How hard is A Level Biology

[goosebumps]

My DD is Year 11 and was thinking she'd like to be a primary school teacher but now thinking of nursing. We don't want to rule anything out by picking the wrong A 'Levels and she won't consider a college course. She's thinking she should pick biology but is doing Combined Science with possibly a 5/6 grade if she works hard. How does the combined science grading work (i.e will it show that the 6 is biology?) and if she's allowed onto A'level how hard is it to get a C grade. Thank you.

There’s an awful lot of volume in A level biology!
Some maths is needed, and a little understanding of chemistry in places. I’d say it’s manageable, but she’d really need a good memory.

There’s a huge difference from GCSE to A level - the latter is all about application rather than memorising. My son found it hard and this came as quite a shock to him

She'd need a 7 to get a place in A level biology in my school I'm afraid. A 6 would get her a place in some schools but honestly she would struggle.

It's very hard. My oldest got A stars for triple science and ended up with a B in Biology A level which was her favourite subject. (Did a Bio degree, and PhD though!)

It’s not as difficult conceptually as chemistry (imo) but there is a huge amount of material.

I did it a million years ago now, I got a fairly standard C in biology gcse, my god the A level. The AS level was hard, it took me 3 resits to scrape a D and then the A level year was impossible. Now I’m not bright and did have ADHD but there is an element of chemistry she will need to understand (which wasn’t explained in our class as “you all do chemistry a level” except I didn’t!) , maths too. Are there papers / texts she can look at to look at the level of understanding? A decent teacher, a genuine passion and lots of hard work will be required.

I did honours biology and there was a lot. Lc not A level but so much detail ! Sometimes I think the overview is interesting but they break it all down to the pointvwhere it's so detailed and its just memorising. I thought I'd love it but there was a lot of memorising imo

Why does she want to do Biology? If she ends up with a 5/6 she may want to consider an applied biology or Health and Social Care

She might find it very hard with a 6. DS2 got a 9 and found it hard, although he did get an A star (just!). He also did maths and chemistry and fond biology the most challenging.
Lots of content, a very picky mark scheme, quite different than GCSE.

Agree with everyone here, especially the very specific mark scheme. You can give the correct data in an answer, but the way it is worded has to be very specifically done.

DD achieved an A* at GCSE, but struggled at A level. She did well in the end, but it was a monumental effort.

My son did triple science, got an 8 in Biology and still found A level a huge step up. There’s a lot to remember. His college allowed you to do it if you got a 6 at GCSE but those students really struggled and most didn’t get a C.

Yeh agree with everyone else. Ds got a 9 at GCSE (ace teacher, ace class) and got A at A level but it was a lot of work.

No grades are shown with double science for individual sciences tho if it’s the same school, teachers may be aware if she excelled at bio but the physics pulled down her overall grade.

She should look for a school or college that offers the BTEC Extended Certificate in Applied Human Biology. It's equivalent to one A-level but better for students whose Science GCSEs are below 7s. It's accepted by many places for nursing or for other purposes.

Ds just started ALevel biology and is finding it very very hard. Huge step up. Elder ds also did it and found it difficult. Look at the syllabus and past papers to see what ypu both think.

The combined science grade won't show how well she did in the individual papers. It is just the 2 grades across all three subjects (so could hide e.g. an 8 in bio and a 4 in physics).
Do you know what grades she is getting on the bio papers currently? School may well grade the papers separately as well as giving the combined score. I wouldnt try A level with 6s. If she is looking at 7s on bio papers which is getting pulled down by the others, it's worth talking to school.

For me, Bio was the hardest of my A levels (phys, chem and maths being the others). But it was much easier than me attempting an essay subject!

Thank you all for replying. It's so helpful because she's only possibly looking at a 6 if she really works and is lucky in the exam. From what you're all saying biology would be too much if its hard for those who get 7's. I think it's kind of wrong the school let students to it with a 6. I will try to gently steer her to look at other ways to keep nursing options open. There's an Applied Science btec offered at the sixth but she doesn't want to do that as it includes physics and she won't do health and social care as she didn't pick it for gcse (which I know wouldn't matter but she won't accept it). Thank you all it's good to get honest opinions about it.

DD found it awfully hard and ended up with a U ! She is now doing a foundation course at Uni leading onto Nursing. She got decent grades in her other 2 A'levels but Biology was just a massive struggle from day 1.

That is very interesting. Thank you. Is she enjoying the foundation year and would you mind me asking where she's doing it. I'll have a look to see if this could be an option. Though two weeks ago she wanted to be a primary school teacher!!! It's so hard they have to choose so young.

Yes she is loving it so far. there is quite a bit of Biology content in the foundation course. She is at Bournemouth Uni. I don't think it's ideal doing the extra year at Uni as obviously it's an extra year of student debt but for her there were limited options really and she desperately wanted to go to Uni this year.

Has your daughter spoken to a careers advisor OP? If she can speak to a good one, it might be helpful.

I agree it’s hard when they have to commit to subjects so young but aren’t sure what they want to do. My son is at uni now and still isn’t sure what’s next for him.

I hear you @goosebumps that it's hard to have to choose what to do when so young - which is why I go against what is sometimes suggested on MN and say that students should pick subjects they enjoy - and hopefully a further path will suggest itself from there.

To take your DD's example - IMHO it should be "I really enjoy [biology, history] so I will take it at A level - where will that lead me?" rather than "I want to be a [nurse, doctor, history teacher] OKI, so I'd better take [biology, chemistry, history] even tho I don't really like it.

Does your DD enjoy biology? I feel like if you don't, you might not enjoy nursing. Mind you I have been called out on this before IIRC, along the lines of "there's no physics in an engineering degree actually" - despite many engineering degrees asking for it. So maybe it's different for more applied subjects, Certs if you anted to be a history teacher so needed a history degree, so needed history A level, but oh dear you don;t like history, that's going to be a miserable life choice for sure, and you would maybe be better off picking the thing you do like. Not saying this is necessarily true about your DD btw.

Go online and look at past papers so she can see how hard it might be for her

To be honest she's very much focussed on what a subject leads to which is a shame at such a young age. For example she's good at art (not amazing but certainly good enough for an A level or btec in something arty) and I know she'd enjoy it as one of her options but she's 'but what does it lead to'. I believe she just likes biology the most out of the three sciences.

DD really enjoyed biology at GCSE but struggled at A-level as (at least in her spec) there was a lot of biochemistry and cellular stuff, as well as the ecology and genetics which mainly interested her. The grade distribution is skewed by the fact that so many people taking it are intending to be medics.

Agree with PP that the mark scheme is very specific, you have to use the right keywords in answers.

I am a science teacher. I teach GCSE science and a level physics but I have a biology a level myself. To be honest, if she is looking at 5/6 at GCSE I would advise against science a levels. If she gets the six she may well be allowed to take it but if there are subjects she is better at I would go with those.