worth 24% of HL students final score and 20% for SL students.

Unfortunately, this paper is often neglected by both students and teachers as it focuses on Options and lab skills rather than the entirety of the course. It is equal in value for SL students and for HL students it is worth 4% more than both the IA & Paper 1, so be smart and prepare well for it!
Strategy #2: Prepare for the Exam

 Reviewing the Content
One of the first steps in any revision process is to review your notes, read your textbook and go through all of the material. I do not recommend simply sitting at your desk and rereading your notes or your textbook, as this is only using one part of your brain it is very inefficient! Try incorporating several strategies at once: read aloud & concept map what you are reading about, explain the concepts to someone else, connect two or more topics or subtopics together, watch a YouTube video (I love Bozeman Science, the Amoeba Sisters & Crash Course Biology) and take doodle notes, pausing and rewinding as you go. The key is to revisit the same content multiple times in multiple different ways.

 The Importance of Past Papers
Once you have studied the content at least once, your next step is to test your knowledge and look for gaps to fill with more revision or extra help. One of the best ways to check for understanding and prepare for the exam is to practice with past papers, luckily the current syllabus is quite old so there are many exams available. As long as the exam date is after May 2016 you are good to go! This usually means 3 exams are available per year, with Time Zones 1 & 2 (TZ1 & TZ2) in May and one exam in November. Your teacher can probably give you access to some past papers, some tutors may also have access and you can usually find them online if you look hard enough. The key to using past papers successfully is to write them in as close to exam conditions as you can and then to mark them (or ask your tutor to do it with you) using the official IBO mark scheme.

 Planning your Revision Schedule
We know from many studies that the human mind learns best through repetition and that several shorter study blocks over several days or weeks are much more effective than a single long study block. For example, if you have 10 hours to study for Topic 1 of the IBPD syllabus, it is much more effective for you to study for 1 hour a day for 10 days or 2 hours a day for 5 days than to cram it all into one or two crazy days of 10 hours of studying. Since you have several IBDP exams to study for you can plan to review for two or three courses on the same day, spreading out the revision time over several days or ideally, weeks.

 Don’t forget the Command Terms!
Command terms are the verbs used to declare which skill the IBO wants students to demonstrate with a particular question. The complete list can be found on pages 166 & 167 of the IB Biology subject guide. Students often struggle to gain the points in the mark scheme simply because they did not follow the command term correctly. Spend some time reviewing the Command Terms in your revision & when you do past papers look at how the Command Terms match the mark scheme, this is a really good use of your time, it really pays off!

 Strategy #3: Maximize your Score

Multiple Choice Exam Writing Skills
 It is always a good idea to spend some time going through different strategies for each of the papers. Here are some of my favourite tips I give students for Paper 1 questions:

• Write scratch notes in the question booklet, the IBO only checks your answer sheet!
• Eliminate answers whenever you can, cross them out right on the paper
• Circle or underline key words, this is especially important for Objective 3 questions
• When in doubt go with your gut, only change your first answer if you are 100% sure
• Skip hard questions on the first go through, put a star beside them and come back later
• Pay careful attention to any included diagrams, they are there for a reason!

Essay Question Writing Skills:
 Both Papers 2 & 3 include short answer questions which the IBO calls “essays”. One of the first things that you will need to do is choose which questions you want to tackle. Each cluster of questions is worth the same point total: 15 points per question group. Keep in mind the number of points you are confident that you can earn when making your choice… if you are unsure about the 7 or 8 point question then you must be very confident about the other two questions (usually worth 3 – 5 points each).

Once you make your choice take a minute to brainstorm the components of your answer, you can even write a short outline (to be crossed out later) to help you keep your ideas organized. It is always a good idea to be sure to define any key terms in the question as this is often a point in the mark scheme. For any biological processes you should write in a sequential manner, being sure to describe each step with precision and using the correct vocabulary. You can often get points for annotated diagrams in these questions as well, although they must be relevant to the question.

Data Analysis Skills:
The very first question of Paper 2: Section A is a single, long question which includes a large number of graphs and diagrams for you to interpret. These questions usually connect to several different course topics, although they focus much more on analysis and evaluation skills than knowledge and understanding. In preparing for this question it is good to spend some time reviewing how to interpret different types of graphs, the importance of slowing down and really examining the axes, the key, the title and any background information provided. Oftentimes the answers to these questions require that you slow down and really read with care. It is also very important to include units and quantities in answers whenever possible.

I hope that you found this post helpful and that you can use it to organize and prepare for the IBDP Biology exam, remember to start early and plan ahead! Use your resources, your notes, your textbook, the internet, your teacher and your tutor to help, it’s a lot of work, but you will be so happy to see that excellent score in July.